At the public hearing on Tuesday, residents gave feedack to Greenwich Communities (formerly Housing Authority) about "Ferris Landing", a 48-unit, all affordable housing development near the Cos Cob railroad station.
The housing project, located on an under-utilized parking lot that is Town property and leased (for only $1) to Greenwich Communities, would require approval of the Selectmen and the Representative Town Meeting (RTM).
The State requres that 10% of housing stock in every CT municipality to be affordable. Greenwich has only 5.7%. Town authorities believe this is an efficient way to achieve State mandates and take the hammer out of the hands of private developers who are bypassing local zoning to build affordable units under 8-30g.
The Greenwich Free Press has good coverage of the citizen feedback, most of which was negative:
Town is trying to get to 10% at any cost - safety, environment, traffic.
Worries this will be replicated at every train station in Town
Scale it down. It's much too big.
Keep the trees that provide a wooded buffer from I-95 that keeps down highway noise
Removing rocks and trees will cause drainage problems
Asked about his focus on achieving a moratorium, Tony Johnson, CEO of Greenwich Communities said, “You think you’re fighting our project. This is not our project. This is the town’s project. It’s the town’s land. It’s us trying to give the town a way to work toward a moratorium so they can work toward a plan or change the law that gets them out of this development morass. It’s terrible. Don’t believe this is your neighborhood and you’re going to be safe, because you’re not.”