Regional Money, Depot Square and Dense Affordable Housing

With public opinion obviously skewed, I feel the need to clarify some common misconceptions.  Firstly, let's view the issue of blighted housing.  I have witnessed many citizens professing their disdain for the inhabitants of the housing that is being demolished in the West End.  "Tear down the section 8 housing and let them relocate to another town!", some have said.  Let me break you the news and say that not only is such action immoral but is in fact illegal.  A failure to provide similar affordable, safe and sanitary housing while diminishing the housing stock in this category would result in numerous lawsuits.  However, Goman and York declared that Bristol's affordable housing stock is at about 14% vacant so there should be no pending issues in that regard. (at least, for now..)

Now let's take a look at the rest of what Mr. Goman had to say at the city meeting.  Their review of Renaissance Downtowns'  determined that the apartments they want to build are much smaller and the rental rates much more expensive than the rest in the surrounding area.  It is therefore highly unlikely that the units will fill up with people paying their rent on their own dime.  The reality is that the state would be more than happy to fill those apartments up with people within the planning region to increase ridership for public transit.  This fact has been highlighted (literally) in the Central Connecticut Regional Planning Agency's Final Report of the Transportation Planning Certification Review.  Naturally, a developer that specializes in smartgrowth must know this.  You see, the enactment of President Obama's Executive Order 13575, establishes the White House Rural Council to incorporate funding from HUD, the EPA and the DOT together to fund projects in communities exactly like the one that Renaissance is planning in Bristol.

With much discussion of creating a vibrant downtown there has been much talk of changing both the density and the demographics of the downtown area.  Even the independent anlysis from Goman and York which declared the Renaissance Downtowns plan as likely to result in bankruptcy there was support of the underlying ideology.  The notion that we can, as a city, plan an economy in our downtown if we can just create the proper conditions is central to the concepts of smartgrowth or new urbanism,  which is both Renaissance and Goman & York's specialty market.

View Politifact webpage by clicking here

Click here to view the map of CT on  COGCNV's webpage 

  Using such development concepts is part of an initiative brought by both the State of Connecticut and the federal government.  Among other related bills, the state adopted both and P.A. 09-230, "A Bill Concerning Smartgrowth" and 10-168, "An Act Concerning Regional Economic Development" .  Both pieces of legislation bring the concepts together and share the same goal, with the former concerning land use and the latter concerning economic development strategy and oversight.
 Under Public Act 10-168 , regional economic development funding decisions lie in the hands of Connecticut's Office of Policy and Management (OPM) and the Department of Economic and Community Development in coordination with the goals of private corporations and big government by the authority of the Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Department of Commerce. (currently,  Jay Williams).   In addition,  House Bill 6629 (currently tabled for the senate calendar) places the planning and distribution of funding of such projects under the state's eight new districts of regional Councils of Governments.  The laws have brought the development concepts to policy in the form of a carrot on a stick.  Specifically, the state's general statute 16a-35 regarding "Priority Funding" ties both laws together to the State Plan of Conservation and Development (POCD) which indicates the five growth principle requirements for priority funding.  These requirements include the expansion of affordable housing and other development be concentrated along transit corridors.

The State POCD plan has been met with some resistance on the local levels as being too top-down and the state therefore has patched over some of that opposition with the addition of something called "cross-acceptance".  The idea is that municipalities are allowed to make their own plans of land use and economic development  and and therefore the policies are merely suggestions to which compliance is not mandatory.  However, municipalities were allowed to let their POCD expire in order for the state to create theirs first, thereby allowing municipalities to draft their plans in compliance with them. Municipalities were allowed to review and request changes to the state plan but not all requests from municipalities  are granted.  In the end, the result is that "cross-acceptance" allows bureaucrats in Washington and the state capitol to claim that the plans for land use and economic development are bottom-up, however, municipalities that do not conform their planning to the guidelines of a central plan are often ineligible for state or federal subsidies for economic development.  This is particularly so in Bristol because the OPM's  priority funding location guide map designates the downtown as a regional center.

Although I admit that the policies have their merits, I would say that these pitfalls of big government central planning have been the focal point of the failure of the development of the former mall site.  Not only have investors found that this cookie-cutter strategy is a financial loser for Bristol, but the idea of filling the parcel with dense housing has been met with disdain by Bristol residents.  The only "solution" that has been suggested by the advocates of such policies is to greatly increase the population density and expand affordable housing options in the West End.   This is the bitter pill that those hellbent on getting our state and federal tax dollars wish Bristol residents to swallow. An expansion of low-income urbanized residency in the downtown will undoubtedly slide Bristol into a future of rising crime rates to which it would be unlikely to recover from.

To view POCD booklet 3 click here

. You can view Bristol's Development Strategy portion of the Plan of Conservation and Development by clicking here.