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February 11, 2022
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The Local News You Need to Know
Affordable Housing & 8-30g
GREENWICH TOWN PARTY 2022 May 28th, 2022 (5/28/2022) is the confirmed date for this year’s Town Party. The Community and Senior Lottery has closed, but Neighbor and Sponsor tickets are still on sale. THE LWV GREENWICH AND AFFILIATE HIGH SCHOOL CLUBS ANNOUNCE 2022 STUDENT ESSAY CONTEST Students are asked to write an essay of 600800 words that answers one of the three prompt questions. Essays are due Sunday, April 3rd 2022. More information can be found here: https://www. lwvgreenwich.org/essay EARLY SPRING PREDICTED Accord i ng to loca l celebr it y, hero, a nd weatherman Beardsley Bart of the CT Beardsley Zoo, we’ll be having an early spring as he did not see his shadow. According to sources at the Beardsley Zoo of Bridgeport, CT, “Every year Beardsley Bart says spring is coming eventually, and he has always been 100 percent correct.” GREENWICH NATIVE TO COMPETE IN FIRST WINTER OLYMPIC GAMES On February 10th, Strauss Mann, a Greenwich native and Brunswick School alum, participated in his first Winter Olympic Games as a goalie for the U.S. men’s hockey team. MAIL THEFT AND WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT Theft of mail is occurring in the Fairfield and Westchester County areas. Residential mailboxes are the target. GPD Patrol Officers and Detectives are working on this problem. GPD asks residents to please keep an eye out on your neighborhood for anyone suspicious meddling around your or your neighbor’s mailboxes. If you witness someone you believe is committing this crime please, if able, take down the license plate, make/model of car, & direction of travel and contact the Greenwich Police Department immediately, 203-622-8004 or if necessary 911. OFFICER RECOGNIZED FOR GOOD WORK IN MAIL THEFT APPREHENSION Officer Nolan Heintz was recognized for his keen observations of criminal activity which led to the identification of several suspects involved in mail and identity theft. FIRE DEPT RESPONDED TO UNDERGROUND FIRE ON AVENUE On February 4th, units from the Greenwich Fire Department responded to an underground fire on Greenwich Avenue. Units gained entry to several Please turn to page 7
Illustrated by Wajih Chaudhry
A Grudge
By Jill S. Woolworth, LMFT
Grudges, like grievances, a r e u g l y, d i s g u s t i n g creatures. Who would want to hold one, let alone nurse one? No one i s ch a nge d by our grudges except us. They eat at us so slowly we sometimes don’t realize that they are consuming us whole. G r ud ge s fe e d on u nforgiveness. They lock us into a prison cell along with the of fending party, who is only truly there in our imagination. We can open the cell door from the inside, but only when we are willing to let the “guilty par ty ” out f irst. This doesn’t mean minimizing the offense or excusing it—only letting go of feeding it. The key is in our hands; it’s our decision, in our own time. Wanting to get out of that jail and to let our grudge go can take a long time— sometimes years. The
alternative is that the “guilty party” continues to expand and fill the cell of our mind. When we let our grudge go, we find that we have more productive ways to use that brain space. Charlie’s hatred of his verbally abusive father was “eat- ing him up.” His therapist asked him if he could recall a single happy scene with him. He remembered the time his dad brought him a puppy. The counselor asked him to fully describe the scene and bring it to mind every time he thought of his dad. At first Charlie was resistant, but over time, this practice changed the way he perceived him. His grudge disappeared. Excerpted from Greenwich resident, Jill Woolworth's, b o o k , T h e Wa t e r w h e e l , available at Diane’s Books, Dogwood Bookstore, Amazon, and barnesandnoble.com. Jill is a therapist at the Greenwich Center for Hope & Renewal.
State Rep. Kimberly Fiorello, State Senator Ryan Fazio speaking, (behind Sen. Fazio are Anthony L. Johnson - CEO and Executive Director of Greenwich Communities, Sam Romeo Chairman of Greenwich Communities), First Selectman Fred Camillo and State Rep. Stephen Meskers and at a press conference at Armstrong Court.
