March 2 P&Z Meeting to Feature 8-30g Affordable, and 6-110 Workforce Housing Proposals

Two pre-applications are tentatively scheduled for the March 2 Planning & Zoning meeting via Zoom. The meeting starts at 5:00pm.

Click here for meeting agenda and materials.

First is a proposal from Joe Pecora to demolish a building and former barbershop at 171 Hamilton Ave and redevelop the property under State Statute 8-30g with six residential units of which two would be “affordable.”

The second is a proposal to redevelop the Honda dealership at the bottom of Mason Street, which encompasses both sides of the road: 290-294 Mason Street are in the CGB and CGIO zones, and 405 Greenwich Ave in the CGBR and CGIO Zones.

This application would be submitted under the Town of Greenwich’s “workforce housing” regs, Section 6-110 for moderate income housing. This is typically housing for town employees including police officers, school teachers and firefighters.

Rendering of proposed development at 581 West Putnam Ave.

Building at 581 West Putnam Ave has since been demolished. File photo

A third application is for 581 West Putnam Ave for a final site plan and special permit, to demolish all buildings and site improvements on the 581
Parcel and construct a new 65,491 square feet, four story, 44-unit residential building where 9 of the units (20%) would be “Moderate Income” as defined by Section 6-110 of the Town’s Regulations and a lower level parking garage with onsite parking for 82 vehicles.

The existing commercial office building located on the 585 Parcel would remain and no work is proposed for the 585 Parcel at this time. The subject action is on properties located at 581 and 585 West Putnam Avenue in the GBO zone.

Another discussion item is the P&Z commission’s “Affordable Housing Trust Fund.” This was an idea that surfaced in a panel hosted by the Greenwich United Way about affordable housing.

Specifically, Greenwich has consistently fallen short of the state goal of 10% of housing being affordable. For years Greenwich has hovered around 5%, and needs about 1200 units units to meet the requirement. New Canaan, for example, uses a fee for building permits to create a trust fund for Affordable housing.

Draft of the language of the document can be viewed here.