A second affordable housing developer is suing Newtown claiming it illegally turned down a proposal for a large-scale apartment complex on the far western edge of town.
Stephen Shapiro on Dec. 11 sued the affluent Fairfield County suburb, claiming it violated the state’s 8-30g affordable housing law by rejecting a zone change to allow 300 apartments along Route 6.
In the fall, Shapiro’s 188-190 Mount Pleasant Road LLC asked for a zone change for 12 mostly wooded acres just across the Bethel line.
The statute allows only very narrow reasons for communities like Newtown to turn down affordable housing, and the town’s Planning and Zoning Commission couldn’t offer any of them when it rejected his request Dec. 4.
“There was no credible evidence in the record that denying the application was necessary to protect substantial public interests in health, safety, or other matters which it could legally consider which outweighed the need for affordable housing in Newtown,” attorney Stephen Bellis of the New Haven-based Pellegrino Law Firm wrote in the suit.
But the town contends there was no plan to turn down. Instead, he merely asked for a zone change but submitted no formal development proposal with it.
“The lack of a concrete site plan makes it impossible for the commission to determine whether there are public health and safety concerns,” the commission said when it voted down the zone change Dec. 4.
“Since the application will not result in the construction of any housing, it cannot be considered a development application, one that is part of an affordable housing application,” it wrote. “A conceptual site plan is merely a suggestion of what might be built.”
The developer contends that nevertheless, commissioners didn’t demonstrate any serious public safety or health risk when they voted “no.” And that is the standard required by 8-30g.
“Plaintiff submitted an affordable plan in which 90 units were proposed to be affordable at both 80% (of) state median income and 60% (of) state median income and to be deed restricted for 40 years. The development qualified as an affordable housing development,” the lawsuit contends.
The suit, filed in Bridgeport Superior Court, is now the second 8-30g-based case against Newtown, a suburb of roughly 27,000 in Greater Danbury.
The community has recently drawn intense interest from developers, and many longtime homeowners have begun opposing new projects they claim will change their town’s character. Nearby towns including Fairfield have had similar reactions, with some residents complaining that an influx of high-profile, high-density apartments is out of control.
Shapiro this year has also proposed affordable or senior housing projects in Milford, Fairfield, Trumbull, Bristol, Shelton, Easton and Stratford. He has drawn criticism in some communities where residents complain of “predatory” developers, but argues that his projects provide badly needed housing and are strategically located for convenience to stores and services while being away from historic neighborhoods.
In Newtown, at least three developers have applied to build large-scale affordable housing just this year. Newtown is exposed to 8-30g provisions because less than 2.9% of its housing qualifies as affordable by state metrics. Connecticut wants every community to provide at least 10% affordable housing relative to local income rates, and the 8-30g law applies to those that are below the goal.
Early in the year the town rejected Vessel Technologies’ bid to build 136 apartments, and the company sued in April. That case, also based on 8-30g, is still pending.
Despite neighborhood opposition, the Planning and Zoning Commission on Dec. 4 approved Cela Builders’ proposal for 67 apartments at 128-130 Mount Pleasant Road.