Even though it is still a diamond in the rough, the 186-acre campus at Fairfield Hills already has enough facets and flash points to spark an endless succession of debates about the future of the place. At a recent hearing by the Planning and Zoning Commission on modifications to its Fairfield Hills Adaptive Reuse (FHAR) zone, affordable housing was the latest issue to flare up.

One of the revisions included in the latest version of the proposed master plan for Fairfield Hills calls for eight existing single-family houses in the West Meadow section of the campus to be reserved for possible use as affordable housing. With that change in mind, the Planning and Zoning Commission proposed a change in its FHAR zone to allow affordable housing. The change in both the Fairfield Hills master plan and the FHAR zone to provide for housing drew sharp criticism from advocates for open space and cultural facilities at the campus.

Creating a diverse menu of housing options for Newtown residents — including affordable housing for families of modest means — has long been a local priority codified in Newtown’s Plan of Conservation and Development. The town plan pointedly acknowledges, “Newtown lacks a meaningful supply of housing for a broad spectrum of ages and incomes.” The incipient plan to establish affordable housing in a cluster of houses on the Fairfield Hills campus is a good faith effort by the town to move toward this goal in the town plan. Yet critics of the proposal for affordable housing at Fairfield Hills have a point: Is it wise to opt for housing for eight families in a prime location that otherwise might serve hundreds or even thousands of local families with municipal services or recreational opportunities?

Elsewhere in Newtown, affordable housing is allowed under existing zoning rules by special exception, which allows the P&Z to ensure that such housing is compatible with surrounding land uses. The town plan outlines several strategies for encouraging more affordable housing in town, including the creation of residential dwellings over ground floor retail businesses in the borough, fostering accessory apartments in at existing residences, and identifying other areas where affordable housing might be appropriate. To date, however, only 13 units of affordable housing have been approved by P&Z (at Riverview Condominiums off Bryan Lane) under existing zoning rules.

The Planning and Zoning Commission should attempt to implement its existing strategies for encouraging more affordable housing, as specified in the town’s Plan of Conservation and Development, before it approves such housing options in an area with the potential to serve so many other, widely supported, public interests. It should not rule out affordable housing at Fairfield Hills, but it should hold it in abeyance until other options for such housing in town are explored and exhausted. These eight houses should not be the opening salvo in this initiative; they should be the last resort.

Newtown desperately needs to come up with affordable housing options for far more than eight families. The danger in committing a handful of houses for that purpose at Fairfield Hills is that the town will return to complacency on the issue, believing that it has already done enough. Finding an affordable home in Newtown becomes more difficult for more families every year. The community has to look beyond eight houses at Fairfield Hills for an answer to this problem.