Greenwich is stuck with the State mandated Affordable Housing 8-30g law that enables developers to build dense and high multi-family units here circumventing our local zoning rules as long as it includes affordable units. Have you noticed the rising number of 8-30g projects being reviewed by Planning & Zoning? It's frightening.
Ryan Fazio, our only Republican in Hartford has been putting forth amendments to 8-30g to grant communities such as ours greater discretion. Some of these bi-partisan reforms include allowing 8-30g credit for naturally occurring affordable housing (think private school and country club employee housing), minimum height of 4 stories on all projects, and allowing 8-30g credit for senior housing. Our First Selectman Fred Camillo is also in the fight. He testified here saying 8-30g circumvents local zoning allowing developers without regard for environment, infrastructure and aesthetics.
Coming our of Hartford, there are even more proposed laws and unfunded mandates coming down the pike:
"Work Live Ride" - This proposal sounds good but it's not. This would eliminate local zoning as long as a project was within a half mile of train and bus stops. Did they say bus stops - there are many of those.
"Fair Share" Act - This proposal is anything but fair. It would nearly double our affordable housing mandate with tax payer funded subsidies.
Knowing that affordable housing mandates are very unpopular, the Democrat majority in Hartford will likely wait until after the election to push these anti-zoning and pro-developer proposals over the finish line. These mandates have not been proven to work as intended, are costly to taxpayers and are damaging to the environment.
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