By Gretchen Webster

WESTPORT — How can a town like Westport add affordable housing – which Planning and Zoning Commission members agree is important – yet maintain the character of a coastal Connecticut town? 

That conundrum was discussed Thursday by the P&Z as a first step in forging a local affordable housing plan. Under a 2017 state law, each municipality must update an affordable housing plan every five years, and Westport faces a deadline to adopt its plan by next July.

“I feel like we are in this spiral,” P&Z member John Olefson said. “We want  more affordable housing, but yet we also love the character of where we live and the look and feel of where we live … How do you do this in an affordable way?” he asked.

Planning and Zoning Director Mary Young told the commission that formulating a plan to add affordable housing is not optional.

“Yes, we can take back our destiny with plan implementation,” she told the P&Z after several members discussed ideas to introduce more affordable housing, while controlling problems like high density and additional traffic. 

“But it’s not just a good thing to do this plan – we’re obligated to do this plan,” the planning director said.

Consensus on “affordable” housing elusive

The issue of affordable housing — including where and how to build it — has been debated across the state for many years, particularly in communities where little of the housing stock qualifies as “affordable” under state criteria. Disagreements over affordable housing were crystallized during a marathon state legislative hearing earlier this year, as reported here by the CT Mirror.

Getting a broad spectrum of Westport political opinions involved in implementing an affordable housing plan was suggested by commission member Neil Cohn, who proposed that Westport’s Democratic and Republican town committees hold a joint forum on the issue. 

That idea was seconded by P&Z Chair Danielle Dobin, who said it’s important to get the whole town involved in the discussion. “Our responsibility is that we talk to as many Westporters as possible about this,” she said. 

Dobin and other commission members agreed that town boards working together on the housing plan, rather than hiring a consultant, is the best approach.

Aftermath of Hiawatha Lane battle leaves some wary

Several P&Z members said the town is still reeling from the protracted battle over the Hiawatha Lane housing development of 157 units in Saugatuck, which was litigated over nearly two decades. Eventually, the P&Z and the developers earlier this year reached a settlement on terms to allow the contentious project, which won approval from a Superior Court judge in July.

“We have to ferret out a developer who is building under the guise of affordable housing,” said P&Z member John Bolton. He said the town should be wary of housing proposals that incorporate a percentage of affordable units, allowing a proponent to take advantage of state law granting leeway to circumvent local regulations and build larger developments. 

“We don’t have to kowtow to a developer because he says he’s going to make the project 30 percent affordable housing – we’re left with the traffic, the problems,” he said.

Future options considered

Some suggestions P&Z members offered at Thursday’s meeting included using empty parking lots and strip malls with high vacancy rates as sites for affordable housing projects, and imposing strict environmental controls for all affordable housing plans.

Dobin said that, unlike other towns, Westport’s Board of Selectmen is putting about $50,000 of its funds from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 toward drafting an affordable housing plan. The ARPA, a federal COVID-19 relief program, will allocate a total of $8.4 million to Westport over the next two years.

Dobin said she also is proud of how much Westport has already done to promote affordable housing in town. “I welcome the opportunity to show off what we’re doing,” she said. 

The first step, according to Dobin, will be scheduling a meeting of the P&Z’s Affordable Housing Subcommittee.

Other business: Stop wasting paper

In other business, the P&Z agreed to implement a plan to reduce the use of paper in the town’s Planning and Zoning Department. 

In the past, applicants had to provide as many as 12 copies of applications and supporting material. 

The town has installed better technology in its offices so that more business can be done online, Young, the P&Z director, told the commission. “The amount of paper being used is a waste,” she said. 

The town should “implement permanently what has been done for the last year to reduce the paper footprint of the Town of Westport,” she added.

The P&Z voted unanimously for an amendment to reduce the use of paper, which will be reviewed at a future public hearing.