Committee on Housing and Community Development
Danbury Housing Partnership
City Hall
155 Deer Hill Avenue
Danbury, Connecticut 06810
Minutes of May 6, 2010
Present: P. Scalzo, M. Morgado, D. Elpern, C. Barrows, S. Zaborowski
The meeting of the Committee on Housing and Community Development of the Danbury Housing Partnership was held in Danbury City Hall, Planning and Zoning Department conference room, 1st floor, on May 6, 2010.
Chairman P. Scalzo called the meeting to order at 2:10pm.
A motion to accept the minutes of January 7, 2010 was made by S. Zaborowski, seconded by M. Morgado, passed unanimously and placed on file.
Mr. Dennis Elpern, Planning Director, provided information to the committee regarding zoning amendments and the redistricting and redevelopment of the downtown area. The concept of rebuilding as opposed to tearing down and starting over, is not in the best interest of local developers. By eliminating the original “foot print” of some of these housing buildings and commercially zoned properties, many of the original number of units would be lost and the financial productivity for redeveloping would be more costly. Mr. Elpern also discussed the advantages of taking blighted areas of the downtown district and creating multiple commercial, retail and housing sites that would encourage and welcome more visitors to City Center. Incentives for redevelopment would include cost reduction of taxes, water and sewer reduced fees, zoning, parking changes, etc.
Staff provided an updated map survey of downtown Danbury obtained from Planning and Zoning. Mr. Scalzo would like to further pursue the map outline and discuss options for local developers on either maintaining existing sites or redeveloping sites that would fit the requirements under Mr. Elpern’s discussion of revitalization.
A motion to adjourn was made by P. Scalzo, seconded by M. Morgado, passed unanimously.
The next scheduled committee meeting will be on Thursday, July 1, 2010 at 2:00pm.