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Affordable housing committee schedules May public meeting, flags parking and financing as key concerns
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Summary
The New Canaan Affordable Housing Committee set a late-May public meeting to show site schematics and gather input, while members debated how parking structures should be financed and whether bundling parking with residential costs could affect access to state subsidies and tax credits.
The New Canaan Affordable Housing Committee on April 13 agreed to hold a public meeting in the week of May 18 to present high-level schematics for several candidate sites and gather resident feedback on trade-offs such as building scale, traffic and green space.
A project subcommittee member summarized the work done so far: “We have drawings. We have spent quite a bit of time talking about the pros and cons of each of the development schemes that Amanda Emma has given us, and we've gone so far as to put them into a comparison chart,” the committee member said, describing a chart intended to help the public evaluate competing options.
The nut of the discussion centered on financing. The committee chair outlined four primary funding sources to make a project feasible: “there's basically 4 sources of funding for these projects — the project‑related debt, some subsidy from the state to the Department of Housing, the low income housing tax credit (likely the 4% credit), and then the contribution from the town,” the chair said. Members stressed that how the parking structure is treated in the project could change eligibility or the amount available from some of those sources.
Several members urged caution about bundling parking with the residential scope. One member said that mixing in a parking structure might “create noise in the financing, and potentially lower the amount of external money we can get from various participants,” while another emphasized excavation and below‑grade work as major unknowns that can drive costs for parking decks.
Committee members discussed options for improving costing precision, including engaging a cost consultant to move beyond order‑of‑magnitude estimates provided by Amanda Emma to more detailed line‑item quantities (concrete, steel, finishes) that would be necessary before tendering construction work. The committee noted that some costs—especially excavation—are highly site‑specific and difficult to estimate without boreholes and detailed geotechnical work.
On possible state support, members recommended conversations with state agencies and finance entities such as CHFA and DOH to learn how state programs have financed comparable projects and whether the town's scale will make it eligible for certain subsidies. Committee comments indicated the group expects 4% low‑income housing tax credits to be the realistic option for a project of this size; the 9% credits were described as unlikely for the town’s anticipated project scale.
The committee also discussed outreach: Jane Williams prepared an initial newsletter note and the subcommittee will refine outreach materials to help residents understand the visual scale and trade‑offs of each site rather than presenting detailed cost figures at the public meeting.
The committee will reconvene in May for a subcommittee meeting to finalize the public‑meeting date and venue and to refine materials. The meeting adjourned after a procedural vote.
Votes at a glance: Approve minutes of March 9, 2026 — motion moved and seconded; outcome recorded as approved. Motion to adjourn — moved and seconded; outcome approved.
