Affordable Housing Advisory Committee submits its report

Click here to view the report.

SALISBURY — The Affordable Housing Advisory Committee presented its report to the Board of Selectmen and the public at a special selectmen’s meeting Thursday, June 17, at Town Hall.

Committee Chairman Rod Lankler, introducing the report, said “the idea was to identify impediments to affordable housing and design a plan to overcome them.â€

Lankler then touched on some general points about the committee’s work. He said the committee used “our own common sense†definition of what constitutes “affordable housing,†as well as the state formula.

For example, the committee figured that a new teacher at Salisbury Central School at the lower end of the salary range (the example given was $37,780) would have found only one affordable house available in town in the last couple of years.

Part of the concern about affordable housing is the ability of the town’s emergency services volunteers to continue to live in town. Lankler said if Salisbury had to pay for an ambulance service and fire department, it would cost about $4.5 million annually — which would require a tax hike of 36 percent. (It would also effectively double municipal spending; the town voted in May for the 2010-11 budget, which included $4,893,817 in town government spending.)

Lankler went on with the grim litany: declining enrollment at Salisbury Central (a projected 37-percent drop between 2000 and 2020); the state law that requires 10 percent of a town’s housing stock to be affordable (out of 2,410 units in Salisbury, 27, or 1.12 percent, meet the state definition); the state law that allows private developers who set aside 30 percent of units as affordable to circumvent town zoning regulations (“Such actions could present significant challenges†said Lankler, with considerable understatement).

Lankler said the town can expect the continued arrival of part-timers who retire here in their 60s, with a concomitant and continued rise in housing prices and demand for services.

If the problem is not addressed, he concluded, “Salisbury will likely evolve into an upscale retirement community, a place where old people come to visit their parents.â€

Bob Blank, speaking about location and infrastructure, emphasized the committee’s preference for using existing buildings for affordable housing, rather than new construction.

He outlined several approaches, including accessory apartments, allowing apartments over retail spaces in the commercial zone, and a home-share system (an elderly person alone in a large home provides a room and use of the house to a younger tenant in return for rent, assistance with chores and errands, companionship, or some mix of the above).

Bill Morrill, who chaired the subcommittee on regulations, said existing zoning regulations “are already favorable†for affordable housing.

“But we believe improvements can be made†— among them, easing the acreage requirement on converting a single-family home into up to three units (currently such a conversion would require 3 acres).

“A lot of houses could handle three units but they are on small lots.†said Morrill.

Also proposed: an amnesty period for those with illegal accessory apartments; changing the bed and breakfast rules to allow for two transient guests and one accessory apartment; and new zoning for the rural areas to allow for lots of less than the current required acreage, to be kept affordable through deed restriction or some other mechanism.

“These proposals are consistent with existing regulations,†Morrill said. “They don’t depart from existing concepts of zoning.â€

Rick Cantele, who chaired the finance subcommittee, said questions of funding had to be project-specific, and that when public money is used, the town has less autonomy in what is produced.

When private funds are behind a building effort, the locality has more say.

Cantele said the subcommittee looked hard at the “private donation†model, as practiced by the Salisbury Housing Trust, and added that “there are limited ways the town government can raise money for affordable housing†(and referred the audence to Appendix IX in the full report).

The report recommends  establishing a permanent Salisbury affordable housing fund administered by a permanent affordable housing commission.

The seed money for the fund — $50,000 — could come from the town’s existing land capital account, and the fund would be an annual town budget line for the same amount.

“The money would be for appraisals, acquisition, feasibility, development rights, easements and options,†said Cantele.

Geoff Rossano spoke for the subcommittee that dealt with organization. With a goal of providing an institutional response to affordable housing, rather than an episodic response, the report recommends  establishing a permanent affordable housing commission.

Committee members went from “Winsted to New Milford and everywhere in between. There are a lot of players —  developers, builders, finance people, regulators and the people who live in the housing.

“We need a facilitator to maintain an institutional history.â€

The subcommittee recommends establishing a commission of five appointed  by the selectmen.

“Plus a budget for staff support,†added Rossano.

As the meeting segued into questions and comments, Lankler noted the committee deliberately did not mention specific properties, thinking that outside their charge. He also mentioned that the committee is “very much aware of the work of other groups†on affordable housing.

The committees’ recommendations are “designed to facilitate, not to replace,†he added.

Mike Flint asked Morrill why the suggestion to relax the acreage requirement on single-family to multi-unit conversions was only up to three units. Citing “the economies of scale,†Flint asked repeatedly “How can you justify this?â€

Morrill replied, “There are practical limitations. If you wanted more than three [units] you’d probably have to enlarge the building.â€

The response did not satisfy Flint.

John Pogue asked if some form of tax relief could be an incentive for property owners to create affordable housing. “There are a lot of good-willed people who might be on the fence,†he said.

Selectman Jim Dresser, who represented the selectmen on the committee, said he hoped everybody in town would read at least the first chapter of the report, “The Need for Affordable Housing.â€

“It is about more than housing. It is about what future we want for our town.â€

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