Affordable housing plan will build on existing data

SHARON — Responding to a state mandate that all towns prepare and adopt a plan for affordable housing by 2022, the Sharon Board of Selectmen took the step of accepting grant funding from the Housing Authority Assistance program at their regular meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 14.

By accepting the $11,000 grant obtained with the help of the Northwest Hills Council of Governments, First Selectman Brent Colley said that the town must describe what it plans to do next in regard to enhancing affordable housing.  Sharon, he explained, will be building upon an existing affordable housing program.

The next step will be to form a committee to draft an updated plan that will need to be approved by the town and submitted before the deadline of October 2022.

Selectman Dale Jones recalled that 10 years ago, there was a lot of background work already done on the subject.

“We have some unique challenges in town, but we have some unique gifts as a town to bring to it.” Some of the challenges involve providing water and sewer infrastructure for affordable housing units.

In Sharon, Jones pointed out, it is more about the placement of affordable housing. Sharon already has Sharon Ridge. “We don’t have much else,” Jones said, pointing out that the town has only small plots of land. “We have to look at it in a different way,” he said.