Norfolk opens Haystack Woods, net-zero affordable housing complex

NORFOLK — Community members gathered for a ribbon-cutting ceremony Monday, June 22, to celebrate the opening of Haystack Woods, Norfolk’s newly constructed affordable housing complex.

Kate Briggs Johnson, president of the Foundation for Norfolk Living, said she believes Haystack Woods is Connecticut’s first net-zero affordable homeownership community equipped with battery storage and electric vehicle chargers. A net-zero development generates as much renewable energy as it consumes over the course of a year.

Haystack Woods features 10 homes, including ranches, cape-style houses, and two-story builds, each with two to three bedrooms.

Two homes have been closed, five more are scheduled to close and three houses remain available. The three remaining homes will be sold for $261,000 and are three-bedroom houses for households below 80% the Average Median Income.

Each home within the complex features high-efficiency insulated construction and a dedicated solar array designed to generate its annual energy needs. The development has also earned LEED and National Green Building Standard certifications.

The community wasn’t built without struggle, Briggs Johnson said, as committee members spent an additional 12 months at PNZ and Wetlands Zoning meetings to transition the private road to a public road. This came with the help of the Norfolk Cemetery Association, which provided the easement to construct the road.

Jordan Seibert, a Haystack Woods homeowner, expressed her gratitude to the crowd.

“Like many people, I reached a point where homeownership felt increasingly out of reach,” she said. “I’m fortunate to be purchasing a home at a young age, giving me the chance to be comfortable, put down roots, and think long-term about my future.”

Prominent guests attended the ribbon-cutting, including Norfolk’s First Selectman Henry Tirrell; Lt. Governor Susan Bysiewicz; Ricky Jordan, manager of Energy Efficiency at Eversource; Margaret Warner, Senior Vice President at Northwest Community Bank; Libby Borden of the Norfolk Land Trust; Maria Horn, Connecticut State Representative; and Seila Mosquera-Bruno, the commissioner of CT Department of Housing.