Last week, the Connecticut Supreme Court denied a request to review Save Old Saugatuck’s petition for certification. That removes a final roadblock to construction of the 157-unit Summit Saugatuck’s “Village at Saugatuck” project, on Hiawatha Lane Extension.
SOS attorney Joel Green was not surprised. “The overwhelming need for affordable housing in Connecticut appears to be strongly influencing judicial review and the outcome of cases involved in any way with this issue,” he says.
Carolanne Curry, the neighbor who has led the long political and legal fight against the development, says that the decision
quietly ended one of Westport’s longest and strongest efforts by Save Old Saugatuck to stop the abuse and exploitation that Connecticut’s housing law 8-30g provided to developer Felix Charney in his dangerous and disgusting proposal to turn a single-family neighborhood of homes into a chaos of apartment buildings that will be built on fragile wetlands and carry the potential of killer traffic problems.
Artist’s rendering of Summit Saugatuck.
SOS now turns its attention to a new proposal: a 5-story, 42-unit complex at #5 and #7 Hiawatha Lane, just east of the Summit Saugatuck project.
“Zucaro Apartments” is spearheaded by former Planning & Zoning Commission chair Cathy Walsh, and Faustina Zucaro, a relative of current P&Z member Patrizia Zucaro.
Like “The Village at Saugatuck,” it will be filed under 8-30g — the state’s affordable housing statute — meaning there are very few local grounds for denial.
Citing “greed and abuse” in 8-30g, Curry says, “At this point we are left with the feeling that the evil of 8-30g will be a permanent factor in our lives.
“On the other hand I feel strongly that being so victimized here in Old Saugatuck, we must continue to speak out against 8-30g. We must continue to seek an end to this social and legislative nightmare.
“I will continue advocating on behalf of our community, if there is agreement and support from neighbors and the community.”
Artist’s rendering of Zucaro Apartments.
(“06880” is your place for hyper-local journalism. To support our work, please click here. Thank you!)
Westport didn’t need affordable housing at one time because the whole town was affordable! Yes you could buy a house on Bauer Place for $3,000 dollars in the mid to late 40s. Yes you could build a house for $45,000 dollars at 114 South Morningside Drive in 1961.
What do these developers say about the traffic and how it will be managed? How much harder will it be for commuters to get to the station? What streets do the developers live on in Westport and how will it impact them? Has the town considered a moratorium on new commercial development?
Doesn’t matter what the town says or any of the unintended or intended consequences. Connecticut’s 8-30g law operates the same way as 40-B in Massachusetts. Towns are required by law to maintain a percentage of “affordable” housing. Failure to do means the law allows developers to bypass conventional local zoning laws in an effort reach the minimum affordable inventory. Should a town’s ZBA turn down a 8-30g project, the developer can appeal the decision to a state board which is, you guessed it, rigged to favor the developer.
Have you ever seen a developer’s paid-for “traffic study” conclude with nothing short of traffic nirvana, or at worst “minimal impact?” Interestingly, multiple concurrent developers (say, “Zucaro” & “Village”) need not consider, to the extent they care, their as-yet-unbuilt collective impact, only their individual ones. It’s in effect “boil the frog”.
Developers living in Westport? How about Westporters living in Saugatuck. To those living in “Westport East” (of the river), Saugatuck seems out of view, out of mind.
To the extent commuters still go to the station, no worries as Zucaro & Village will be bottlenecked at the Ferry Ln W & Saugatuck Ave light, their only exit to the outside world.
If commercial development were more profitable than very-dense residential, there’d be 15 “SoNo-class” shopping malls in Westport. e-commerce & WFH have taken care of retail and commercial brick&mortar.
Please correct me if I’m wrong but .. in total … doesn’t Westport have a decent percentage of affordable housing already? I was told they don’t look at older affordable housing just the new projects. Wasn’t affordable housing made also for teachers, police & firemen so they could afford to live near their work? I’m not a fan of highrise apartment buildings in a Town.
Is it also so the State gives the town money for hitting the States goals? It usually comes to money and power not altruism. Out of the approximate 10,000 households in Westport .. how many households are to be affordable according to the State?
The world is upside down. The Westport we all knew is gone forever. Why a small coastal town needs to bend to satisfy all the needs of society is beyond me. Even if it means destroying the town in the process. We need a moratorium on building. Westport shouldn’t resemble Stamford or New Rochelle.
This is a sad day in the town’s history. Will it be abruptly remembered when the traffic problems start to ramify across town? Will this intrusion into an actual “affordable” and modest neighborhood, and the imposition upon the people who make up that segment of town finally be recognized? And across Connecticut, how many other such neighborhoods — the older, affordable ones with older, smaller and affordable homes — will be impacted by the summoning of 8-30g? What would it take to halt that statute? Or will the state succumb to the increment of large out-of-scale buildings and the urbanization that this law can bring?
Attorney Joel Green did a fine job of litigating this case at a reduced hourly rate but is still owed a substantial sum of money by the litigants. Even though the matter has reached an end, those of us who believe that standing up for what is right should not be deterred by financial considerations would do well to consider a year-end tax deductible contribution to Save Our Saugatuck to be used to pay the balance of the legal fees incurred.
Larry,
Thank you for bringing up the subject of justly owed monies to a superlative lawyer, who took us to every possible road available to reach our goal of maintaining this community of historic single family homes in OLD SAUGATUCK. The bitter disappointment we have experienced from the Town and now the Supreme Court is going to serve as the motivation (not defeat) to continue exposing 8-30g for what it really is….a tool of profiteering, an exploitation of a genuine housing need, and suppression of every regulatory aspect that has been the basis of practical and wise land use in Westport.
I’d certainly appreciate an email of direct call to The Grossman Companies, Inc up there in Quincy MA. This is the company that absorbed all of Summit Saugatuck LLC from Felix Charney a few years back. This is the company that has been funding Felix.
Let Jacob Grossman (company president) know that he is participating in a damaging proposal that will destroy an historic community of single family homes that trace back ( in the late 1800’s) to the construction of the railroad tracks through the Saugatuck neighborhood of Westport.
The message to Jake is: Please don’t destroy us with 157 apartment units, when you could gain lasting recognition by making this area a land trust for affordable single family homes.
It’s worth a try….. 617-472-2000 or jake@grossmanco.com
The Grossman Companies, Inc. One Adams Place 859 Willard Street, Suite 501, Quincy, MA 02169
_________________________________________________
let me know your thoughts and thanks forever for all the support. Yes, financial help at this point is needed and would be deeply appreciated.