Affordable housing development breaks ground in Norfolk

NORFOLK — The groundbreaking ceremony for Norfolk’s Haystack Woods net-zero affordable homeownership development was a celebration of tenacity and cooperation that even pouring rain couldn’t dampen.

The rain that fell on Friday, May 9 was the all-day, drenching type, though the Foundation for Norfolk Living and Litchfield County Center for Housing Opportunity were well prepared for inclement conditions.

Foundation Director Kate Briggs Johnson and LCCHO Director Jocelyn Ayer stood under umbrellas at the site, directing visitors to take a turn around the property in their cars before heading down to the Norfolk Hub for the speech portion of the ceremony.

The site sits on a cleared patch of land surrounded by the thick forest on the slopes of Haystack Mountain. The 10 homes that will populate the clearing — currently marked by rectangular plots of concrete or gravel set in tiers on a gentle slope — will be powered by on-site solar that will also charge backup batteries in case of a grid failure. More than half of the 39-acre plot is under permanent protection by the Norfolk Land Trust.

After directing the final vehicles around the loop road that runs through the site, Johnson said she had planned the ceremony for May in hopes of sunnier skies. “May is still dangerous,” said State Rep. Maria Horn, D-64, who joined the group before the caravan left for town.

Once within the dry interior of the Norfolk Hub, a coworking space used by many area nonprofits, speeches commenced.

David Jones, who developed the model for the net-zero affordable home with Johnson in 2015, said that structural resilience against bad weather and other unpredictable disasters is foundational to the Haystack Woods affordable ownership model.

“Haystack’s primary mission is controlling what we call total cost of ownership,” he said, a concept identifying that owning a home often involves unforeseen expenses that can accrue significantly beyond the price tag of the homes themselves, which are set at between $159,000 and $261,000 at the development. He said the buildings will be constructed of “very simple mechanical systems with very durable materials,” which makes for homes built to last.

He noted the first floor of each home will be constructed of concrete — “nothing to burn, nothing to rot.” This design, plus the renewable energy and backup battery system, makes the homes more resistant to damage and blackouts.

“Even a small disaster can be expensive,” he said.

The project is labeled “net-zero” because the homes are intended to generate as much electricity as they consume annually. The solar panels on site, which were included in development expenses, will produce energy to subsidize all the cost for residents and will also charge the backup batteries. The cost and energy efficient approach, combined with the backup battery component and shared electric vehicle charging ports, makes the Haystack Woods development the first of its kind in Connecticut, she said.

Other speakers at the ceremony highlighted a different type of resilience as equally essential to the project’s success. Seila Mosquera-Bruno, the commissioner of the state’s Department of Housing, gave the final speech of the event, citing the unique challenges that affordable housing initiatives in small, rural towns face.

“I know how difficult it is,” she said, citing infrastructure difficulties, scarce funding and resident disagreements as issues that affect housing campaigns disproportionately in the Northwest Corner. She said the success of Haystack Woods is due to “volunteers that just don’t give up” and a region that comes together across town lines to see projects through.

Johnson agreed that Northwest Connecticut “pulls together” as a demonstration of “how to work together and not compete with one another.”

The long-term persistence of the Foundation and its partners, despite numerous obstacles, is what enabled the Haystack Woods project to make it this far, said Norfolk First Selectman Matt Riiska, who described it as “a feather in our cap.”

Representative Horn said that the development sets a precedent that community partnerships in the Northwest Corner are working: “When Norfolk succeeds, other towns see that success and say, ‘Oh, maybe we can make that work.’”