By Thane Grauel 

WESTPORT — The town’s efforts to develop a five-year affordable housing plan will be discussed at a series of meetings over the coming weeks, according to a joint announcement Wednesday by First Selectwoman Jennifer Tooker and Planning and Zoning Commission Chairwoman Danielle Dobin.

In what the officials called a “kickoff” for the endeavor at Town Hall, Tooker said state law 8-30j requires that each city or town to have a plan in place by July. A public hearing is required.

“Each plan must specify how a municipality intends to increase the number of affordable housing developments,” she said. 

The first selectwoman said the Planning and Zoning Commission has been appointed to draft and adopt the plan.

“It’s incredibly challenging to create affordable housing in a community with such high land values,” Dobin said. “But we are very dedicated to this process and it’s really important for us to engage all stakeholders, members of our community, people from outside our community, to talk about the best way to create affordable housing in Westport.”

Officials provide timeline for project

The first informational meeting is at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 23, at Temple Israel, 14 Coleytown Road. It is being sponsored by an interfaith group of clergy. The in-person event is open to all. 

A second meeting is plan for mid-April, probably 12 or 13, but details are not final. 

Dobin said they hope it will be sponsored by the town’s political parties — Democrats, Republican, Save Westport Now and the Coalition for Westport — and TEAM Westport.

At noon April 13, the P&Z’s Affordable Housing Subcommittee will host a Zoom meeting seeking input from statewide advocacy groups, Dobin said, and developer groups.

In mid-April, the town will send an email survey to residents seeking feedback.

In the first week of May a Zoom meeting will be set for final community comments.

On May 11, the Affordable Housing Subcommittee will review a draft of the five-year affordable housing plan. 

Dobin said elements from a plan being developed by the Western Connecticut Council of Governments, including its housing needs assessment, might be incorporated into the Westport plan.

The plan will be posted May 25 for public comment.

In late June, a final plan will be adopted by the Planning and Zoning Commission.

Feedback important to shaping plan

“We very much hope that everybody will treat these community conversations as idea incubators,” Dobin said. “We look forward to hearing feedback from across the spectrum of ideas. We are committed to listening.”

Tooker said the schedule shows how seriously the topic is being treated. 

“Developing the plan in this way allows Westporters, and our friends from outside the community, to give very specific feedback on how to do this the right way,” Tooker said. “It’s our chance to collectively envision a community with more diverse housing and we’re very excited to be engaging in this important work on behalf of our town.”

Representative Town Meeting member Jimmy Izzo, District 3, talked about the state’s affordable housing law, 8-30g, and said Westport hasn’t gotten all the credit it deserves for affordable housing.

“The problem is that developers have come in to use it for profit instead of people,” he said. “And I know that our community is about people.”

The town has a state-sanctioned moratorium on affordable housing developed under 8-30g. It allows developers to skirt the usual zoning process in towns that don’t have 10 percent of their housing stock deemed affordable. Westport has about a year left on its current moratorium.

The town has been working on qualifying for a new moratorium, but after the kickoff, Dobin said there might be a gap between the moratoriums because some housing that will count toward the affordable threshold has been moving forward more slowly than expected.