A coalition of affordable housing advocates filed suit in New Haven Tuesday against the town of Woodbridge over zoning regulations that prevent multi-family housing in the vast majority of the town.
The fair housing advocacy organization Open Communities Trust, the Stamford-based affordable housing developer Garden Homes Fund, an affiliate LLC of those organizations, and two Woodbridge residents are filing the lawsuit against the town.
The plaintiffs are charging that the town’s restrictions against homes with more than two units violate the Connecticut Zoning Enabling Act, the Connecticut Fair Housing Act, and the state constitution.
Woodbridge currently prevents multifamily housing with three or more units in 98.4 percent of the town, according to the Open Communities Alliance (which is affiliated with the Open Communities Trust.)
Woodbridge is “a town that for generations has zoned to exclude, time after time, year after year,” said Erin Boggs, the alliance’s executive director.
At a press conference outside the state courthouse at 121 Elm St. on Tuesday morning, representatives of the organizations said their lawsuit could provide a model for advocates seeking to racially and socio-economically integrate towns across Connecticut and the country.
The lawsuit escalates an ongoing fight that Open Communities Trust and Garden Homes Fund have been waging for multi-family development in Woodbridge, a suburb adjacent to New Haven. Housing advocates have called for multi-family zoning in Woodbridge as a step toward racially integrating the overwhelmingly white town, and toward alleviating the severe housing shortage in the state. Opponents, meanwhile, claimed that the town’s private water and sewage infrastructure would not be able to support more development at a significant scale.
“Instead of digging sewers and public waterlines, Woodbridge has dug a zoning moat around itself and pulled up the drawbridge against multifamily housing,” said Constance Royster, a board member of Open Communities Alliance. Meanwhile, she said, “the state’s housing crisis and continued segregation grow more serious every day.”
One plaintiff, 2 Orchard Road LLC, a limited liability corporation linked to Garden Homes Fund and Open Communities Trust, had purchased a Woodbridge lot at 2 Orchard Road to build a mixed-income, multi-unit development that is currently not permitted under the zoning code.
Thom Silverstein of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law said the nonprofit developers’ role in the lawsuit could have national ramifications. Profit-driven developers do not typically have resources to try building affordable housing in areas with restrictive zoning laws, Silverstein said, meaning that “exclusionary zoning” laws that limit affordable housing development often go unchallenged. This lawsuit could pave the way for nonprofit, mission-driven developers and organizations to reform zoning codes, he said.
The town has not yet responded to the lawsuit, Boggs said. The Woodbridge Town Clerk’s office said the town would decline to comment for this story. The First Selectman’s office did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication.
The housing organizations, along with the pro bono attorneys and Yale Law School students who are representing them, previously appealed to town officials to expand affordable housing options. They sought to amend the town’s zoning ordinance to allow multi-family housing throughout the town and to require that a portion of new housing units be reserved for low-income tenants. They also sought to name creating more multi-family affordable housing as a specific goal within Woodbridge’s Plan of Conservation and Development.
Their efforts launched a series of heated public hearings. Some town residents blasted the housing organizations and Yale attorneys for trying to change the “character” of their town.
Don’t be “bullied by these elitist individuals and fall into this bigoted trap,” said one such resident at a hearing, Daniel Cowan of Wedgewood Drive, who criticized the“group of elitists from a nearby university” for looking to meddle in Woodbridge’s business. Another, Raymond Bershtein, warned that the attorneys and students are looking to“blow up our zoning regulations with allegations of racism and all sorts of nasty things in a town that is pretty progressive.”
The Town Planning and Zoning Commission ultimately voted to adopt more moderate zoning changes, allowing accessory dwelling units and permitting multi-family housing developments only in parts of town with public water infrastructure and only if they secure special exceptions from the commission.
At Tuesday’s press conference, Boggs criticized this zoning change as insufficient. “Instead of engaging in a serious effort to equitably rezone, the town amended our proposal in a way that makes a mockery of our state’s zoning requirements and civil rights obligations,” she said.
Bonita Grubbs, the director of the homeless services organization Christian Community Action, spoke to a dire need for affordable housing in New Haven and surrounding towns. “CCA struggles to find housing for clients, for families,” Grubbs said. “Even when they do find housing, they are often forced to accept degrading conditions.”
One New Haven resident who identified herself as Melissa arrived at Tuesday’s announcement to learn more about the lawsuit. She argued afterwards that “New Haven can be doing a lot more,” that many residents of the city can no longer afford to live here. While affordable housing availability in Woodbridge might affect New Haven, Melissa said, “if the residents are in New Haven, why would they want to go somewhere else?“
Silverstein expressed hope that lawsuits like the one filed Monday could spur affordable housing development not only racially homogeneous towns, but racially homogeneous neighborhoods within a particular municipality.