Letter: 'No Emergency Need For Inclusionary Zoning In Ridgefield'

To the editor:

RPZC’s self-initiated Zone Change application (#A-22-5), heard on December 27, will mandate that to all property in Town be subject to a new Inclusionary Zoning (IZ) Law. Every property will be subject to mandatory set aside., overseen by an unspecified “not-for-profit.” Non-compliance punished by $400,100.00 “fee per theoretical unit” deposited in an unspecified “Affordable Housing Trust” overseen by we don’t know who.

RPZC says State Law requires mandatory IZ. Not true. Since 1990’s, State Law, C.G.S.8.2.i, requires a PZC only to evaluate and consider voluntary, mandatory IZ, or none at all. The Chairman presented zero evidence, saying only that it “just feels right for Ridgefield” - his “feeling” based on regulations from Darien.

PZC claims that by gaining “more power,” it will avoid the dread 30% “Subsidized-as-of-Right,” C.G.S. 80.30g. False. That law supersedes either way.

23 attended, none were in favor, 5 opposed submitting data demonstrating inadvisability, indeed infeasibility, which RPZC ignored.

Ridgefield has never had IZ; there is no “emergency need.” Existing “incentives” are little used. IZ requires set aside at substantial cost discount (app. 150%-250%). Result: lower quality, reduced size, more density, more verticality, increased price of the non-set-asides. Mandates cause price distortion. That night RPZC amended parking regulations to make it more difficult to build “subsidized” in town center, thus foisting subsidization on the one family zones.

The IZ movement originates from “not-for-profits” operating under the banner of “Democratic Socialism” (e.g., Leon Trotsky, Bernie Sanders), whose aim, among others, is to destroy local zoning, impose central planning, and redistribute private property (e.g., Karl Marx, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez) in the name of “social equity” (e.g., H. George Frederickson, Ibram X. Kendi). The consequences of Democratic Socialism are discussed in “The Road to Serfdom” (F.A. Hayek).

Additional meetings are scheduled for January 2023. Please attend.

John Tartaglia
638 Danbury Rd.