Submitted by Richard Schulze
When people move to a community, they do so because they like its ambience, they like its character. That is usually where they want to live and grow old. If they buy a home, likely the largest investment of their life, they do so on the basis that the community will remain reasonably unchanged in the future. If they want to live in a city or a town center, that’s where they will move. If they want to live in the countryside where there is 2-acre zoning, or want to live in an historic district because they like its looks, that is where they will invest.
It is reasonable for the investor to expect that existing zoning and historic districts will remain unchanged. The local P&Z is there to consider reasonable exceptions, but not to make wholesale changes to the character of the community.
Having the State dictate zoning in all communities that changes their character not only is breaking faith with the residents of the State, but is taking away the rights of citizens for local government. That is one of the reasons why the American Revolution was fought.
From a practical perspective, we here in Greenwich have become aware that the infrastructure of our Town is close to being overtaxed. In the past year storms have flooded out homes, sewers have collapsed or overflown, and the electrical network is having to be rebuilt. All of that will be further exacerbated by how global warming impacts our community. We can not afford a significant increase in our population solely because developers want to line their pockets. We need orderly and locally-planned growth.
Hartford claims that Greenwich has some 5% of its population in low-income or subsidized housing. Yet some 20% of the students in the Greenwich Public Schools avail themselves of the reduced and free lunch program. Something in wrong with how 8-30g is written! Before we are forced to violate our local zoning laws and change the character of the Town of Greenwich and comparable towns in Connecticut, current and new applications for significant violations of our zoning under 8-30g should be stopped in the courts until the issue of the State overriding commitments of communities to their residents is resolved.