Waterford— Residents shared their thoughts Tuesday night during a virtual informational meeting on the town's draft affordable housing plan.

Required by the state as part of Public Act 17-170, the plan has to explain how the municipality intends to increase its number of affordable housing developments and update that plan every five years. Municipalities have until June to adopt a plan but not before receiving input from the community. 

Glenn Chalder, the town's hired consultant from Planimetrics, has helped create the state-required plan and presented key points from the plan to the public Tuesday.

As defined by the state, the term "affordable housing" means housing affordable to households earning 80% or less of the area median income and spending no more than 30% of their income on housing. Chalder showed a chart from the plan that states how the 80% of the AMI in Waterford translates to $51,000 or less for a one-person household up to $79,000 for a household of five or more people.

He also showed a chart of how the AMI translates to gross rents ranging from a maximum of $1,285 for one person in a studio to $1,980 for a five-person household in a four-bedroom unit; and sale prices of homes ranging from a maximum of $147,000 for one person to $196,000 for a five-person household.

Chalder said the income numbers change every year based on information provided by the Department of Housing and Urban Development and will likely be recalculated in the coming weeks.

Discussing some of the plan's findings, Chalder said, overall, more than 2,100 households in town are spending more than 30% of their income on housing: 33% who are renters, 28% owners with a mortgage and 22% owners without a mortgage. He added that almost 1 in 5 renter households in town are spending more than 50% of their income on housing.

As it stands, there are 485 state-recognized affordable units in Waterford, which is 5.6% of the town's housing stock with no housing authority units or deed-restricted housing.

"If less than 10% of a municipality's housing stock meets the state definition of affordability then the municipality is subject to the affordable housing appeals procedure," Chalder explained, referring to a procedure set by the state in 1989, often referred to as general statute Section 8-30g, in which courts may override local zoning denials of affordable housing proposals.

Chalder listed multiple strategies from the draft plan that would help increase affordable housing developments, one of which is to establish an affordable housing committee. Chalder said in the past the town had the Housing Partnership, which is now inactive and could be reinvigorated.

Another option would be to reinvigorate the housing authority, which is also inactive and has the ability to obtain state and/or federal funding for housing-related programs and developments. The town could also implement inclusionary zoning regulations to require provisions, such as all proposed developments be deed-restricted or 10% affordable and offer incentives to developers for it.

Chalder said if new residential development occurs without providing affordable units, the town falls further behind in relation to the state's 10% threshold.

Updating the town's multi-family housing regulations to increase the number and variety of multi-family units is another option, Chalder said. He said the town could consider middle housing, a range of multi-family housing types that are compatible in scale with single-family, or enable the reuse of existing buildings.

After presenting the various strategies, Chalder showed the conceptual schedule for the draft plan's adoption, which was later approved by the Planning and Zoning Commission at its regular meeting. Following Tuesday's meeting, Chalder would gather public comments and work to refine the plan with the commission. They have scheduled another public meeting for March 29 to continue hearing from the public. Early April, the planning department will post the newly proposed plan and hold a public hearing on May 10 to meet the June 1 deadline.

Nick Gauthier, a member of the Representative Town Meeting running for the 38th state representative district seat, was the first to speak during discussion. Gauthier said he has read the plan and all its details are valuable but he did not see specific regulations the town should change to meet its goals. He added that the numbers defined by the state as affordable are still not affordable to most people and asked whether the town could have its own definitions of affordabillity.

Chalder said the state defines the maximum affordability and with supply chain issues, it is much harder to create affordable units. However, he said lower affordability with the Housing Authority and assisted/subsidized housing is certainly an option.

Gauthier said if the town were to restart its housing authority, it would be important to include who is on it, what it is tasked with and how it should operate.

Resident Margeret Holmberg commented on whether the consulting company looked up the racial makeup of those in Waterford who are cost-burdened. She also asked whether inclusionary zoning included guidelines needed to have a mixed zoning level rather than isolate affordable developments in one part of the town.

Chalder said it did not, but it did look at census data, which differs from the state and surrounding urban areas. He said interest was in the economics of housing and challenges of affordability that cuts across all racial and ethnic lines, genders, etc. As for the zoning, Planning Director Abby Piersall said it was valuable feedback to consider.

Another resident suggested the town get creative in working with a nonprofits such as Habitat for Humanity or ones that work with housing for veterans.

To watch the full recording of the public informational meeting, it is posted on the Town of Waterford Youtube channel.

j.vazquez@theday.com