Town Buying Land For Affordable Housing In Fairfield

FAIRFIELD, CT — The town of Fairfield is in the process of buying a property to redevelop as affordable housing.

The Board of Selectmen voted unanimously Monday to approve the purchase of 244 Greenfield St. at a cost of $232,000, to be paid for using money from the town's housing trust fund. Fairfield's offer has been accepted, conditional on approval from the Representative Town Meeting.

“I love that we were able to make this happen,” First Selectwoman Brenda Kupchick said. “This is an ideal situation.”

The 0.065-acre lot currently houses a small single-family home, but the town intends to combine it with 0.6 acres of woods in the adjoining Tunxis Hill Park and work with development partners to build one or two duplexes on the land.

“This purchase is entirely consistent with the affordable housing plan,” Community and Economic Development Director Mark Barnhart said.

The property borders a commercial district and offers access to shopping, buses and highways, making it a good site for affordable housing, Barnhart said when he presented the proposal last week to the Town Plan and Zoning Commission.

“This seems like a perfect fit for the purpose of the affordable housing trust fund that we created a couple years ago,” commission Chairman Matt Wagner said.

Affordable housing has been a hot topic in Fairfield in recent years, particularly in connection with state law Section 8-30g, which applies to towns where less than 10 percent of housing stock meets the criteria to be recognized as affordable. Under the law, the only way the town can avoid approving housing proposals consisting of at least 30 percent affordable units is by proving a project poses a threat to public health, welfare and safety that outweighs the need for affordable housing.

As of earlier this year, 2.47 percent of Fairfield housing stock was compliant with 8-30g, but if construction were completed on every affordable unit approved in town, Fairfield would qualify to seek a moratorium on 8-30g, Kupchick said at a virtual town hall in May.

Fairfield has taken several steps toward adding affordable units in town, such as its policies on inclusionary zoning and accessory dwelling units. The Affordable Housing Committee is in the process of updating Fairfield's affordable housing plan.