Date: Fri 22-Jan-1999

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDYG

Quick Words:

HVCEO-legislators

Full Text:

Local Elected Officials Present Lawmakers With A Wish List Of Legislative

Changes

BY ANDREW GOROSKO

Members of the Housatonic Valley Council of Elected Officials (HVCEO) have

outlined to state legislators some legislative changes which council members

want enacted concerning affordable housing, open space land, and tourism,

among other matters, in the upcoming session of the state legislature.

HVCEO members met with state legislators from the region at a recent session

at New Milford Town Hall. HVCEO is the 10-member regional planning agency

comprised of the mayors and first selectmen of Newtown, Redding, Ridgefield,

Sherman, Bridgewater, Bethel, Brookfield, Danbury, New Fairfield and New

Milford.

HVCEO members urged legislators to have the state use different methods to

calculate the volume of "affordable housing" that exists in municipalities.

"All existing (housing) units should count (as affordable housing), public or

private, if they rent below levels established by the state as `affordable'

for the municipality," according to a policy statement by HVCEO. "The present

count, of only (housing) units with public subsidy or deed restriction, is too

limited to reflect the real supply of affordable housing actually available,"

HVCEO adds.

Modifying how the percentage of local affordable housing is calculated would

make a currently difficult process fairer to municipalities, according to the

HVCEO statement.

Currently, if less then 10 percent of a community's housing stock is

"affordable housing" as defined by the state, existing state law allows

developers to use a "density bonus" for residential construction. Such a

density bonus allows developers to build housing complexes with much higher

construction densities than local zoning regulations allow, provided that a

certain minimum percentage of housing units in the complex, typically 20

percent or 25 percent, are designated as affordable housing for people falling

under certain annual income limits.

Newtown First Selectman Herbert Rosenthal expressed concern that, as currently

constituted, the state's affordable housing law allows high-density affordable

housing complexes to be built in "undesirable locations."

Even though a site may pose safety and locational issues, and may sit atop a

major underground drinking water source, a judge may rule that the location is

a suitable one for a housing complex, according to Mr Rosenthal.

Mr Rosenthal spoke in reference to Newtown Village, a controversial proposal

to build a 96-house complex on 32 acres off Route 34, alongside the Exit 11

on-ramp of Interstate-84 in Sandy Hook. Twenty-four houses would be designated

as affordable housing there.

The Newtown Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) rejected the Newtown Village

application for a host of reasons in November 1997. The P&Z holds that the

site selected for the complex is atop an aquifer which would be subject to

potential water pollution from the complex. The P&Z also concluded that the

proposed complex would magnify existing traffic problems in a congested part

of town near Newtown High School.

Following the P&Z's rejection of Newtown Village, the developers, D&H Homes,

LLC, of New Milford, and Fairfield 2000 Homes Corporation of Stamford, sued

the town seeking to have a judge overturn the rejection and force construction

of the complex. The town is awaiting a judge's decision on a court trial of

testimony and evidence in the case.

Open Space

Also, HVCEO members are urging state legislators to take steps to prevent the

potential rapid sell-off of large quantities of Northeast Utilities (NU)

excess lands adjacent to hydroelectric facilities on Lake Lillinonah and

Candlewood Lake, and also along the Housatonic River in New Milford. The rapid

sale of these excess lands wasn't intended by the state's 1998 Electric

Utility Restructuring Act and shouldn't be allowed to occur, according to

HVCEO.

In making the legislative recommendation, HVCEO seeks to have legislators

prevent the state Department of Public Utility Control (DPUC) from forcing NU

to rapidly sell its excess lands. NU has been planning to sell about 2,500

acres of excess land slowly to ensure that the property is maintained as open

space by new owners. The property is considered to have high aesthetic,

ecological and recreational value.

HVCEO members are asking state legislators to press to have the state acquire

the NU land through state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) open

space grant money.

Also, HVCEO is urging the legislators to work to ensure that the state

annually funds two programs approved in 1998 for open space acquisition. Under

the Recreation and Natural Heritage Trust Program, the state acquires

additions to state parks and forests. The legislature in 1998 also approved a

matching grant program to help municipalities acquire open space land.

The Housatonic Valley planning region has the highest need among all planning

regions in the state for additional publicly-owned open space land, according

to HVCEO.

Tourism

HVCEO members told legislators to oppose any weakening of the Housatonic

Valley Tourism District and the Litchfield Hills Travel Council and also to

fight replacing those agencies with an expanded staff at a state level.

Reassigning tourism promotion duties to the state level would be "detrimental

(because) tourism marketing and services would no longer directly support our

businesses." Hartford will never have the motive to promote smaller-scale

attractions as vigorously as the region does itself. There are no advantages

to the region in a state-imposed dissolution of the tourism region into a

state agency, according to HVCEO. "We want tourism promotion tailored for our

area and managed from within our area while coordinated with state tourism

activities," according to HVCEO's statement.

Regional tourism officials know their regional tourist attractions, especially

small attractions, better than a centralized state tourist staff would ever

know those attractions, according to HVCEO.

Regional tourism districts initially were created to give the tourism industry

more effective marketing than possible through a centralized state tourism

office, according to HVCEO's policy statement.

Also, HVCEO is also urging legislators to seek state assistance to help reopen

Candlewood Playhouse in New Fairfield as a theater. The privately-owned

theater served for many years as a regional tourist attraction. Its closure

has financially damaged the nearby New Fairfield center, according to HVCEO.

Other Issues

Also, HVCEO members asked state legislators to improve commuter rail passenger

service on the Danbury Branch of Metro North and to extend commuter rail

passenger service northward from Danbury to New Milford. Providing efficient

commuter rail service reduces traffic congestion, serves an existing economic

base, attracts new business to the region, and maintains the quality of life,

according to HVCEO.

In the area of state funding for public education, HVCEO is urging legislators

to revise the state education funding formula to make it fairer to

municipalities. The state should provide a greater percentage of the total

cost of local public education, as well include funding for children requiring

special needs education, according to HVCEO.

HVCEO is urging legislators to restore the municipal immunity for injuries

occurring on publicly-owned recreational land. When defective playground

equipment leads to an injury, municipal liability in the matter is clear, but

when someone falls down while walking in a publicly-owned natural area, it is

unfair to hold a municipality liable, according to HVCEO. Unless statutory

immunity is provided for municipalities, any accident could lead to lawsuit,

even if the recreational area meets all applicable safety requirements,

according to the regional planning agency. Municipalities had been immune from

liability for recreation-related accidents on publicly-owned land until 1996.

HVCEO also wants legislation approved to create "regional asset districts."

Under such a plan, HVCEO and the other 14 regional planning agencies in the

state would receive a small portion of state sales tax receipts to be used to

cover the costs for regional projects. Under regional asset district

legislation which was proposed in 1998 but not approved, HVCEO would have

received $2.4 million to cover costs for facilities in the region involving

transportation, arts, sports, intermunicipal libraries, culture, recreation,

science and civics.

HVCEO also calls for legislators to work to increase local authority in the

governmental decision-making process.

In its policy statement, HVCEO members call for the state Freedom of

Information (FOI) Act to be revised to ensure that all aspects of collective

bargaining talks between local governments and public workers' unions be

shielded from public disclosure.

Although the FOI law holds that negotiations relating to collective bargaining

are exempt from public disclosure, the state Freedom of Information Commission

has recently interpreted the term "negotiations" more and more narrowly,

resulting in more information about negotiations becoming public information,

according to HVCEO.