| As I have written in a previous diary, Connecticut ranks in the top ten among the 50 states when it comes to lack of affordable housing -- the sixth overall least affordable rental housing market in the country and the Stamford/Norwalk area's rank as the first most expensive metropolitan area in the nation according to the Center For Housing Policy Study. In other words, there is an affordable housing crisis in our state.
Yet, despite this crisis, developers continue to build the same cul-de-sac McMansion projects over and over again. |
| Fortunately, we have in Connecticut, a shining of example of how developers should be addressing the affordable housing shortage in the state. The Georgetown Development in Redding, Connecticut is a once abandoned and polluted industrial site that has been cleaned up and turned into a pedestrian-oriented, mixed-use village. At the heart of this development is the conscious decision to include several housing options:
- Artists'-style work-live lofts
- Stand-alone homes
- Townhouses
- loft units above retail and office spaces
- elderly housing
- units set aside for town employees
Providing quality housing for people of all income levels is an integral component in any smart growth strategy. Housing is a critical part of the way communities grow, as it is constitutes a significant share of new construction and development. More importantly, however, is also a key factor in determining households' access to transportation, commuting patterns, access to services and education, and consumption of energy and other natural resources. By using smart growth approaches to create a wider range of housing choices, communities can mitigate the environmental costs of auto-dependent development, use their infrastructure resources more efficiently, ensure a better jobs-housing balance, and generate a strong foundation of support for neighborhood transit stops, commercial centers, and other services.
No single type of housing can serve the varied needs of today's diverse households. Smart growth represents an opportunity for local communities to increase housing choice not only by modifying their land use patterns on newly-developed land, but also by increasing housing supply in existing neighborhoods and on land served by existing infrastructure. Integrating single- and multi-family structures in new housing developments can support a more diverse population and allow more equitable distribution of households of all income levels across the region. The addition of units -- through attached housing, accessory units, or conversion to multi-family dwellings -- to existing neighborhoods creates opportunities for communities to slowly increase density without radically changing the landscape. New housing construction can be an economic stimulus for existing commercial centers that are currently vibrant during the work day, but suffer from a lack of foot traffic and consumers in evenings or weekends. Most importantly, providing a range of housing choices allow all households to find their niche in a smart growth community - whether it is a garden apartment, a rowhouse, or a traditional suburban home - and accommodate growth at the same time.
Click here for resources on affordable housing. |