By Rich Monetti
counted by the state as “affordable.” Camillo said there is good news in that On Tuesday, February 8, Greenwich First there’s a broad consensus across the state. Selectman Fred Camillo (R), State Senator “Every town that I’ve been to, all the mayors Ryan Fazio (R) Representatives Kimberly Fiorello (R) and Steve Meskers (D) held a press conference at Armstrong Court to discuss affordable housing issues. Joined by Greenwich Communities Director Anthony Johnson and Board Chair Sam Romeo, they outlined the potential damage 8-30g posses to Greenwich and legislation they want to introduce. “ We w a nte d to br i ng toget her lo c a l community leaders, and our state delegation to show we’re united in order to advance the interest of local control of zoning, reforming 8-30g and building affordable housing in a sustainable way,” said the Senator. The 1989 Affordable Housing law is of special concern. “The 8-30g law imposes and all the first selectmen and women that an undue burden on our town and allows I’ve spoken to all agree,” Camillo revealed. developers to basica l ly ig nore a nd r u n “It doesn’t matter if they are Democrat or roughshod over a lot of local and zoning rules,” Republican. It’s just a matter of convincing the legislature that this needs to be reformed.” said Fazio. Fazio also said they would introduce other The opening for developers exists because legislative measures to promote affordable Greenwich, according to the state calculations, housing that is “consistent with the style and has not satisfied the mandate that dictates that architecture of the town.” He said the gaol was 10% of housing must be affordable. Not only are to “incentivize the right kind of building rather penalties imposed on towns, developers can than the wrong type of building and maintain disregard zoning rules and build outside the local zoning control.” scale, style and architecture of the town. The delegation members also said there is Nonetheless, the numbers have First bipartisan support for the legislative update. Selectman Camillo taking serious issue. “We The necessary changes are well within the have 5.3% of that 10% mandate,” said Camillo. political norm. “This isn’t a radical position,” According to the state’s current definition of said Representative Fiorello. “8-30g hasn’t affordable housing Greenwich would need worked. So it’s perfectly reasonable to tweak to add an additional 1,140 units. “We are the bill.” convinced we have well in excess of 10%. It’s Based on all the letters and feedback, the just not being counted, and as long as we don’t voters are behind the impetus, according to the have 10% in the eyes of the state of Connecticut, representative. “This is a community. There’s we’re going to have this over our head.” a sense of duty that we want to preserve The delegation plans to offering legislation for our state and for all our towns, and a this week that would redef ine the term real acknowledgement that affordability is a “affordable housing” for the state. They said broader picture also,” Fiorello said. “It’s not just local country clubs, Greenwich Hospital and affordability of housing itself but affordability of private schools all provide housing units at life in Connecticut.” below-market rates, but none of those units are For R e p r e s e nt at i ve Steve Me ske r s ,
“What right is it for the state to go in and tell a town, one size fits all,” Camillo asserted.
affordability means an inclusive town were decent over affordable housing is deserved. Conversely, he emphasized that the current law creates “an incentive to builders” that doesn’t necessarily serve the community. “It’s an incentive to build higher density housing, which may not be what we want,” said Meskers. “It’s a problem of overdevelopment versus correct development.” Sam Romeo, said of the recent 8-30g proposals the units designated as “affordable” are single bedroom units, which do not offer a solution for working families. “ I believe many of these developers are using this program as a way to circumvent local zoning and overdevelop our community. After 30 years the deed restrictions go away, and these units become market rate ,which puts us right back where we started.” Representative Harry Arora said previously in a Greenwich Sentinel column; the best thing “is for Greenwich to apply for a fouryear moratorium available under the statute. A moratorium can be obtained if the town increases the affordable housing stock by 2% since the last census. That would require increasing our affordable housing stock count by 400 units. We can do that in two possible ways. First, we can work with the Greenwich housing authority and help them to buy and rent additional units. Second, we can provide limited assistance to existing affordable units so that they are counted under the statute.” The time to act is now, according to Camillo. The Selectmen stated that Greenwich has received more 8-30g applications in the past year than in the previous 29. Obviously a lot a stake, the changes the lawmakers are spearheading was put simply for those in Hartford. “What right is it for the state to go in and tell a town, one size fits all,” Camillo asserted. So in the end, Camillo summed what’s probably on the agenda of most people in Greenwich and what they seek from the civic action. “I want Greenwich to be the little city it is,” he concluded.
COVID Cases Drop, Reason for Optimism The following is a summary of T he s e newly r ep or te d up date s in this report are preliminary. Of the COVID, 50.7% are considered fully newly reported data on cases and include data that occurred over the 552 patients currently hospitalized vaccinated; 49.3% are not considered tests in Connecticut as of Wednesday. last several days to a week. All data w i t h l a b o r a t o r y - c o n f i r m e d fully vaccinated.
For a series of interactive graphs and maps that provide additional data, including metrics related to age, gender, and race/ ethnicity, as well as data broken down by every town and city in Connecticut, visit ct.gov/coronavirus and click the link that is labeled, “Data Tracker.”