STAMFORD, CT - City and state officials met in the South End yesterday to celebrate the groundbreaking of what they said is Connecticut's first "green" affordable housing development. The housing is part of the Metro Green project, which is to include an office tower and more than 200 residential units. Yesterday's ceremony, at the building site at Atlantic and Henry streets, occurred a day after the Zoning Board approved plans allowing Antares to begin construction nearby on the first phase of its more than 80-acre project in the neighborhood. The Board of Representatives on Monday also approved a special tax district for that development.
"In a 24-hour period of time, we have effectively changed the future of Stamford on such a grand scale," Mayor Dannel Malloy said of the Antares development in his speech at the Metro Green groundbreaking. The first Metro Green building will be 50 one-, two- and three-bedroom units reserved for families making 30 percent to 50 percent of the area's median income, or annual incomes ranging from about $25,000 to $70,000. That translates into rents ranging from $300 to $1,200 a month. The 50 units are nearly double the developer's required contribution to affordable housing under the city's zoning regulations.
The project received funding from the city, the Connecticut Housing Finance Authority and other government sources to finance the added units. About $1.6 million came from a contribution to the city from developers of the River Oaks housing development off High Ridge Road as payment in lieu of its own affordable housing contribution.
The project is in a neighborhood development pilot program with the United States Green Building Council and aims for the council's gold standard in its Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED, program.
"As we look nationally toward solving our climate change problems, our national growth problems . . . the answer is clear - it has to be mixed income, mixed use, green and next to transit," said Jonathan Rose of the Jonathan Rose Cos., the building's developer.
Anthony Malkin, president of W&M Properties, a partner in the project and the developer of its office component, said it was imperative that developers be environmentally conscious. "If we are not, we will fail as a species, let alone a community, let alone an economy," he said. Green features will include a collection system for rainwater used for irrigation and washing machines, features that should reduce the need for artificial heating and air conditioning, and the use of Energy Star rated appliances.
State Sen. Andrew McDonald, D-Stamford, and other officials praised the project's public-private partnership. "This is very valuable land, and the developer could have come in here and said we want to do everything we can to line our own pockets," McDonald said. That they did not do that, should serve as a model for future projects, he said, calling this one "the envy of the rest of the state."
Source: StamfordAdvocate.com