Politics & Government

Garden Homes A Go

Planning & Zoning's three-part decision over the affordable housing application filed under 8-30g brings Darien one step closer to a moratorium.

Tuesday evening's Planning & Zoning Commission meeting heard P&Z Director Jeremy Ginsberg announce a three-part decision over Garden Homes, a resolution that will bring a new affordable housing development to the Post Road and lead the town one step closer towards attaining a moratorium from pressing state mandate 8-30g.

The decision is as follows:

  • Affordable Housing Application granted with stipulations and modifications
  • Modification of Zoning Regulations denied
  • Special Permit denied

The lengthy hearing process on the Garden Homes application to convert a vacant property at 397 Post Road into 35 rental units began in late September and continued at two public hearings in October, where neighbors accused the commission of being unfairly lax in the face of 8-30g.

The state law mandates that in a town like Darien 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, like Garden Homes. Towns that increase their affordable housing stock by two percent are afforded a four-year break or moratorium from the mandate.

In theory, Garden Homes will bring Darien that temporary relief. In accordance with 8-30g and new inclusionary zoning regulations which require new multifamily developments to designate a number of units below-market-rate, 11 Garden Home units will be affordable rentals. But an application for a moratorium comes with no said guarantee of approval.

Moratorium or no moratorium, Garden Homes will take shape. Where neighbors pointed to a number of deficiencies with regards to drainage and parking, the commission resolved the shortcomings did not "outweigh the need for affordable housing."

"It might not be approved were it not for 8-30g, but you have to weigh these shortcomings against the need for affordable housing," said Vice Chairman Joseph Spain.

Throughout the hearing process, Tuesday evening included, the shortcoming that has sparked most debate has been parking. The approved application has a 53-space lot. That's less than local zoning regulations call for, but okay in this case per 8-30g.

"It's 8-30g so we don't have a lot of flexibility; so we're trying to force the applicant to proactively manage the parking and giving him the tools to do it," said Chairman Frederick Conze.

Neighboring business owners are worried that overflow traffic will spill into their own private lots. There's little the commission can do to remedy the situation. They have asked the landowner to return in 2012 with a parking report, and have supplied the landowner with "tools" to enforce compliance like a mandatory sticker-permit program.

"In this redevelopment circumstance, where parking has stood for 30 years, it's appropriate to leave the parking layout," said Spain. "Due to size of units proposed, that number (53) is appropriate."

Both the "redevelopment" and the parking present nonconformities to local zoning regulations, hence the applicant's proposal to amend Darien Zoning Regulations twice over. One amendment would have allowed for the conversion of the one-acre property from commercial to residential use; and a second change, a special permit, would have okayed, via special permit, the reduced required parking.

P&Z denied both.

It was in the interest of the applicant to have such one-time waivers on the record in the event the conversion or the parking are called into question; but there's no real benefit for the town in changing longstanding rules. Moreover, "8-30g is an exception to those rules," said Ginsberg.

And so, Garden Homes has a future.

Ginsberg noted the developer's track record (he has similar properties in Stamford) and the nature of the project as an "adaptation" as opposed to a "redevelopment" (the footprint won't change) as "important points" in the commission's decision to approve the application.

An official reading of the decision was postponed, as Secretary Gwynne Grimes was not in attendance. The next P&Z Commission meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, Jan. 12.


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