Darien Places Moratorium On Large Multi-Family Projects

DARIEN, CT — The Darien Planning & Zoning Commission last week unanimously voted to place a moratorium on some multi-family projects in town.

The moratorium, which will be in effect for one year, will apply to large multi-family projects of 25 units or more.

Projects that the commission has already approved will not be affected. Additionally, the moratorium would not apply to 8-30g affordable housing projects.

The April 21 Darien Planning & Zoning Commission meeting can be viewed on demand on DarienTV.

Darien Director of Land Use Jeremy Ginsberg previously said multi-family housing continues to outpace single-family residential housing in Darien, and likely will continue to for the foreseeable future.

Since 2000, there have been 795 multi-family units constructed in Darien, with 320 of those having been constructed since 2020, Ginsberg said last month in a presentation.

There are six multi-family projects currently underway in town, ranging in size from eight units up to 175, Ginsberg said.

By 2028, the projected grand total of multi-family units is 1,159, which is more than has been constructed in Darien's history before 2000, Ginsberg said.

Officials have said the moratorium is needed to better understand any possible impacts of these developments, and to coordinate that analysis with recent legislation out of Hartford that includes numerous changes to planning & zoning statutes, as well as the town's crafting of the 2026 Plan of Conservation and Development.

The moratorium will also allow for the completion of the Corbin District project in downtown, as well as smaller multi-family projects at 104-108 Kings Highway North (eight units) and 1 Sedgwick Ave. (18 units).

During a brief discussion before voting on the moratorium, Commission member George Reilly suggested lowering the threshold to 15 units. Ginsberg said there was a "big gap" in the middle separating the smaller projects from the bigger ones, so 25 was the number that was decided on.

Ginsberg also noted that, based on advice from town counsel, making the threshold more restrictive now would require renoticing the proposal.

Commission member Adam Balgach pointed out the moratorium expires in one year.

"If we find that we've got 15 applications for 24 units, in a year from now we can come back and do something different," he said. "I like the process of having the expiration date, so for new stuff we're doing, we get a sense of, is this going to work or not going to work, and we can reevaluate in the future."