New Canaan Faces Affordable Housing Project Despite Moratorium

New Canaan earned a rare reprieve from mandatory affordable housing construction two years ago. Now a developer is testing whether that pause actually holds.

Garden Homes Fund and The Housing Collective have submitted a preliminary application to build a 14-unit affordable apartment complex at 30 Parade Hill Road. The project lands in uncomfortable legal territory for the town: New Canaan secured a moratorium on affordable housing construction in 2024, but state law may still require the town to accept this particular proposal.

The wrinkle is what the project is and who it would serve. At least 11 of the 14 apartments would be reserved for residents earning below 80% of the Area Median Income. Some units would be set aside for formerly homeless residents. Because the project carries a higher level of affordability and is classified as assisted living, attorneys for the developer argue it falls outside the scope of what the moratorium can block.

Amy Souchans, the lawyer representing the developers, told the town the project’s long-term intent extends beyond just construction. “Once completed, the intent here is to sell 30 Parade Hill below cost to an area housing nonprofit,” she said.

The developers presented two affordability options. One plan designates 11 units as affordable and leaves three at market rate. The other makes every apartment affordable. The project is still in its early stages, and the developers will return with a revised plan before the Planning and Zoning Commission.

David Rich, executive director of The Housing Collective, described the organization’s approach to placing residents in permanent supportive housing. “We carefully match families with developments and communities and provide wraparound services to ensure families not only thrive but become important contributing members of their neighborhood,” Rich said. “Permanent supportive housing for the homeless only works if it works for the families, if it works for the building, it works for the neighborhood and for the larger community.”

The legal backdrop here matters. Connecticut’s Affordable Housing Land Use Appeals Procedure, passed in 1989, was designed to push towns with limited affordable stock to accept new housing. Under the law, communities where affordable units make up less than 10% of total housing generally cannot reject proposals that include affordable components. Towns below that threshold can appeal to the state, but the burden is steep.

New Canaan hasn’t yet hit the 10% threshold, but it has added enough affordable development in recent years to qualify for a four-year moratorium, which began in 2024. That moratorium lets the town decline new affordable housing proposals while it digests recent growth. The Parade Hill Road application may test the limits of that protection, given its classification and affordability depth.

Planning and Zoning Commission Chair Daniel Radman made clear the town isn’t looking to fast-track anything. He told the developers to expect a full public hearing and said they should not count on any expedited process. “Our purview is to protect the town, protect the town’s interest, protect the town’s safety and protect the integrity and feel of the town,” Radman said.

That kind of framing tends to draw scrutiny in towns like New Canaan, where affordable housing debates often carry an undercurrent of who belongs and who doesn’t. The town is one of the wealthiest communities in Connecticut, and its history with affordable housing has followed a familiar pattern: slow movement, legal pressure, and incremental progress only when the state forces the issue.

The Parade Hill project is early. No vote has been taken, no revised plans have been submitted, and no public hearing has been scheduled. But the developers are clearly not walking away from a difficult application. The Housing Collective has experience navigating resistant municipalities, and the project’s classification as assisted living with a strong affordability component appears deliberate.

Whether New Canaan’s moratorium shields the town from this particular application will likely require a more formal legal analysis, and possibly a fight before the commission or the state’s courts. For now, both sides are positioning. The commission wants a full public process. The developers want a path forward. The families who might one day live at 30 Parade Hill Road are waiting.