Kimco Says Only Three Apts in 168-Unit Complex Would Be Affordable

On Monday, Sept. 23, the Planning & Zoning Commission held its sixth public hearing on Kimco’s proposal to redevelop the southern portion of its Wilton Center property into a two-building, 168-unit residential/commercial complex. In addition to a long-awaited public comment period and new concerns about a fifth-story bonus on the back building of the site, the evening included an unusual exchange between Chair Rick Tomasetti and project engineer Craig Flaherty about affordable housing requirements in Wilton Center. For additional renderings of the latest design, see our coverage of the Commission’s Monday, Sept. 10 meeting.

Is there really no affordable housing requirement in Wilton Center?

As part of the presentation, Kimco’s attorney Casey Healy and Flaherty explained that although the company had acquiesced to eliminating an unpopular fifth story from Building A along River Rd., the plan for the back building (Building B) still includes a fifth story, which houses nine apartments.

The new zoning overlay for Wilton Center allows a fifth-story bonus in exchange for what the code calls “exceptional public benefits.” The overlay offers the following examples of such benefits: providing 12% of units as affordable housing, preserving important historical structures, incorporating new civic spaces, and meeting greater sustainability and green building goals. For a property of Kimco’s size, the fifth story can only be up to 50% the size of the floor below. This stepped-back design is generally thought to mitigate the perceived height and bulk of a building for pedestrians at street level.

In July, several members of P&Z pushed back on a fifth-story bonus in Building A by questioning whether the development indeed offered the kind of “exceptional public benefits” called for in the zoning overlay. Since then, the design has been updated to increase the size of the required civic space in front of the building, and the company is still offering to pursue LEED Silver certification, a benchmark for sustainable design. On Monday, Flaherty stated that Kimco is also willing to set aside three apartments in the complex as affordable, in exchange for the nine units it is seeking to add on Building B’s fifth story.

However, he said, the 12% affordable target mentioned in the zoning overlay is listed only as an example, not a requirement, and that dedicating 12% of the building’s 69 units — 9 apartments — in exchange for a fifth story would not be “viable.”

At that point, Tomasetti pushed back on his framing of the affordability increase. “You have to provide affordability to begin with,” he said. “What is the net gain in affordability in the number of units — how many units did you need without the fifth story and how many would you need with the fifth story?”

Flaherty responded that the zoning overlay in fact requires zero affordable units.

“If you look at the four overlay zones that you passed in October of 2023, the first three [governing the nearby stretch of Danbury Rd. and the area around the Wilton train station] are very explicit that affordable housing units are required and you’re required to provide 10%,” he said. “But the Wilton Center zone does not have any affordable housing unit requirement… we saw that as deliberate.”

The new zoning overlays were adopted by P&Z last fall, at the conclusion of a nearly two-year-long Master Plan subcommittee process chaired by Tomasetti and managed by consultants at BFJ Planning. The final stages of the process were chaotic, with the Commission refusing to vote on whether to adopt its own master plan, then eliminating one of three planned public hearings without explanation, and finally approving the four overlays in two separate meetings, one of which Tomasetti recused himself from.

Kimco’s development on River Rd. is the first project that seeks to use the new Wilton Center zoning overlay created through that process. Elsewhere this month, P&Z saw another “first” project gear up to use one of the new overlays — the Toll Brothers’ 208-unit residential building proposed at the train station — but in that case, the company indicated that they will seek to sidestep certain elements of that brand new zoning.

As part of the discussion on Monday, Flaherty also explained that the underlying zoning for Wilton Center (the original code that is still in place in addition to the new overlay opportunity) never required an affordable housing component either. Wilton’s zoning code was last updated in 2023 but the bulk of it long predates the current P&Z, suggesting that the omission has been in place for quite some time.

Public comment period opens and closes, with only five speakers coming forward

Prior to the exchange regarding affordable housing, the project’s public comment period was expected to be the most notable portion of the evening.

Monday’s meeting was the first time in nearly three years that the public was permitted to speak to the Commission about the project. However, despite hundreds of comments on social media regarding the proposal, only five Wilton residents showed up on Zoom to testify. At least three of the five speakers had already written letters to the Commission regarding the project.

Written comment was considerably more lively, but still nowhere near the level of engagement found elsewhere online. By GOOD Morning Wilton’s count, the Commission received 47 unique emails about the project: eight were supportive, 34 were opposed, and five offered suggestions or asked for information without expressing an overall opinion. Some letters were submitted multiple times; these were omitted from the tally. The Commission can only take into account comments made via the P&Z’s official public comment policy, not those made on Facebook or other independent platforms.

The letters of opposition reflected a broad spectrum of concerns, from traffic and school overcrowding to architectural design and density. The letters in support of the project largely applauded the development as a way to bring new residents (both young and old) to downtown and add vitality to Wilton’s town center.  This hope was echoed in one speaker’s testimony to the Commission Monday evening:

“I am in great support of any type of development for this town. It is much needed,” Aimee Calandria said, adding that when she was house hunting in Wilton, her realtor told her that the town doesn’t have as much to offer as New Canaan or Ridgefield.

Three residents spoke in opposition to the project, citing traffic safety, school overcrowding, the size of the buildings, and the fact that the units are rentals rather than condos as their main concerns.

One speaker, architect Barbara Geddis, said she was in favor of the development but still called for the elimination of the Building B fifth story. Geddis served on the master plan subcommittee that produced the new zoning overlays and has weighed in extensively and constructively via written comments over the last few months. Kimco has credited her as the source of several changes that have been incorporated into the latest design. Her palpable disappointment Monday night was notable given the unusually active working relationship Kimco has had with her until now.

“We [the master plan subcommittee] were not looking for five stories; we were looking for a three-story cornice in Wilton Center, and a fourth story, and for some exceptional, unusual reasons, a fifth story,” she said. “I must admit I was not paying attention to the second building very much because I was so focused on the streetscape and amenities. We would do a whole lot better if we didn’t have a fifth story. We don’t have an exceptional architectural element here that even warrants it, nor does it make sense in the back of the building.”

She added that she was “sorry not to see this going in a more positive direction.”

Looking Ahead

After voting to close the public hearing, Tomasetti proposed postponing deliberations and a potential vote until P&Z’s next meeting, which is scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 15 at 7 p.m., on Zoom.

Note: GOOD Morning Wilton watched all 20-plus meetings of the Greater Wilton Center Master Plan process held between December 2021 and November 2023.

Our understanding based on those discussions was that 10% affordable housing would be required in all four overlays, with 12% affordable as an example of an exceptional public benefit that could justify a fifth story. This is what we reported at the time. Reviewing the overlay text that was voted on by the Commission, it appears that Flaherty is correct in understanding that the overlay actually requires zero affordable housing units in Wilton Center.

GMW reached out to Tomasetti and Wrinn at the end of the meeting to whether, as Flaherty said, omitting an affordable housing requirement from the Wilton Center overlay was “deliberate.” We received no comment by the time of publication but this article will be updated should a response come through today.