$68,000.
That is the amount of annual income an individual or couple would need to qualify for an affordable housing unit under incentive housing regulations — dispelling any myth that affordable translates to low-income.
“Affordable does not mean low-income, it does not mean public housing,” said Frank Fish, a principal of BFJ Planning, the Manhattan-based real estate planning firm that is helping to create incentive housing zones in town.
The zones help to encourage affordable housing, something Oxford lacks.
Fish made a presentation to the Planning and Zoning Commission during a special meeting at Town Hall Monday night.
Affordable, under the state law, means that the unit is affordable to an individual or couple earning 80 percent of the town’s median income, Fish said. In Oxford, First Selectman Mary Ann Drayton-Rogers said the median income is roughly $85,000.
Such a family could not be considered poor, Fish said. Rather, they would probably be the local police, or firefighters, or perhaps schoolteachers, looking for a reasonable price on a three-bedroom home.
In other words, “workforce” housing.
Affordable also means the units must always be affordable. They can never be allowed to sell at a market rate and make a hefty profit for their owners. They can never be taxed at the same rate as market rate homes either.
There are incentives from the state to the town for establishing incentive housing regulations. The state would pay the town these incentives, which, for example, could be $2,000 for a single-family home, but Fish said the larger advantage is that the town could have some control over where higher-density housing is developed, and how it should be designed to look.
At the same time, the town would become more able to defend itself against so-called forced affordable housing, which happens because there is a state law that allows housing developers to overturn unfavorable zoning decisions based on the state’s mandate that 10 percent of a town’s housing be affordable.
Dealing with the law is a necessity. If the town does not plan out an area and a design code for affordable housing, developers could force it upon the town wherever and whenever, Fish said.
Click here to read about affordable housing-related lawsuits already filed against Oxford.
Fish outlined a course of action that will include public workshops, site tours, site selection and plan development an an incentive housing zone, culminating in a proposed plan to the state Office of Policy and Management in mid-June.
In the zone, 10 percent of a housing development’s units would be permanently designated as affordable. It could be six units per acre of single family in density, 20 units per acre of multi-family, or 10 units per acre of townhouses.
That’s a big jump for a rural town where some houses sit on two-acre lots, but that is the way the state law was written, Fish said. The overlay, which would be written into the town’s zoning laws, would show parts of town where affordable housing should be encouraged.
In the past, parts of the Route 67 corridor has been named as a place to encourage affordable housing. It is bound to attract heated resistance.
“The problem is, all the residents in that area will say, why in my back yard?,” said Alan Goldstone, a member of the commission.
Fish acknowledged that is a common dilemma, but one that must be addressed. It is also true that density housing requires sewer and water hookups.
“We do have some areas that are on sewer and water, and you will get a sewer and water map,” said Commissioner Pat Cocchiarella.
The commissioners said they expect strong turnouts for the public workshops that will be scheduled in the spring.
Click here to read about incentive housing regulations in place in Old Saybrook.
