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New committee will look at Falls Village affordable housing needs

FALLS VILLAGE — The Falls Village Affordable Housing Steering Committee started its work on Tuesday, Feb.2. 

Janell Mullen, who will be facilitating the meetings, briefed the members of the Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) at the regular monthly meeting Thursday, Jan. 28.

Mullen reminded the commissioners that the committee is not a subcommittee of the P&Z. It is an independent entity created by the town in response to state law 830j, which requires all of Connecticut’s 169 municipalities to have an affordable housing plan by July of 2022 and to update it every five years.

The Board of Selectmen appointed 12 members to the committee last month. 

They are: Greg Marlowe (representing the selectmen), Adam Sher (Board of Education), Felicia Jones (Economic Development), Alice Macchi (Planning and Zoning) and Eric Carlson (business).

From the community at large: Emily Bronson, Abigail Horace, Dinny Light, Colter Rule, Kathleen Clark, Julia Olff  and Daly Reville (alternate).

Mullen said the committee’s work will likely take about nine months. 

The meetings will be open to the public (albeit online), and posted on the town website.

Asked if she expected a repeat of the tumultuous public hearing on the River Road affordable housing application in the fall of 2020, Mullen said the steering committee has a deadline and a goal: the creation of an affordable housing plan.

She said as facilitator she will keep the group focused.

There will be at least one meeting devoted to public input, she added.

Patrick L. Sullivan
Senior Reporter
Patrick Sullivan has been a reporter for The Lakeville Journal since 2004, covering everything from town meetings to local characters and the outdoors. He grew up in Northern Virginia but spent summers on Mount Riga in Salisbury, giving him a lifelong connection to the Northwest Corner. A graduate of Denison University, Patrick is also the author of Tangled Lines, the newspapers’ popular fly-fishing column—making The Lakeville Journal, as far as anyone knows, the only newspaper in Connecticut with a regular fly-fishing columnist. He once received a fan letter from England, which he considers sufficient evidence that his work has achieved international acclaim.

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