To the Editor:
Here is a picture of 5,200 square feet of commercial space and 144 units, with parking, in Branford — but what’s big enough for Branford, isn’t big enough to attract the desired developers to Old Lyme, according to Attorney Bill Sweeney, who introduced the latest plans for Halls Road on Wednesday.
Sweeney urged Old Lyme’s Zoning Commission to approve a footprint of 20,000 square feet, per building, directly on Halls Road. That’s twice as long and twice as deep as what’s pictured above. And if Zoning approves the plans, there would be no limit to the footprint of buildings, or parking garages, that could be built in the back.
Their mantra? Lyme Street is the model for the new Halls Road.
But the reality?
Sitting in the Middle School auditorium the other night I heard countless invocations of the spirit of Lyme Street — the blueprint of our new “small town” — the form and massing, as if by magic, proportional to the size of a human figure.
It was as if I had gone to Mars.
We were asked over and over again to believe that a 20,000 square foot building, replicated 5 times at 35 feet in height, directly on Halls Road, was somehow the equivalent of the charming, picketed street with the ice cream shop and Cooley Gallery.
While claiming that it would look “just like Lyme Street,” we were told that the buildings HAD to be that big or developers wouldn’t be attracted to invest; that somehow we had to go along with this insane plan to appease the developers rather than the people who actually live here; the people who have families and businesses — accountants, dentists, dry cleaners, stationers, veterinarians, a fish store–countless neighbors who depend on affordable retail space to give us the services we need. Where will they go when the rents go from $12 a square foot to double or triple that?
Because one thing you know, is that when developers invest, their idea is not to make a charming downtown or to keep rents affordable, it’s to make money.
The 10% affordable housing? It’s a ruse. No one who works for those businesses will be able to afford even the affordable apartments, and the rest will be at full market value.
As Sweeney told us on Wednesday night, they couldn’t possibly lower the rents to make any of the apartments truly affordable because DEVELOPERS wouldn’t be attracted to invest.
But if we can’t attract developers who will keep our small businesses; if we can’t attract developers who will build housing that the young and old can afford; if, as Bill Sweeney reminds us, we can only attract the worst — then why attract them at all?
Robin Breeding
Old Lyme, CT