As a town planning professor for 35 years and East Lyme resident since 2021, I worry over several threats to our town. One, is big affordable housing projects in rural areas. Go see what’s happening on Bridebrook, cramming 85 units into 10 apartment blocks and clear cutting trees in a rural zone.

We need affordable housing, but in town near services. Tenants could drive less, taxes would be less, and rural places would stay that way. Unfortunately, such projects are permitted under a state law that overrides town zoning. But it also allows a 4-year moratorium on the overrides if we’ve built enough affordable units since 1990, and we have. And if we used the pause to build 250 well-located affordable units, we’d regain local control permanently, while making town better. It’s sad our Zoning Commission hasn’t done this. They either OK sprawl or pay pricey lawyers not to, when there’s a better way.

So, I’m running with Denise Markovitz and Nancy Kalal to unseat incumbents, Anne Thurlow and Dave Schmitt. I’d use decades of town planning experience to protect our town from misguided projects and support good, in-town affordable housing.

Gary Pivot

East Lyme