Barnes Pitches Benefits of New Housing and Development to Stamford Zoning Board

 Angela Carella

STAMFORD – The city’s chief financial and administrative officer appeared before the Zoning Board with a clear-cut mission.

Ben Barnes said he had a presentation, put together in response to a request from the Zoning Board, quantifying “major areas in which real estate development and, in particular, development of multifamily housing, impacts city finances.” 

It’s not surprising that Barnes, Stamford’s director of administration, was asked to explain the link between development and the city’s fiscal condition. The Zoning Board, which rarely rejects projects, has been getting pushback from residents who’ve been reacting to 15 years of intense development. 

Barnes told the board that development, which is producing mostly high-end, high-rent apartments, is good for Stamford.

“I hear many times that apartment dwellers and renters don’t pay taxes, but they do,” Barnes said. “I don’t believe there is any reason to suggest that additional apartment development, or development generally, has put additional burdens on taxpayers who pre-existed or live in existing housing. The data points to the fact that real estate development, and development of multifamily housing, pays its way.”

He put up charts and graphs to explain.

Since 2013, new development has added $2.1 billion to Stamford’s $24.4 billion grand list, which is all taxable property in the city, Barnes said.

The addition of that taxable property created $52.7 million in tax revenue, he said.

During that time, the city collected from developers $102 million in building permit fees, Barnes said.

Since 2018, most of the increase in property tax revenue has come from apartments, he said. Commercial and industrial developments have lagged far behind, Barnes said. 

Under the city’s Below Market Rate program, 1,148 of the units that were built were designated as affordable, he said. The program requires developers of projects with 10 or more units to offer 10 percent of them at lower rents.

Schools not stressed

The effects of development on city services have been minimal, Barnes said. School enrollment rose from 15,951 students in 2013 to 16,134 last year – an increase of only 183 students. 

Enrollment has been dropping statewide, and it may have done so in Stamford “if not for the additional development,” Barnes said. Or it could be that the new builds of mostly luxury apartments are not attracting people with children. Either way, development “is not driving significant growth in school expenditures,” he said.

The per capita tax levy last year was less than it was in 2013, according to Barnes. The levy was about $4,600 per person a decade ago and roughly $4,000 last year, he said.

That likely is because of an influx of federal pandemic relief funding starting in 2020, which offset city taxes, Barnes said. The money runs out this year, so taxes will go up, he said. The number also declined because the city gained population during that decade, so each person paid less. But it is still a good measure of the tax burden over time, Barnes said.

Some Zoning Board members said they were happy to hear what he had to say.

“We have heard concerns from people that the increase in the number of housing units would stress the schools beyond capacity,” board Chair David Stein said. “But it looks like it has barely nudged it.”

Member Rosanne McManus, who once sat on the Board of Education, agreed.

“Most of us knew this but it’s good to see the numbers at hand,” McManus said. When she was on the school board, “we knew when we did the redistricting that the new high-rises didn’t have large numbers of kids in them.” 

Zoning Board member Bill Morris told Barnes “it would be nice if you can get this information out to the general public,” beyond the 60 or so people who were viewing the presentation on Zoom. 

Keep building more

Board member Racquel Smith-Anderson had questions.

“Is growth sustainable?” she asked Barnes.

“I think the absence of growth is unsustainable,” Barnes replied. “If we do not continue to grow with the obvious demand for housing, it will cause housing costs to rise so high that we will force many longstanding community members to leave.”

Young people will not be able to move out of their parents’ homes, couples who have a child will not be able to move from their studio apartments, and households will double up so people can share the cost of rent, he said.

Stamford residents have said that has been happening for years.

Smith-Anderson asked Barnes to return with information about “whether high rents are pushing people out of their communities,” plus the effects of development on traffic and emergency services. Barnes agreed to gather more information.

But the solution, he said, is to build more. 

If growth continues, he said, “we will approach a level where rents will come down or stabilize. It hasn’t happened yet. But it’s based on strong economic theory and hundreds of years of measurement – increasing supply will ultimately lower the price. Continuing to add more housing units is the most productive way to contain housing costs in Stamford and regionally.”

More units, lower rents?

City Rep. Jeff Stella, who represents the West Side, a neighborhood of many working-class families and renters, said he’s not buying it.

“What is the number? Give me a number. Will prices come down after the next 500 new units are built? After the next 1,000 new units are built?” Stella said after the meeting. “They’ve been saying this for years and the housing market has not brought prices down. Nobody builds anything thinking, ‘I will charge less than what is being charged now.’ Rents won’t come down because we’re building more. Rents will come down when something happens in the market – job losses or a recession or some other economic problem.”

