The town completed the first part of Ballard Green, Ridgefield’s first senior housing effort, in October 1979.
“Patriot Gardens,” a proposal for 50 units of town-backed state-financed affordable housing for senior citizens, has tentative support from the Board of Selectmen.
The selectmen like the concept if it is limited to senior citizens, but they want more details, in writing, before agreeing to anything.
The Affordable Housing Committee is trying to move swiftly on the plan because it believes there is a sizable amount of state money becoming available for the purpose, but delay will reduce the town’s chances of getting some of it.
At their Oct. 3 meeting some selectmen were wary of the Affordable Housing Committee’s plan because it showed town land on Prospect Ridge divided into two tracts — Parcel A and Parcel B — and only Parcel A was definitively limited to seniors.
“What we’re recommending with Parcel B is begin a process of setting it aside for housing, and see what our needs are,” Affordable Housing Committee Chairman Dave Goldenberg said.
Patriot Gardens for seniors is envisioned as having 30 “cottage-style” units with garages, and also a two-story 20-unit apartment building with “group facilities,” he said.
“You’re just slamming an awful lot of construction in a passive area,” Selectwoman Di Masters said. “Traffic on this road …”
“It’s senior housing,” said First Selectman Rudy Marconi. “Di, it doesn’t generate traffic.”
The plan involves moving the dog park and some of the parking spaces in the area a short distance, and lifting a “recreation only” restriction on part of the site by swapping the limitation over to land near the Rec Center on Danbury Road.
The Affordable Housing Committee had first looked at putting housing near the Rec Center and Founders Hall, but the Parks and Recreation Commission didn’t like that idea.
Mr. Goldenberg made a case for need.
“Ballard Green has a waiting list of 30, calculated at six months to a year,” he said.
The maximum incomes allowed at Ballard Green are $49,700 a year for singles and $56,800 for couples.
A survey of Ridgefield connections among residents of Housing Authority units got 36 responses from Ballard Green and 19 from Prospect Ridge congregate housing.
Among the 19 congregate residents, 15 either lived or worked in Ridgefield previously, or have family in town.
Among the 36 from Ballard Green, 32 had Ridgefield connections, he said.
“The root question for us: Do we recognize that growing segment of our population and plan for it?” Mr. Marconi said.
Ms. Masters and Selectman Andy Bodner wanted to be sure the town wasn’t committing to something that would serve a population other than seniors.
“I’d want to see something in writing,” Mr. Bodner said. “It ought to be very clear what we’re talking about.”
CMcQuilken
October 13, 2012
1. The title of the article says “senior housing”, but clearly the proposal is also to put in regular affordable housing for school-aged families. Helping Ridgefield Seniors is one thing (I’m all for it), but I don’t think we don’t need to build anymore affordable housing for families. Especially since we are applying for a moratorium to curtail developers from doing it – yet at the same time this proposal is for our municipality to build more affordable housing? This makes no sense to me.
2. I see a mention in the article of a survey which shows the majority of residents at our current affordable housing developments were originally from (or associated with) Ridgefield. But….. at a meeting earlier this year, a consultant who works on these projects across CT explained that the majority (I think he mentioned 70%) of people placed into these types of projects would not be from Ridgefield. That’s just the way it works out.
Why the disconnect? Why does the expert suggest 70% won’t be from Ridgefield, yet our locally produced survey shows much higher numbers? I think we need to understand these numbers better. I’m all for senior housing, but I want it to be housing for Ridgefield seniors. We can’t afford to house people from other towns.
Why? Because Ridgefielders Seniors have been paying taxes here all these years and this is a way for them to get something back. Also, the rest of us will be donating land and services to these projects. I think it’s a stretch to ask our taxpayers to donate to people who are from other towns.
3. The consultant also mentioned that in the majority of these types of projects in CT, a town is paid for the land. If this is the case, why is Ridgefield donating 10 prime acres near he center of town. We could really use the money.
IMHO.
RPOZ28
October 14, 2012
Boondoggle and inside trading is the answer. Explain to me why the residents are not storming 400 Main ST for answers. What is the bottom line on sewer capacity and who is going to pay for it. As i write this our system is over capacity and the elected officials of this town do not care. Can someone answer the question of why this is and why is it not being addressed and a moratorium in PLACE???
CMcQuilken
October 15, 2012
On affordable housing, this entire thing makes little sense to me. Earlier this year, Ridgefield was looking to auction off about two dozen properties because the owners, Ridgefield residents, were failing to pay property taxes.
At the same time, the town itself is driving up property taxes by building these affordable housing projects – like the one proposed in the article – which in many cases are then occupied by non-Ridgefield residents.
Let me state that again, auction notices are being sent to Ridgeifled residents while we are proving housing for non-Ridgeifled residents. I think we are going about this all wrong. Let’s take care of our own residents first. We should not be evicting our own residents while building housing for non-residents. Just no!
RPOZ28
October 15, 2012
CM how about asking Rudys Good buddy David Goldenburg why he is pushing this thing to the MAX. We as tax payers should have a coalition to stop this garbage. Someone should press our elected officials on this issue and get some answers. Why is their no push back on this by the residents and why is it not being presented to Rudy and David that are mastermining this atrocity. Can someone answer this and get some push back on this stuff. It is out of control in this town with no fix in SITE. Are you listening RUDY. I would like some answers!!!