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03/13/2024 02:28 PMEAST HAVEN
The East Haven Planning and Zoning Commission (PZC) is holding a public hearing on Wednesday, April 3 that will be centered around new “set-aside language” that it may include in zoning regulations as a means to boost the town’s affordable housing stock.
The language follows the income criteria of Connecticut State Statutes 8-30g(k), which mandates that when the PZC is approached with a multifamily “residential development with ten (10) or more dwelling units, within an established zoning district, overlay zone or floating zone, whether by new construction, alteration, expansion, reconstruction or change to existing residential or non-residential space, there shall be a provision to set aside not less than 20% of the proposed units as Below Market Rate (BMR) units, affordable to households not earning more than 60% and/or 80% of the area median income for the New Haven-Meriden area.”
Zoning Enforcement Officer Joe Budrow said that along with following state statutes, the town looked at how other municipalities in Connecticut have included their own versions of set-aside language.
As of this March, 8.33 percent of East Haven’s housing stock is deemed affordable per state income criteria, as the PZC was informed by land use attorney Jennifer Coppola. With the set-aside language in place, this may be able to provide the final boost for East Haven to cross the 10% threshold required of all 169 municipalities in the state to meet per C.G.S 8-30g—and even a bit beyond.
“We'd like to go to 11%,” Budrow said
Budrow added that a key element of the set-aside language is to “acquire deed restricted affordable units, which are the only affordable housing units in the town's control.” This would act as a mechanism to ensure that BMR units initially sold or rented as such are maintained in the realm of affordability in the future.
“Per the income criteria of C.G.S. 8-30g(k), any application for a Site Plan Review, Site Plan Modification, or Special Exception that proposes a set-aside said units shall be deed-restricted for a period of 40 years after the initial certificate of occupation for each BMR unit,” reads the state statute.
While developers looking to construct a new multifamily development would be subject to the set-aside language, so would others who are looking to expand existing developments. Budrow raised the example of the Tivoli Gardens apartment complex on Laurel Street as an example of an existing development that is required to set aside 20% of new units for which they have been approved as part of the complex’s expansion.
New BMR units would also be “below market rate” strictly in the financial sense and not pertaining to the quality of those units, said Budrow.
“It’s a new wave of thought, and it will be in effect from here on out that Below Market Rate units cannot be of lesser quality than the neighboring dwelling units,” he said. “They must be evenly distributed through a development, not just on one floor or in the building closest to the highway.”
Broadly, the set-aside language would apply to all forms of multifamily developments, including for a new project brought to the PZC by developers or legal representatives of developers without the purpose of building affordable multifamily units. The language’s ultimate intent is to ensure that an affordability aspect is attached to all developments in that category of housing.
“It’ll be the same paragraph sprinkled through the regulations just to get in the eyes of any attorneys or developers who are looking at our regulations for in the sections that they believe their development is regulated,” said Budrow. “We could have this set-aside language in the affordable housing section [of the zoning regulations], but if you come in and you want to build 30 units as a Planned Elderly Facilities District [PEFD], the first thing you're going to do is go into the Planned Elderly Facilities District section…That paragraph will be also in that PEFD section.”
The set-aside language would also be required of developments falling under sections pertaining to a Planned Development District, Special Exceptions, and site plans added Budrow.
The PZC will be able to receive new applications for the construction or expansion of multifamily dwelling units as part of a new development as of Sunday, March 31. This is the expiration date for a moratorium that was previously adopted by the commission to allow for time for deliberations on meeting affordable housing goals, such as the crafting of the set-aside language.