CORNWALL — With general agreement that Cornwall is a great place to call home, town residents gathered to hear from a variety of speakers during a housing forum, the first step toward complying with the state-mandated plan to achieve housing goals. The forum convened on Monday, May 24, and was conducted on Zoom, attracting 37 participants.
“Diversified housing options have long been a priority in town,” said First Selectman Gordon Ridgway, who also serves as the chairman of the Affordable Housing Committee.
“We wonder as housing costs go up, who will provide services and enroll children in the schools?” Ridgway asked on behalf of the town. “It’s a statewide issue,” he noted, adding that Connecticut ranks at number 45 in population growth among the 50 states.
Having first come to Cornwall as a weekender in 1979, Selectman Priscilla Pavel said that she later moved to town permanently.
“I’ve seen a lot of growth,” she said, but with only 12 students expected to graduate from Cornwall Consolidated School in June, “we need more young people.”
“The town needs to look at affordable housing as a larger issue,” Selectman Marina Kotchoubey commented, sharing her perspective as a younger resident, who had returned to Cornwall to live where her family had property. That advantage, she said, is not open to her contemporaries who would not qualify for subsidized housing but who would find Cornwall to be an ideal location to raise a family.
Schedule for
housing plan
Planning consultant Janell Mullen of the Northwest Hills Council of Governments is assisting the town in preparation of its plan. She said the housing committee will work through June and July to devise a list of strategies for creating more housing options. The committee will provide those strategies to her office in August and she will draft a plan. In September, the plan will be shared with residents for review, comment and revision. In October and November the plan will be polished and presented to the Board of Selectmen.
Mullen noted that in Litchfield County, 46% of young adults are still living with their parents as their only affordable option.
Cornwall’s population currently stands at about 1,400, but at its current rate of decline due to housing challenges, the population is expected to fall to under 1,000 in coming years, Mullen explained.
The 2020 Town Plan of Conservation and Development calls for the creation of 25 additional affordable housing units, increased rental opportunities and easier access for first-time homebuyers, said Anna Timell, chairman of the Planning and Zoning Commission.
Looking for ways
to make it easier
“There are lots of ways to bring change and improvement,” said Maggie Cooley, president of the Cornwall Housing Corporation, who noted that the town’s Kugeman Village offers 18 units. The town also has 10 units at Bonney Brook for older residents, and also offers rental and mortgage assistance for qualified families.
Challenges faced by younger families who have moved into Cornwall were highlighted by Melanie King, who at first found a unit in Kugeman Village as a single-income earner for whom a rental would be out of reach. Now married, she and her husband are starting a family and have been able to purchase a home in town. She said she knows how hard it is for young people to find a home. King is a teacher and her husband is a landscaper.
Ron Goldstein, representing the National Iron Bank, described a program he is developing to assist first-time home buyers. His bank would establish a renewable lending program using grant funding intended for affordable housing. Such a fund could be channeled to assist with home ownership lending. Details are still in the planning and development stages, he said.
