Jan 4, 2008
Redding
Regional council’s priorities in sync with the town’s
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by SUSAN WOLF
pilot@thereddingpilot.com
Redding is joining other members of its regional planning council to promote items of importance this year to the region’s legislators.
Among the priorities of particular importance to Redding is continuance of the real estate conveyance tax increase for towns, making Lyme disease a top state health issue, promoting smart growth in the state, amending the state’s affordable housing law, supporting opposition to an airspace redesign plan, and avoiding cuts to municipal aid.
Among the top three priorities for the council, and a top priority for Redding and municipalities across the state, said First Selectman Natalie Ketcham, is the stabilization of the 2003 increase in the real estate conveyance tax for municipalities from 0.11% to 0.25%. When the increase was enacted, it was supposed to last for only one year, but in 2004, the legislature extended it for one year, and in 2005, for two, and then again for one year to June 30, 2008.
“There has been no negative impact due to this increase on the housing market and it has been an additional source of revenue for municipalities to minimize a further dependence on property taxes,” Ms. Ketcham said.
“It should be stabilized at the current level so towns and cities can budget accordingly from year to year.”
According to Town Clerk Michele Grande, the town collected $268,975 in real estate conveyance fees last fiscal year. The projected revenue from the town’s share of the tax is $350,000 for this fiscal year. Should the state revert back to the town’s getting just 0.11% of the tax, “We would lose approximately half of that income,” Ms. Grande said.
Ms. Ketcham said the leadership in the legislature is expected “to end the discussion [on the increase] once and for all ... I think there is a growing momentum to keep the current tax rate and to move on ...”
Another important issue for council members, and a new issue, said Ms. Ketcham, is the effort to make Lyme disease a priority on the list of public health threats.
Lyme disease
“Great attention and state resources have been directed toward the prevention of West Nile virus, which affects far fewer residents,” Ms. Ketcham said. “We are now advocating that the state health department and DEP (Department of Environmental Protection) work together on a plan to eradicate Lyme disease in the state.”
The council said that public health “is perhaps the most important reason to want to get deer numbers under control ...” and added the dilemma is that the health department regards deer as the province of the DEP and the DEP regards health education as the province of the health department.
Ms. Ketcham said the council wrote the governor several months ago asking that she take a leadership role in this effort, and other regional planning agencies are following suit. “We want the governor and state commissioners to know this is not just a Fairfield County issue, it’s a statewide concern that requires a statewide response,” she added.
Smart growth
The council is also promoting the evolution of local and state planning toward “smart growth.”
Smart growth includes things like balancing housing types and costs and preserving the public water supply.
Ms. Ketcham and a group of state agencies, environmental groups and Ridgefield First Selectman Rudy Marconi have been working on a legislative proposal that would protect the watershed of public water sources. The proposed legislation will be presented to the regional council on Jan. 18. Ms. Ketcham hopes to get the council’s support, as well as that of Aquarion Water Co. and the heads of the state’s big cities.
“The protection of the watershed transcends both parties and geography,” Ms. Ketcham said.
Proposed is an amendment to the state’s Affordable Housing Appeals Act. The act now exempts industrial land as sites for affordable housing. Under the new proposal, the watershed of a public drinking water supply would also be exempted.
The act requires that each town have 10% of its housing stock in affordable housing. When developers include affordable housing units in subdivision proposals in towns not meeting the goal, they may go to court seeking an override of local zoning laws. That would not be an option for a protected watershed should the amendment be adopted.
The amendment would not only help protect water supply sources for cities downstream but would also protect local land use policies, Ms. Ketcham said.
Other changes
Among the council’s proposals on the affordable housing act is an improvement to the statistical formula that defines affordable housing. For instance, the council says the existing formula omits all units of low-cost privately owned housing.
Under the existing formula, Redding has no units of affordable housing to count toward the 10% goal. However, by the council’s calculation, the town would have 4.27% if private affordable units were added.
The town of Redding was able to get the state to count accessory apartments as affordable, a provision not in the original law. It is still trying to get its amendment, which the council supports, that would remove the requirement that an accessory apartment must be deed-restricted for 10 years to count toward a town’s affordable housing goal. The town’s proposal is to have the accessory apartment certified as affordable each year with the town clerk.
FAA proposal
The council is opposed to the Federal Aviation Administration’s plan to redesign airspace in the New York metropolitan area. Many of its members, including Redding and 13 other towns and cities, have joined the Alliance for Sensible Airspace Planning. The alliance is retaining the services of three national firms in a lawsuit against the FAA. The FAA’s plan would reroute commercial jets over Fairfield County, including the town of Redding, and would also enlarge holding patterns.
Besides the alliance and state participation in the opposition to the FAA plan, a new nonprofit group, the Alliance for Sensible Airspace Planning Management Co., has been organized. It may take donations from citizens who would like to support the effort, Ms. Ketcham said.
Ms. Ketcham said the alliance has been encouraged by the decision of U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peter to cap flights at JFK Airport starting March 15. The group is additionally encouraged by the fact that soon an aviation czar will be appointed to coordinate regional airspace issues and all projects and address problems of congestion and delays in New York.
The FAA plan does not address “the significant root causes of flight delays in our area,” she said. According to the FAA’s own data, she added, air traffic control procedures are responsible for only a small fraction of delays. “A far more significant contributor to delays,” said Ms. Ketcham, “is inadequate runway capacity. Any effort to reduce flight delays that doesn’t explore increasing runway capacity will be ineffectual, and the plan currently under consideration would be harmful to our local communities.”
Ms. Ketcham said the FAA violated its own environmental procedures in the plan “and that’s why we are supporting efforts to halt its implementation.” The agency, she added, “should re-examine” its plan “with a focus on following appropriate due process and addressing the legitimate concerns of the affected communities.”
Municipal aid
The last of the council priorities addressed by Ms. Ketcham is a plea to the legislature to avoid cuts to municipal aid. Cutbacks in this aid, said the council, shift the tax burden to local property taxes.
The funding for local grants has diminished each year as a percentage of the state budget, said Ms. Ketcham. “It makes us the number one state in the nation in dependence on the local property tax. There is a recognition among some state leaders that this situation needs to be addressed.”
Ms. Ketcham said a report issued from the Blue Ribbon Commission on Property Tax Reform several years ago said things needed to change. “To date, the report has sat on a shelf, but there is some talk on their Responsible Growth Task Force to revisit the recommendation in the report,” said Ms. Ketcham, a member of this state task force.
© Copyright 2008 by Hersam Acorn Newspapers
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