City data shows that Stamford built more than 13,000 apartments in the last 13 years. The problem is that they are nearly all high-rent and drawing people from outside Stamford who can afford to pay, said David Adams, a Stamford resident who listened to Barnes’ presentation.

“There’s an endless supply of people who want to move here from New York so they’ll have a shorter commute to work in Manhattan than they have from Queens or Brooklyn,” Adams said.

City administrators who say building more units will bring down rent prices are “conflating two demands,” Adams said.

The demand from outside Stamford is “for high-end units, and the demand in Stamford is for affordable units,” he said. “Their argument that increasing the housing supply for high-income people coming into Stamford will affect the demand for affordable housing within Stamford is completely without logic.”

Sue Halpern, who has lived on the South End for decades and advocates for the neighborhood, said the problem is that “it’s all about luxury housing.”

“People who don’t make a lot of money are getting chased out of town in the South End, on the West Side and East Side, in the Cove. There are more and more evictions because rents are so high,” Halpern said. “So many multi-family homes that provided naturally occurring affordable housing have been knocked down for luxury high-rises.”

‘The real crime here’

It’s gentrification, Halpern said.

“They just keep changing the zoning regulations to help the developers,” she said.

Adams agreed.

“People are moving out. They can’t stay,” he said. “That’s the real crime here.”

Stella said the same.

“People in Stamford can’t compete with people coming in from New York and other places. I mean, how are we helping the people of Stamford?” Stella said. “We’re seeing a breakdown of family, of community, because of these high rents.”

Barnes said the Zoning Board can ease the effects of gentrification “by limiting how new development impacts existing stock.”

Housing demand in Stamford is driven by people “for whom costs are affordable compared to New York or other large cities,” Barnes said. “Supply, on the other hand, has actually been remarkably constrained, even though there has been development.”

The pandemic sent New Yorkers shopping for homes in more spacious places like Stamford, then a steep rise in interest rates kept homeowners in their homes, “depressing the amount of housing stock available for purchase or rent,” Barnes said. Buyers bid against each other on the limited homes for sale, driving up prices.

“This leads me to conclude that we can expect it to take more housing supply – considerably more than now – to begin to impact prices,” Barnes said. “Stamford’s work will be easier or harder depending on the amount of production that New York, Westchester and other Fairfield County towns decide to allow.”

Daniel Drainville

Waterford ― The Planning and Zoning Commission on Tuesday unanimously approved construction of a 122-room hotel on Boston Post Road despite concerns by some commissioners and residents about the project’s effect on the neighborhood.

Project attorney William Sweeney had originally proposed the four-story, extended-stay Woodspring Suites hotel to the commission last November on behalf of New Jersey-based Seven Hills Hospitality Group.

It will be built on four parcels of land ― 16 and 18 Boston Post Road, owned by Silverman Realty Group, and 295 and 313 Willetts Ave., owned by the Londregan Commercial Real Estate Group. Combined, the parcels total 4.5 acres on the New London city line.

As of Wednesday, the four properties remained unsold, although Sweeney had noted last month that the purchases would hinge on zoning approval.

Seven Hills Development Manager Renita Sommers told commissioners that construction would take about a year once the developer obtains a building permit.

The commission imposed a few conditions, including removal of dredged materials from the 313 Willetts Ave. property within the next 90 days, that there be no hotel sign placed at the Willetts Avenue entrance and that truck traffic be limited to Boston Post Road during construction.

Sweeney said the developer would remove dredged material that came from Niantic Bay and was left on the property by a previous owner, prompting complaints of illegal dumping from the town.

Two residents spoke during the public hearing on the hotel.

Carl Cascio said he was concerned that the hotel, along with two other Willetts Avenue apartment complexes under construction ― Waterford Woods and Waterford Central ― would worsen what he called the already serious traffic problems in the area.

“It’s clear that the town and the developers know that there’s a traffic issue during rush hour,” Cascio said.

“I want to make it clear that I like the idea of the hotel, but I want the traffic problem fixed,” he added.

Resident Nicholas Gualtieri, who lives on Willetts Avenue next to the hotel site, said he already has trouble pulling out of his driveway onto the street due to speeding traffic.

Traffic would access the hotel using driveways on Boston Post Road and Willetts Avenue.

“The majority of the parking for the hotel is going to be on the Willetts side,” Gualtieri said. “So it would be unrealistic to expect people to use the Boston Post Road side.”

