KENT—The Planning and Zoning Commission has enthusiastically endorsed an application from Kent Housing Development Associates to extend the Village Housing Overlay District off Maple Street Extension, allowing adjacent acreage to be used for construction of affordable housing.
The endorsement came at the Oct. 10 PZC meeting.
The Village Housing Overlay District originally covered the larger of the two lots, containing about 8.5 acres.
In August, then-owner John Casey, developer of Kent Green, asked the PZC for permission to merge that lot with a smaller parcel of 2.5 acres.
The two parcels were purchased to the merger by Kent Housing Development Associates in August for $900,000 and $299,479 prior.
Casey also owns an unused restaurant building at 16 Landmark Lane and the Associates have an option to buy that parcel. The application for a zoning map amendment asked that that parcel be included in the housing incentive overlay district.
James Millstein, who identified himself as the managing member of the Associates and a longtime resident of Kent, said the property was purchased at the suggestion of Kent Affordable Housing, in part because the eight-acre lot was already designated as an incentive housing overlay district.
“Kent Affordable Housing suggested that one problem it has with developing housing is in its ability to assemble financing,” Millstein said. “It’s a very time—years—consuming process and in the one-and-half to two years that it might take, the land might be scooped up. This field seemed to be something we should try to acquire.”
He said the option to buy the unused restaurant building would add another couple of acres and that the extension of the overlay district does nothing more than to allow the Associates to “conceive of a development plan.”
“Even though you approve greater density in the overlay zone, we will have to be back to you. It would just allow us to use all 13 acres so we have a consistent zoning envelope and give us the opportunity to create an integrated neighborhood,” he said.
Zoning Enforcement Officer Tai Kern said that all the requirements for the application had been met and that the PZC could take action that night.
“It sounds logical to me,” said commission Chairman Wesley Wyrick. “It’s in the same location and the same interest applies. I don’t think we were trying to limit it to the previous acreage.”
Millstein, who is the co-chairman of Guggenheim Securities, the investment banking and capital markets business of Guggenheim Partners, said he had never been in development before.
“I’ve never done anything on this scale, but I am blessed with a contractor who knows what he is doing and I have hired an architectural firm that has done similar things in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. They have visited the site and, as a resident of the town, I like their designs. What they have built in the past is very attractive.
“All of that said, all I am doing tonight is asking you to give us the opportunity for an integrated site,” he continued. “We will have to come back to you for a special permit to build whatever it is. There will be opportunities for great input on what we do because we know it will change the character of downtown. We will want to make sure it fits with the fabric of the town.”
He predicted that having 80 to 100 families living in the newly developed neighborhood will increase business traffic.
He also noted that Casey retains 22 acres on the hillside behind town hall, which will be conserved. It is adjacent to property owned by the Kent Land Trust.
“We could create, right downtown, access to conserved land with trails,” he said.
Members of the PZC were uniformly supportive. Anne McAndrew said that having someone local behind the development is “key to keeping the town the way we want it,” while Sarah Chase observed that the development is consistent with the town’s Plan of Conservation and Development.
The vote was unanimous to extend the boundaries of the incentive housing district.
Kent Affordable Housing, a nonprofit, has been aggressive in working to bring affordable housing opportunities to the town over the past two decades. It has already created 37 units and is working on a third site that will add 10 to 15 more units. But the need far exceeds current availability with some 60 applicants on the waiting list.
