By Sarah Opdahl

New Fairfield’s Housing Opportunities Committee (“HOC” or “Committee”) met on Tuesday, October 3 to prepare for an upcoming meeting with the Town’s Planning Commission. With an update of the Town’s ten-year plan in the works, this is the HOC’s chance to adjust language to reflect current thinking.

Committee members worked individually to note areas for change in the 2014 plan, which served as a starting point for the group. One topic discussed at length included whether a recommendation for special permits and an affidavit every two years should be required for Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs). In 2014 the recommendation was “no”, that once people went through the permitting process, it would not be necessary to complete an affidavit every two years. In the end, the Committee agreed there should be an administrative process every couple of years to be sure properties are being used as permit allows. They will also plan to invite a zoning official to their next meeting to ask for clarification on the special permits and compliance checks.

The HOC agreed to recommend allowing a mixed use of commercial and residential buildings in the commercial district in an effort to create more housing opportunities. There was language suggesting restricting rentals to certain parties, but that violates the Fair Housing Act. One option discussed was to possibly include wording for preferential use, one example for preferential use was for rental space to go to local teachers and firefighters. The Housing Collective’s Ms. Jocelyn Ayer, who has worked closely with the Committee on their Affordable Housing Draft Plan, advised, “I would recommend not adding that stuff in parentheses. I mean, again, if you have more rental units a vailable, they will be available to firemen, policemen, teachers, [etc.] and I think that is the idea…in each of our communities, if we try to create more options, they will be available for those folks as well. And not to necessarily restrict it.” Committee member Ms. Marga ret Kathleen DiTullio agreed, saying she was fine with striking that language, “if we can get more units in the downtown area it would help the commercial property owners…I would think they would tend to be smaller units. So they would probably cater to a younger crowd.” It was noted that some commercial properties have space, such as Heritage Plaza, which has a large attic area that could be converted into residential units.

Regarding conservation subdivisions, which are clustered housing on small lots with land preserved next to or surrounding them, the Committee was somewhat split. Ayer cautioned that these small single-family homes do not often translate to “affordable.” However, it was agreed that they could provide more housing options. There was discussion regarding types of clustered subdivisions, which range from low or no maintenance to owner-provided maintenance. Ayer pointed out that the more amenities, the more costly the homes would be, “there was this idea that those units would somehow be more affordable by nature because they would either be smaller and or there would be less infrastructure cost, but I haven’t seen that play out in reality… they are still just as expensive as a standard subdivision.” One option for the Committee was to recommend inclusionary zoning for housing options such as these, suggesting possibly 20% be held for affordable housing. One of the strategies in the draft plan is to consider the creation of a municipal housing fund which could be funded by a portion of the conveyance fee. Inclusionary zoning was included in the 2014 plan, but only as it pertained to senior housing.

The 2014 plan encouraged the building of “low-density affordable units that fit into the character of neighborhoods.” However, Chair Ms. Anita Brown pointed out “speaking to Jocelyn, you really can’t refer to character anymore and low density is a subjective term.” The Committee agreed instead to recommend zoning for affordable homes that “encourage architecturally similar buildings with apropos density for multifamily that is not age restricted.”