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11/09/2021 01:30 PMA proposal for a two-building, 100-unit apartment complex in Guilford has been filed, supported by a 30-year-old state statute that allows developers to bypass many municipally designated zoning regulations. The proposed plan is sited on Hubbard Road near I-95, behind the Guilford Police Station and Guilford Racquet & Swim Club.
The current proposed design calls for two, four-story buildings with separate septic systems, each with 50 single-bedroom units. The statute calls for 15 percent of units in such a project to be made available for renters making 80 percent or less than the New Haven-Meriden Metro Area median family income, and another 15 percent at 60 percent of that figure, according to town officials. This calculates to 70 units at the market rate and 30 units designated under the above the area’s metrics for affordable housing.
This statute, 8-30g, allows for a process that by-passes certain committees and regulations that ordinarily would have input and decision-making authority in a development plan. The statute allows developers to submit plans that, if they conform to the parameters of the statute, must be approved by municipalities.
Town Planner George Kral said this project would take advantage of 8-30g’s protections and allow for height, density, and variances normally not permitted for a project such as this. The Hubbard Road site is currently zoned as industrial, which would be waived under the proposal; the height restrictions would be waived; and the density in the number of units would also not be considered—only public health and safety issues can be factors in denial of these projects.
According to Kral, the matter is currently before the Inland Wetlands Commission (IWC), which is awaiting a mandatory third-party engineering review paid for by the developer. Kral said the IWC has already determined that the proposal has the potential for significant impact on wetlands, so regulations now mandate that the developer fund and submit the required review in order for the application to be considered further.
That process could take several months, according to Kral, and any decision by the IWC would probably not come until early 2022, and would then go back to the Planning & Zoning Commission for ultimate approval.
However, the current consensus of town officials is that the project will be approved.
Kral said the project appears to conform to the statute, “Unless the IWC makes this finding that there is a public health or safety issue associated with the proposed development, but the expectation is for this project is that they won’t make such a finding and they will in effect approve the site plan application, even though it doesn’t conform to zoning.”
“I can’t make predictions, but if that happens, we would actually approve the site plan and the project would be able to go forward,” said Kral.
As to why developers are now submitting proposals under this decades-old statute focus on the economics of projects like these in towns like Guilford.
Projects filed under 8-30g have been submitted for years in western Connecticut, particularly in Fairfield County, according to Kral and others, due to the substantial median incomes of the area that made the loss of rental income on the 30 percent designated affordable rents economically feasible. Only as median income values rose across the shoreline did proposals such as these begin to make fiscal sense for developers, in light of the rental reduction for 30 percent of a project. Guilford’s median family income is calculated via the New Haven-Meriden Metro Area figure of roughly $93,000 per year.
First Selectman Matt Hoey said that Town Hall is looking forward to the potential the project could have for Guilford. Several other affordable housing projects, including a 16-unit plan near the train station and another off of State Street with 10 affordable ownership opportunities, are in various stages of planning and set to move forward, according to Hoey.
“Any efforts we can make to improve the availability of the affordable housing stock in town we welcome. We are willing to work with the developer closely to make this project possible, as long as all of the health and wetlands issues are satisfied,” Hoey said. “Overall, we are excited about what is going on in the affordable housing world in Guilford. We are also excited that we have something germinating here. Anything we can do to make housing affordable in our community is ultimately advantageous to the community.”
Though the project doesn’t conform with the industrial zoning designation at the proposed location, according to Kral, the project makes sense for the town as it would not have the typical neighborhood impacts that can create public opposition. Currently the closest neighbors to the proposed site are a school bus depot, an excavating contractor, and an industrial warehouse.
According to Kral, another positive aspect of this proposal is that the impact on the town’s resources, such as the schools, would be minimal. Despite the project’s scope, it not expected to lure many families, due to the one-bedroom unit size, and would instead primarily attract seniors, single residents, and couples without children.
“Under the right circumstances, and the right location, 8-30g is a useful tool to encourage more affordable housing,” he said. “Our policy in the town of Guilford as expressed in our Plan of Conservation and Development is that we want more affordable housing development in Guilford, given the right location and given the right conditions. In my opinion the statute is a reasonable tool that the state offers to developers to achieve that. I don’t think it’s a bad thing.”