Key Points:
- Wilton’s P&Z chair is urging town leaders to create a Housing Authority and Affordable Housing Fund to proactively address affordable housing pressures.
- Officials say increasing affordable housing stock could help Wilton gain leverage against 8-30g development appeals and preserve local zoning control.
- Neighboring towns including Darien, Greenwich, New Canaan and Westport already use housing authorities or housing trust funds.
Why It Matters: Affordable housing and 8-30g remain among Wilton’s most contentious issues, with town leaders now weighing whether proactive planning could help avoid larger state-driven development battles later.
A lengthy presentation by the Planning and Zoning Commission Chair to the Board of Selectmen on Monday, May 18, put the onus on the selectmen to start taking concrete actions toward proactively addressing affordable housing issues in Wilton before state mandates and developers force the town’s hand.
Ken Hoffman, P&Z Commission chair, made it clear in a 75-minute pitch outlining why he and his fellow commissioners recommend Wilton establish both an official Housing Authority — similar to ones already operating in Darien, Greenwich, New Canaan and Westport — along with an Affordable Housing Fund or Trust.
According to Hoffman, both tools could help Wilton increase its affordable housing stock, gain leverage in negotiations with developers and demonstrate to the state that the town was making a legitimate effort toward meeting affordable housing goals.
“The more we take charge and do something about affordable housing, the more leverage we’ll have to guide our own destiny,” Hoffman said. He was joined at the presentation by P&Z Vice Chair Mark Ahasic.
Hoffman talked about the current and potentially additional requirements from the state of Connecticut with regard to affordable housing, juxtaposed against the situation in Wilton and residents’ feelings about the issue.
Aside from potentially being at the mercy of state mandates, which link to fears of relinquishing local zoning control and potentially having the state or courts force large unwanted developments in town, Hoffman also pointed out that increasing the town’s affordable housing stock could have other benefits for Wilton in the long run.
He spoke of the need for housing among younger people, retirees and a range of local employees, all of whom could benefit from places to live in town.
“Wilton’s practical challenge is adding the right units in the right places so they count toward legal leverage,” he said.
That legal leverage, at least at this time, relates specifically to state statute 8-30 — the law that empowers developers to sidestep many local zoning regulations in their construction on appeal. According to Hoffman, the courts routinely will side with developers in order to push these developments forward, barring strong cases that the developments present health or safety concerns.
The state currently requires that 10% of a municipality’s housing stock be considered affordable based on state median income, which is much lower than area median income — a comparison Hoffman stressed was important to distinguish.
Even if it doesn’t immediately attain that goal, however, a municipality can accumulate points toward a building moratorium if it displays demonstrable effort in moving toward that 10% threshold.
While Hoffman admitted he didn’t have all the answers to some big question related to state laws — and noted that there are ongoing variables that determine the state’s interpretations of what qualifies as affordable in each municipality — the broader goal is to increase Wilton’s affordable housing stock to the point where it is no longer vulnerable to 8-30g, or to at least demonstrate that the town is legitimately trying to get there.
Hoffman took pains to emphasize that, despite ongoing complaints and concerns expressed by the public, Wilton’s P&Z has limited authority when it comes to dealing with this larger issue. While he said there are some choices it can make — including an evaluation of the percentages of affordable units required in different zones in town — most of what it focuses on involves giving limited responses to singular applications brought before it by developers.
“Primarily the role on Planning and Zoning has been responsive instead of proactive,” he said.
A Housing Authority, meanwhile, could operate with broader authority in terms of planning, partnerships and project development. Hoffman said it could work directly with developers through public-private partnerships, to attain ownership and management capacity for town-developed properties, and help guide affordable housing toward preferred locations instead of waiting for 8-30g proposals to emerge.
The Affordable Housing Fund, or Trust, would be self sustaining, with money coming through the developers themselves, who would be charged fees to development projects in Wilton.
Hoffman described how other area towns have taken the lead in using a different approach to generating affordable housing. He said that while solutions differ town to town, Bethel, Darien, Greenwich, New Canaan, Stamford and Westport are all using housing authorities.
“Authorities provide specialized focus that P&Z commissions typically lack capacity to manage,” he said in his presentation, noting they can pursue grants, partnerships, property management and project delivery, as well as guide affordable housing toward preferred locations rather than waiting on 8-30g proposals to pop up.
An authority, he said, brings much more power than a committee or commission.
Hoffman drew on the example of Greenwich and New Canaan, the former having implemented an Affordable Housing Trust Fund in 2022. That fund is used to provide modest loans to developers to influence project design and affordability outcomes, giving the town some power over development without direct ownership.
In the case of New Canaan, the town’s housing authority has taken part in affordable housing projects at different levels, including directly redeveloping town-owned properties and repurposing existing structures.
According to the presentation, New Canaan and others are aware that moving toward a moratorium for 8-30g proposals is an ongoing process and needs to be done on a rolling basis, in part because of the shifting requirements in the state.
“A moratorium is not a permanent endpoint,” Hoffman said in the presentation. “It requires ongoing production and documentation.”
The BOS engaged in minimal discussion on the issue following the presentation. Hoffman, however, suggested it focus on proactive planning in order to stay ahead of state mandates and the potential loss of local control by working toward an application for a new moratorium down the line.
First Selectman Toni Boucher praised the presentation, but also noted it was a hot-button issue among residents and had to be dealt with gingerly.
“We have to really think about this and have a follow-up conversation,” she said, suggesting she and staff reach out to other towns to learn about what they’re doing.
“We should all recognize that housing is a very sensitive issue in Wilton right now … We have to, I think, tread very carefully on this,” she said.