Affordable housing plan at Linxweiler property to be withdrawn

Homes with Hope (previously known as the Interfaith Housing Association) has written a letter to First Selectman Gordon Joseloff asking for him to withdraw controversial applications that would have paved the way for 12 units of affordable supportive housing at the Linxweiler property at 655 Post Road E.

"We realize that, because our application has been caught up in what appears to be politically sensitive issues that are not of our making, Homes with Hope runs the risk at this time of jeopardizing the goodwill of an enormously generous community that we are proud to call home," said chairman of the Homes with Hope board of directors, John Walsh, and Jeffrey Wieser, president-elect of the nonprofit organization, in the co-written letter.

Since the Planning and Zoning Commission opened up discussion, the proposed text amendment and a potential 75-year lease that Homes with Home sought for the town-owned property has been mired with opposition by neighbors. The land, which Homes with Hope has operated since 1985, had served as a sober house for men recovering from drug and alcohol addiction and more recently, a house for a needy family.

The house, along with the 1.3 acres of land it rests on, was donated to the town in 1981 by life-long Westport resident Joanna Linxweiler in her will. She wished that the land would be kept as a green space --but left no legal restrictions on the land -- amidst the heavily developed Post Road.

"We suppose the neighbors will see this as a victory and we regret this," Walsh and Weiser wrote in their letter. "There are ... no winners in this process. There are only losers and those are the 12 individuals and families that would have gained a home on the Linxweiler property through this project."

-Staff reports