He said the hotel’s extended stay features, including a kitchenette and pet-friendly policy, would encourage its use as long-term housing by “transients,” and may attract crime.

Sweeney said Woodspring Suites’ primary clientele are business professionals, and the hotel will allow pets because some customers might be victims of disasters such as a fire, and need a place that can accommodate pets.

“Speeding is an issue that people deal with everywhere,” he said. “It’s not an issue for zoning. It’s an issue for the police department.”

Engineer Shaun Kelly, who conducted the traffic study for the project, said traffic delays would be hardly noticeable to drivers. He said during peak morning and afternoon hours, the hotel would generate an estimated 41 to 44 additional cars, and that based on existing traffic patterns, most traffic would funnel onto Boston Post Road.

Katherine Lutge

NORWALK — In the face of climate change impacts and rising sea levels accompanying nearly every rainstorm, Mayor Harry Rilling declared his intention to make Norwalk the greenest city in Connecticut.

 “The threats of climate change cannot be overstated, and it is our responsibility to do everything we can now to help mitigate the risks on behalf of our children, our grandchildren and future generations,” Rilling said during his State of the City address Tuesday night.

“We all know all too well that the daily lives of our residents and businesses, as well as city operations and emergency procedures, are particularly affected by climate change,” Rilling added.

In his address in the Common Council chambers at City Hall, Rilling touted Norwalk’s many accomplishments and improvements made over the decade he has been mayor. Moments after he was elected for his sixth term as mayor, Rilling declared he wanted to make Norwalk the greenest city in the state. In his Tuesday address, he revealed what accomplishing that may entail.

“We are working on the city’s first sustainability and resilience plan to help address climate change,” Rilling said. “I’m also happy to announce that we will be creating the city’s first Office of Sustainability to help guide and manage these efforts.”

Flooding is a prevalent issue in South Norwalk. The city has invested in plans to mitigate flooding, but more will need to be done to keep South Norwalk dry as the sea level continues to rise, experts say.

Under Rilling’s tenure, Norwalk has adopted transit-oriented-development policies and expanded efforts to make the city more walkable.

“As you know, the city has also been committed to increasing workability and connectivity, a crucial component of reducing our overall carbon footprint,” he said.

A department created under Rilling, Norwalk’s Transportation, Mobility, and Parking, has been focused on enhancing pedestrian connectivity within the city. From 2021 to 2022, Norwalk doubled its amount of sidewalks.

“In 2023, we installed over 41,000 linear feet, almost 8 miles, of new sidewalks,” he said.

Norwalk has also expanded the miles of marked bike lanes along city roads and continues to invest in the Norwalk River Valley Trail.

One of the goals behind expanding sidewalks and bike lanes is to get Norwalkers out of their cars to reduce carbon emissions.

Rilling said he plans to lead the city on a greener path by expanding electric-vehicle-charging stations and investing in a fleet of electric vehicles for the city.

“This spring, we will add electric-vehicle chargers at City Hall, the police department, and the public works facility,” he said.

Once the Norwalk Transit District’s comprehensive analysis is complete, Rilling said the city plans to add electric buses to the fleet as well.

“By transitioning to electric and hybrid vehicles, we will reduce air pollution and our reliance on fossil fuels,” he added.

Norwalk recently brought on an arborist, who will oversee the effort to expand the city’s urban tree canopy.

“In 2023, we planted a record 521 trees, and in 2024, I am determined to plant even more to help implement the city’s tree-planting plan developed through our tree management master plan,” Rilling said.

In addition to his sustainability ambitions, Rilling said education is his top priority.

“Children are the future, and our most precious resource,” he said. “I believe that a community that invests in children and education invests in the future.”

Rilling has already made a significant investment in schools, including opening the first new school in 50 years in the city.

“This spring, we plan to break ground on the new Norwalk High School and begin the construction of the South Norwalk school,” he said. “The South Norwalk school was scheduled to open in the fall of 2025 and will be the community’s first neighborhood school in over 40 years.”

Throughout his address, Rilling highlighted the ways Norwalk has changed in the past 10 years. From a reduction in crime to an increase in the grand list by $2 billion, the mayor said he is proud to lead a fiscally responsible and safe city.

“It’s a tremendous privilege to represent the residents, and I feel so blessed to live in a city with such compassionate, hardworking, and community-minded individuals,” Rilling said. “Without all our community members, our city certainly wouldn’t be the authentic, incredible place.”