Housing emerges as key priority in Sharon planning update

SHARON – Officials say diversifying Sharon’s housing inventory remains a long-term priority, even as litigation, funding challenges and state regulatory hurdles continue to stall several affordable housing projects.

Affordable housing is one of three major priorities identified during Sharon’s update of its state-required Plan of Conservation and Development (POCD), which is due by the end of the year. The discussion came during the third meeting on the plan, following earlier sessions in April and May focused on economic development and conservation.

Janell Mullen, a Sharon native and land use consultant hired by the Planning and Zoning Commission to prepare the update, described the POCD as “a road map for the next 10 years of planning and development” during the commission’s meeting Wednesday, June 24, attended by commissioners and several members of the public.

Mullen said responses to a survey distributed earlier this year showed broad support for not only expanding affordable housing opportunities in town, but also a desire for diversifying Sharon’s housing stock. Residents identified a need for quality housing, senior housing, middle-income housing, village center options, workforce housing, small-scale multifamily housing and housing specifically dedicated to full-time residents.

Much of the discussion throughout the meeting centered on proposed and existing projects that have faced challenges.

P&Z Chair Laurence Rand III said one such project was approved but “remains in limbo.”

The project, known as the Gold Dog housing development, is a controversial condominium development on Hospital Hill Road, which prompted months of contentious public hearings last year. The project calls for 12 duplexes arranged along a new cul-de-sac on a forested hillside below the Sharon Hospital Medical Arts Center.

Since the project’s April 2025 approval, the project has been tied up in litigation brought after widespread neighborhood opposition during the approval process.

Several, however, spoke out in support, arguing its middle-income target price would fill a gap in the market and allow working families to settle in town.

Other ongoing developments and current housing opportunities have faced difficulties recently. The Sharon Housing Authority is an independent agency charged solely with the management of Sharon Ridge, an affordable housing complex opened in 1992, and its sister complex, known as Sharon Ridge Expansion, built in 2013. The group manages a total of 32 subsidized units across both neighborhoods.

Jennifer Baird, secretary of the Authority, said it has found itself in dire financial straits, partially due to what she described as a governing model that has made fundraising and maintenance difficult. At a town meeting on June 29, which also saw the budget passed, residents approved contributing $60,000 in town funds to help the authority cover emergency maintenance and repairs projects and to commission study to aid future grantseeking efforts.

Speaking at the June 29 town meeting, Authority Chair Don Castonguay justified supporting Sharon Ridge and the Expansion: “It’s one of the nicest affordable housing projects in Litchfield County, and we want to keep it that way.”

In planning for future handling of affordable housing initiatives, Baird advocated for a “really integrated and unified approach,” such as a municipal affordable housing commission, similar to other towns in the region like Salisbury, Cornwall and North Canaan.

Back in the town’s commercial center, a project from the Sharon Housing Trust to add four additional units of affordable housing at the former town community center on North Main Street – adjacent to six already occupied affordable apartments – has been stalled by state-level red tape even after having broken ground last year.

“We’re sort of at a stalemate there,” said John Hecht, who sits on the board of the SHT but spoke as a resident at Wednesday’s meeting. He said that a state historic preservation agency had prevented the group from re-siding the three occupied buildings, its first step in renovating the entire complex into a unified affordable housing “complex.”

The community center renovation is also at a standstill as it awaits approval from the state historic preservation agency. “There are four units that can be rented to families and we’re being held back,” Hecht said frustratedly.

Regardless of setbacks, Mullen said that Sharon was one of the most supportive towns she has worked with when it comes to affordable housing.

P&Z member Betsy Hall, who earlier in the meeting acknowledged “astronomical” rents in town, said she knew why: “Sharon is a town that wants to solve its problems.”

The next planning session for the POCD is scheduled for Wednesday, July 22, and will focus on farmland preservation to make up for the last meeting, where time constraints prevented discussion on the topic.