Zoning Commission Public Hearing December 16, 2024

Zoning Commission Public Hearing December 16, 2024

Affordable Housing should be determined by market rates, not through do-good social engineering that has not been successful in the past.

180 acres of land was donated to the town through the Eno Trust, for the “poor of Simsbury,” has had a history of chaotic management in the Eno Farms affordable housing that has to the present, not served low and very income families and is in violation of the trust.

The next attempt for affordable housing was developing an age restricted community on Knoll Lane.

The failure was realized when the re-sale of the homes was not attainable resulting in removing the restrictions.

Owners of homes developed with a percent of restricted affordable homes realized that they could not sell their property with the affordable restrictions.

Banks would not give a mortgage to the prospective buyers since the financial risk was evident.

The homeowners came before the Board of Selectmen to lift the restrictions on their homes and the Board lifted the restrictions.

Simsbury has many homes that with varying prices from low to high.

Changing Zoning requirements to meet a subjective need for affordable housing and increasing the population will have unintended consequences.

Simsbury does not have an infrastructure for an increase in population, causing traffic issues.

Simsbury does have reliable public transportation, making commuting expensive.

Taxes are the highest in the Valley, adding to the cost of living in Simsbury.

Reducing taxes and an increase in economic development would make Simsbury more affordable.

The marketplace should create a housing market not experimentation by regulating the housing market through social engineering.

The past experiments of adding affordable housing with caveats, have been a dismal failure.

Manipulation of land use to serve a perceived problem in housing is like trying to place a square peg in a round hole to get an acceptable outcome.

Tiny houses on tiny lots are not a solution to affordable housing.

It is a nightmare to the landscape in Simsbury.

The Zoning Commission should reject the ZC-24-06, Housing Strategies Tool Kit and leave the regulations, as written.