Falls Village affordable housing moves forward, despite opposition

FALLS VILLAGE — On Oct. 22, the Falls Village Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) voted unanimously to approve the site plan application from the Falls Village Housing Trust to build an affordable housing complex on River Road. 

The approval was contingent on the following conditions: The development is fully bonded to ensure completion; the construction must conform to the site plan and the zoning regulations; the existence of potable water must be confirmed; the Trust must submit a management plan for P&Z approval; hours of construction are limited to Monday through Saturday, 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.; the permissions and approval of other relevant commissions and agencies must be noted on the development’s routing sheet; and the lot line change between Habitat for Humanity and the Trust must be finalized.

The commission also recommended that an area be set aside for overflow parking.

(Prior to the P&Z taking up the application, it was approved by the Inland Wetlands Commission  at its June 15 meeting.)

The P&Z held an online public hearing on the development, spread over three nights: Sept. 23, Oct. 1 and Oct. 14.

On Sept. 23, Jandi Hanna from the Housing Trust noted that the application is slightly more than half the size of the trust’s original proposal in 2019.

The plan is now for 16 units containing 29 bedrooms in five buildings, set farther back from the road than the 2019 version and requiring one phase of construction work instead of two.

There are six one-bedroom apartments, seven two-bedroom apartments and three three-bedroom apartments.

Engineer George Johannason reported that the application meets the requirements for the town’s Incentive Housing Zone.

Emily Jones, of Civil One Engineers and representing the applicant, said a traffic study showed “no negative impact” on traffic on River Road and Lime Rock Station Road.

There were questions about whether or not the wells needed for the housing complex would have a negative effect on the neighbors’ water supplies.

Jones said that the state has the final say on water issues, and if the applicant cannot demonstrate there is no negative impact, then there is no project. 

The Oct. 1 meeting was largely comments and questions. Laser began by reiterating that the hearing was on the site plan application, and that the commission would not discuss the legality of the Incentive Housing Zone. 

“That’s settled,” he said.

 On Oct. 14, the first part of the scheduled two hours was devoted to reading letters supporting and opposing the proposal into the record. A running count had 24 letters in favor of the proposal, offset by one letter, with multiple signatures, in opposition.

After the vote on Oct. 22,  P&Z Chair Fred Laser read letters opposing the development from Daly Reville, Laura Werntz and Colter Rule.

Reville, Werntz and Rule subsequently reiterated their objections to the housing plan at meetings of the Board of Selectmen and Finance. 

Related Articles Around the Web

Latest News

Employment Opportunities

LJMN Media, publisher of The Lakeville Journal (first published in 1897) and The Millerton News (first published in 1932), is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit news organization.

We seek to help readers make more informed decisions through comprehensive news coverage of communities in Northwest Connecticut and Eastern Dutchess County in New York.

Keep ReadingShow less
Selectmen suspend town clerk’s salary during absence

North Canaan Town Hall

Photo by Riley Klein

NORTH CANAAN — “If you’re not coming to work, why would you get paid?”

Selectman Craig Whiting asked his fellow selectmen this pointed question during a special meeting of the Board on March 12 discussing Town Clerk Jean Jacquier, who has been absent from work for more than a month. She was not present at the meeting.

Keep ReadingShow less
Dan Howe’s time machine
Dan Howe at the Kearcher-Monsell Gallery at Housatonic Valley Regional High School.
Natalia Zukerman

“Every picture begins with just a collection of good shapes,” said painter and illustrator Dan Howe, standing amid his paintings and drawings at the Kearcher-Monsell Gallery at Housatonic Valley Regional High School. The exhibit, which opened on Friday, March 7, and runs through April 10, spans decades and influences, from magazine illustration to portrait commissions to imagined worlds pulled from childhood nostalgia. The works — some luminous and grand, others intimate and quiet — show an artist whose technique is steeped in history, but whose sensibility is wholly his own.

Born in Madison, Wisconsin, and trained at the American Academy of Art in Chicago, Howe’s artistic foundation was built on rigorous, old-school principles. “Back then, art school was like boot camp,” he recalled. “You took figure drawing five days a week, three hours a day. They tried to weed people out, but it was good training.” That discipline led him to study under Tom Lovell, a renowned illustrator from the golden age of magazine art. “Lovell always said, ‘No amount of detail can save a picture that’s commonplace in design.’”

Keep ReadingShow less