Campbell to Pull Plug on 35 Leroy, Propose New Affordable Housing Plans

Monday evening will see the Board of Selectmen discuss and take action on the cancellation of the Option to Lease at 35 Leroy Ave., bringing longstanding plans for an affordable housing development at the former library site to a grinding halt, and setting the ball rolling on a second development: 20 senior affordable housing units slated to take shape on what is now the Senior Center property on Edgerton Street.

"Jerry, Jayme and I will vote the Option down," said First Selectman Dave Campbell, referring to his fellow Republican Selectmen Jayme Stevenson and Jerry Nielsen. "I've let [Democrat Selectmen] Callie [Sullivan] and David [Bayne] know, and I've notified the developer. They knew it was coming."

The story of the Option to Lease has legs.

Back in 2007, and under previous administration, the Representative Town Meeting approved the purchase of the $4.2 million former library property, and the Board of Selectmen decided to use the land for affordable housing.

Last August saw the board approve the Option to Lease at 35 Leroy Ave., a roughly two-year agreement that allows developer Mutual Housing Association (MHA) to approve land use and secure financing for the development—both necessary but not sufficient steps to drafting a Ground Lease.

Since then, administration has changed, and plans for affordable housing at 35 Leroy Ave. have been derailed. The latest proposition, set forth in Campbell's three-phase municipal building shuffle, sets the property's fate as office space for Board of Education.

Studying that proposition for the past two months has been the Facilities Study Task Force, a ten-member committee who, in a formal recommendation approved this past Monday, urged the Board of Selectmen to resolve the disposition of the property at 35 Leroy Ave. before moving forward with any aspect of the plan.

"I was listening," said Campbell, who sat in on the Task Force Committee's final meeting on Monday, and consequently amended his own board's agenda. "They said we needed to make a decision."

That decision is all but finalized, said Campbell, as he, Stevenson and Nielsen will cancel the Option to Lease in a majority vote.

"Oh I'll be there. If one of us is not there, none of us will, and we won't have a quorum," said Campbell.

Selectman Callie Sullivan said she and fellow veteran Selectman David Bayne, both highly involved in the affordable housing project at 35 Leroy Ave., have yet to "really discuss it," but will likely vote against cancellation of the Option to Lease.

"Am I disappointed? Yes," said Sullivan. "We haven't talked about our Affordable Housing Plan. I'm not saying we wouldn't reach the same conclusions, but we all need to get there together."

Sullivan said the development is a "lynch pin" in the town's Affordable Housing Plan, and an integral step in leading Darien towards a second moratorium under 8-30g, a state law that mandates that in towns where less than 10 percent of the housing stock is "affordable," developers can put up projects that are denser than the town would normally permit.

But Campbell said "moratorium points don't matter," noting that the future will see legislature amend the "flawed law," reducing the 10 percent requirement for highly developed towns like Darien.

Moratorium or not, Sullivan said news of the move to cancel the lease, sans meaningful discussion, is disappointing.

"Campbell thinks he has some really good and new ideas, but we're all supposed to be able to weigh in and be part of the process, and we're just not," she said.

One of those ideas, a 20-unit senior affordable housing development at the Senior Center property on Edgerton Street, jives well with the Affordable Housing Plan, said Campbell.

"Look, I want to do what's right for the town, and this is what the town needs: affordable housing for seniors," he said.

At "$150 grand a pop" Campbell said the privately funded housing development would operate much like Clock Hill Homes where the town leases the land.

"There's no wait list yet. Leases will be determined by how long you've lived here and income," said Campbell.

Plans for 20, single-story cottages on Edgerton Street add but another layer to Campbell's proposed municipal building shuffle, nixing former plans for an athletic field, which Campbell said "wouldn't have worked anyway."

The amended three-phase shuffle, subject to further analysis, now looks like this:

1. Move the Board of Education to the former library at 35 Leroy Ave.
2. Move the Senior Center to the Board of Education space at Town Hall
3. Knock down the Senior Center on Edgerton Street, and develop 20 senior affordable housing units

Campbell, who prior to taking office worked full time as CEO of Rings End Lumber, said his next challenge is the "marketing pitch," that is gaining the community's support to set the wheels in motion.

 "This is what I've been doing all my life," said Campbell. "I know what I'm doing."