Valley Independent Sentinel

‘Keep Oxford Green’ Pushes Affordable Housing Issue

by Mike Russo | Oct 20, 2009 12:00 pm

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Posted to: Oxford, Election 2009, Oxford Election

Oxford —

More than 150 residents attended a rally Saturday against high-density housing in town.

The rally was organized by “Keep Oxford Green,” a political action committee founded by residents Ed and Tanya Carver.

The group opposes low-income and high-density housing in town, such as condos and apartments.

Saturday’s rally was held at Carver’s business, Oxford Science, Inc., on Christian Street.

Meanwhile, opponents to the rally planted signs across the street, accusing the organizers of spreading lies.

Carver said the new group has bi-partisan support in town.

Carver also works with Augie Palmer, the former Republican first selectman who is now running for a seat on the town’s Planning and Zoning Commission.

The connection has opponents questioning the new group’s motives.

“Their honesty is to be questioned,” First Selectman Mary Ann Drayton-Rogers said. “They are organized under a PAC just to get Augie Palmer elected to the Planning and Zoning Commission.”

However, Palmer and the Keep Oxford Green organizers say they are merely trying to protect Oxford’s rural nature.

Since August, Keep Oxford Green has been spreading that message through a Web site, signs and fliers mailed to residents.

“We are not against affordable housing, but high density and low-income housing,” Ed Carver said.

However, the group’s Web site, in its “about us” section, says:

“Affordable housing is not good for Oxford tax payers.”

The “about us” section concludes with, “The only good that will come will be affordable housing for those constructing and renting the apartments.”

Currently, 1.3 percent of Oxford’s housing stock is considered affordable.

According to state mandates presented publicly by Town Planner Brian Miller in June, the minimum density requirements for affordable housing call for 6 units per acre for single-family dwellings, 10 units per acre for duplex housing and 20 units per acre on multi-family housing in accordance with smart growth principles.

Click here to read the state’s law on affordable housing.

Click here to read the problems one regional planning agency has with the state’s policy on affordable housing.

Click here to read a story from the NY Times about how the state’s affordable housing regulations can be used against towns.

Click here to read about affordable housing in the town’s 2007 Plan of Conservation and Development.

Keep Oxford Green leaders said extrapolating the information provided in June could result in Oxford being overrun with high-density housing, including four-story apartment buildings.

Again, it is an accusation the current administration denies.

The group’s Web site, meanwhile, under a section titled “high density housing,” shows an outdated photo of Derby’s Main Street.

At Saturday’s rally, Augie Palmer, who is stepping down from the Board of Selectmen to run for the Planning and Zoning Commission, said he has been against smart growth principles throughout his political career.

Palmer said apartments would be destructive to Oxford.

“It is going to hurt the schools and residents property investments,” he said.

According to Carver, a 2005 survey in the Oxford Plan of Conservation and Development — the town’s blue print for future growth — shows 84 percent of residents want to have a rural environment while 76 percent want single family homes in Oxford.

“It says this is not what we want, and the hierarchy has forgotten that,” he said.

“The POCD is saying to keep the town rural and control growth, and this administration is not listening to that,” said David Haversat, the Republican nominee for First Selectman. “This should raise a red flag.”

Haversat blamed Democrats for placing “nasty” signs calling Keep Oxford Green “liars” along Christian Street during the event.

Earlier this year, the Planning and Zoning Commission was awarded a $50,000 state grant to study feasible affordable housing areas along the Route 67 corridor and develop regulations.

They dropped the study in August due to political fallout. (See story)

Planning and Zoning Chairman Vinny Vizzo, who is running for re-election, said he is against affordable housing in town, but stressed that the town has to change with the times or will find itself “going broke” in court.

Vizzo’s commission was forced to examine affordable housing rules in town because they are being sued by a developer whose application was rejected.

Putting something on the books regarding affordable housing town would give Oxford more leverage when a developer proposes it — as it stands, the town has no regulations either way.

Click here to see minutes from a June 18 workshop where the Planning and Zoning Commission explained the town’s affordable housing situation.

“Keep Oxford Green is blowing this way out of proportion,” he said. “They are lying to the public, and the commission just wants to see the town protected.”

There have been several projects proposed that would offer affordable housing in Oxford, including one for a manufactured (mobile home) home project near the Waterbury-Oxford Airport.

The town rejected the plan.

It is now before the courts and a decision could come by Oct. 30, town officials said.

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