Lawsuits,complaintsand pushback: How one affordable housing project is being fought in a CT town

Aug. 7—While New York City-based developer Vessel Technologies is appealing Simsbury's zoning commission's decision to deny the building, the residents themselves have gotten involved by appealing another commission's decision to approve a permit in the first place.

These two lawsuits highlight the obstacles weighing down affordable housing attempts across the state, according to some experts, and how towns struggle to navigate a balance between state law 8-30g and local say.

"8-30g has been around for 30 years, and it's been more controversial lately in Connecticut because there's a significant housing crisis," said Pete Harrison, director of Desegregate Connecticut. The issue is, there's a huge need for affordable housing, but many people in the towns where that need is highest don't want to see developments being built, he said.

"The only escape valve is this 8-30g component," Harrison said.

Under the statute, developers of affordable housing projects may override local zoning in municipalities where less than 10 percent of housing meets the statute's definition of affordable.

Currently, around 5.9 percent of Simsbury's housing units qualify as affordable.

And because Vessel's application proposed to deed restrict 30 percent of the building's units (24 units) for households earning at or below 80 percent of the median income, Vessel could make its site plan application under Connecticut's Affordable Housing Land Use Appeals Act, allowing them to argue in court that the zoning commission's decision violated the state's 8-30g law.

At the same time, residents who neighbor the property are fighting to reverse the Town of Simsbury Conservation Commission and Inland Wetlands and Watercourses Agency's decision to approve a wetlands permit for Vessel's development.

Homeowner Dylan Gagne first filed a civil complaint on May 16, but recent court documents show that Gagne is trying to withdraw his appeal because he is selling his property to Vessel. Gagne's property had abutted the proposed apartment complex, and the construction would have negatively impacted he and his neighbors' property values and quality of life, he had previously written to town officials on March 1.

But in an effort to keep the lawsuit going, two other Simsbury residents are trying to take his place. Yunfei Zhou and Kelly Rothfuss are requesting that the Court substitute them as party plaintiffs, according to documents. That motion is pending decision by the court.

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Rothfuss said although she wasn't initially concerned about the development, that changed when she saw the size and scale of the project. "The development is literally in my backyard," she said.

Slowing down development or protecting property?

It's not uncommon for a group of homeowners to try to deny and slow down a development, Harrison said. But he didn't think there was much merit to that case, it was just that some people didn't like what was happening. "It's just it's just a waste of time, money and energy," he said.

But for Rothfuss, getting involved in the lawsuit was never about trying to stop housing from being built in Simsbury, because she was a supporter of affordable housing, she said.

"It's about the disrespectful and aggressive nature of that development," Rothfuss said. "It's about that developers like Vessel do not take into consideration the communities that they are moving into."

In addition to Gagne and many other residents, Rothfuss said she weighed in on the development at previous town meetings and to town officials.

"My home will literally be destroyed by this development," Rothfuss wrote in a message to Joseph Hollis of the town's planning and land use department on March 10.

She said that she had suffered from flooding issues that she said was caused by a nearby brook's inability to handle runoff after trees were cleared, and this proposed construction would reduce even more water-absorbing trees and open space.

"I will have to deal with mold and constant water in my basement," Rothfuss wrote. "I will never be able to sell this house to find other safe housing for me and my family."

The lawsuit against the commission says that the decision to approve a wetlands permit would result in adverse impacts on the wetlands and water courses near the site.

Although Harrison said he had sympathy for people who in good faith had concerns about climate change and environmental impacts, a project like this was better than one that would require even more environmental interference. And there is already a process in place to review these types of concerns and he trusted that it was done in due diligence, he said.

But Patricia and Alfred Weisbrich, who have lived in Simsbury for almost 40 years and also weighed in on the development at public hearings, said they were glad to hear that residents were still fighting back.

Throughout the several-hours long public hearings that ensued since the housing project was introduced early this year, a multitude of residents had expressed their disdain for a variety of reasons, including its location, size, design and wetlands encroachment.

And in this rural town, "character" was a common argument used by many of the residents against the 64-unit apartment building.

"We live here because of the quality of life, and to put this white monstrosity sticking four stories up in a very bucolic, green town--- it's just so out of character of the town," Patricia Weisbrich said.

So when the Simsbury Zoning Commission denied Vessel's application in a 4-2 vote on May 15, citing a lack of parking and fire safety concerns, along with other issues residents had brought up over the weeks, it seemed like the pushback paid off.

But with 8-30g, and when the people who live in these towns have wishes that clash with their town's requirement for affordable housing, it's not that simple.

Conflict between state statute and localities

There's a lot of opportunity to do some smart planning and zoning to really get ahead and provide the housing the community needs, but so far Simsbury has been slow to do that, Harrison said.

This is in part because of political resistance from at least a small group of residents, like the kind seen in Simsbury, whereas the people that by definition would benefit from those homes aren't going to be there at those public hearings to show the town that there is support, Harrison said.

Harrison said his organization does a lot of advocating for affordable projects in the state, but he rarely gets involved with any personally.

But this one was different, he said.

As someone who struggled to find housing in Simsbury, he wanted to make sure he could voice his support for the 64-unit project at the May 1 zoning commission meeting. "My development that I live in had similar protests against it," he said.

People had raised a big hackle about it, finding a number of things wrong with it because they just didn't want it to be built, he said. "And I'm able to live in Simsbury because of it."

And it's not just Simsbury that has dealt with the obstacles that arise from local pushback, Harrison said. Across the country, these public meetings aren't actually representative of the need in the community, making it harder and taking much longer for these projects to get approved, ultimately hindering towns from reaching a satisfactory number of affordable housing units, he said.

But Rothfuss, who also said she was here in Simsbury because of affordable housing, saw things differently. She said that if this project was really about helping affordability, then Vessel would work to compromise with the community and lower the number of units.

Right now, Connecticut towns are still stuck in a spot where they need to build more homes of all types and in all parts of the state, but the commissions just aren't doing it, and that's why the 8-30g statute is so important, Harrison said.

But to Rothfuss, Vessel's development was an exploitation of a statute that was made in good faith, she said. "Developers are utilizing 8-30g as a Trojan horse to jam them in places where initially they wouldn't be zoned for," she said.

When towns and residents try to slow down housing developments with lawsuits, there's well-established precedent of courts siding with developments, Harrison said.

"Most of these things end up getting built," he said. "And oftentimes, they're lovely, and they've created more opportunities for people in these particular towns to live there. And people go on about their business and the sky hasn't fallen, the town hasn't imploded."