The regional council of governments, RiverCoG, is presenting a housing workshop on Wednesday, March 16, virtually via Zoom. To register for the meeting, go HERE.
In much of the state, employers are facing a workforce shortage, in part because there is not affordable housing. To address this component of economic development, and to ensure the equity and environmental sustainability of housing, the legislature has enacted zoning reforms that will impact our city's future housing. In the current legislative session, it is considering changes to state zoning statutes that will go even further.
At the most recent Planning and Zoning Commission meeting, Director of Land Use Marek Kozikowski outlined the 5 approaches that RiverCoG is proposing to address housing needs in our region:
- Increase the number of Accessory Dwelling Units (ADU). These are small, separate residences on the lot of a single-family residence, they could be in the attic, basement, or garage, or as stand-alone structures.
- Encourage middle housing. Middle housing is something in between an apartment complex and a single family home. These could be duplexes or quads, and they are often in the same style as single family homes. Our city has some of these downtown--three-story buildings with a separate residence on each floor.
- Rehab historic structures.
- Microunits downtown. These might be 500 square foot studio apartments above commercial uses on the ground floor.
- Lower parking requirements. Parking lots reduce affordable housing in two ways. They raise the cost of housing considerably, and they take away land that can be used for housing.
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcvdeigqjwoHN1XUJlFx2u7dytEudJnXHC7
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As for Marek’s first three bullet-pointed recommendations: What incentive/variances will the city offer to increase the number of ADU’s, middle housing, and historic rehab? And what incentive will the city offer for property owners to use them for long term housing? A consideration for how space is utilized is that for these types of spaces, the income rate for short-term (Airbnb, VRBO) far exceeds the market rate for long-term leases.
As for micro units downtown, P&Z recently heard two such proposals, both hoping not to have to provide parking. The Bob’s development is proposing forty-eight 650 sf units for $1350 per month. They are promoting this as “affordable” housing. To be considered affordable, it means that the tenant will not spend more than 30% of the income on housing. That means that tenants will need to earn more than $55,000. According to the CT Census, only 12% of non-vehicle households earn more than $55K. Since the developer has also chosen not to put in an elevator because “it is not required by code,” (and I’m hoping someone has verified this) how desirable will a third-floor walk-up with no parking be to those who can afford it and own one (or more) cars? Similarly, how desirable will the Giribaldi units be when parking is three blocks away?
The Bob’s developer admitted that many others who had looked at the building chose not to develop it. I think P&Z needs to ask themselves, is he seeing something that none of the others have, or is he not seeing something that everyone else saw? It was also interesting that his two other developments he cited had one parking space for each unit (based on the Middletown Press reporting.)
The city tore down the parking garage about 4 years ago and has done nothing to replace it (other than claiming the surface parking (and, for a while, all of Dingwall) for police vehicle parking.) In 2018, the Middletown Press reported: "For a few years, the city has been considering seeking voter approval of funding for a new garage on the arcade site, but have decided not to pursue such a significant expense.” Rather than focus on having more people live on main street with no parking, maybe P&Z and the Downtown Business District should focus on creating more parking so that people, no matter where they live, can easily park and enjoy access to all that downtown Middletown has to offer.
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