Housing Alternatives and Infill Development

This Com­pre­hen­sive Plan advo­cates for the devel­op­ment of alter­na­tive hous­ing at a range of price points which will sat­is­fy the hous­ing needs of the pop­u­la­tions that are cur­rent­ly under­served by the Town’s exist­ing hous­ing stock, in par­tic­u­lar, seniors, low-income fam­i­lies, and young pro­fes­sion­als. Alter­na­tive hous­ing devel­oped with­in a sin­gle-fam­i­ly res­i­den­tial neigh­bor­hood must be con­sis­tent with the neighborhood’s char­ac­ter, aes­thet­ic and scale. This can be achieved through cre­ative design tech­niques (e.g. ​“gate” hous­es and two-fam­i­ly hous­es that appear as sin­gle fam­i­ly homes). When­ev­er pos­si­ble, alter­na­tive hous­ing should be devel­oped as part of infill devel­op­ment with­in the ham­lets, or in areas sur­round­ing the ham­lets, where res­i­dents can access ameni­ties and ser­vices with­out the use of a pri­vate vehicle.

The TDP dis­cour­aged infill devel­op­ment in the ham­lets to keep them visu­al­ly com­pat­i­ble with the res­i­den­tial char­ac­ter of the Town, and to bal­ance traf­fic gen­er­a­tion, road capac­i­ty, and park­ing demands. This Plan encour­ages sus­tain­able mixed-use devel­op­ment where dai­ly goods, ser­vices, enter­tain­ment and recre­ation­al oppor­tu­ni­ties with reduced depen­dence on pri­vate auto­mo­biles. This would fur­ther bal­ance traf­fic gen­er­a­tion, road capac­i­ty and park­ing demands. Expand­ed mixed-use devel­op­ment with­in the Town’s ham­lets pro­motes a high­er den­si­ty of devel­op­ment where it is appro­pri­ate and most prac­ti­cal. It will also help to address the community’s expressed desire for a greater diver­si­ty of retail, restau­rant, enter­tain­ment and cul­tur­al oppor­tu­ni­ties in the ham­lets. For more on this dis­cus­sion, refer to Chap­ter 3: Resilient Economy.