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To the Editor:

We are the Republican candidates for West Hartford Town Council, and we believe that the American Dream of homeownership must be restored in our town. The following plan is our housing proposal.

The Challenges We Face

If you’re a renter in town, are you worried about unsustainable rent increases or whether you’ll ever be able to get a foothold in our rapidly appreciating housing market?

If you’re a homeowner in town, are you worried about unsustainable tax increases, rapidly increasing density, and resultant traffic safety issues?

If you’re a parent in town, are you worried about your children growing up and being priced out of their hometown?

If you’re a young person in town, are you working harder than ever to try and keep up with rising costs and feeling like you aren’t achieving the same standard of living as your parents’ generation?

If you’re a retiree or empty nester in town, are you struggling to find a reasonably sized, reasonably priced home that you can downsize to?

West Hartford used to be an engine of middle-class opportunity. But today, modest three-bedroom homes sell for over $600,000, and larger family homes are approaching $1 million. For years, we’ve been presented with a false choice: ridiculously expensive luxury apartments, or subsidized income-restricted apartments. Along the way, the middle has been squeezed out.

The real culprit isn’t the cost of lumber or labor, it’s the maze of regulations, zoning restrictions, and outdated government mandates that drive up prices and limit homeownership opportunities.

A recent Wall Street Journal poll showed that 78% of Americans no longer feel that life will be better for the next generation compared to their own. 69% said they feel the American Dream is dead. We reject that hopelessness. We offer a new vision. We believe in the American Dream and we will fight to bring it back to West Hartford.

Our Plan for Renewal

1. Zoning and Permitting Reform

• Cut the red tape that makes it nearly impossible to build affordable, market-rate homes.
• Follow the lead of states across the political spectrum from Texas to Maine that have reformed lot-size rules to bring down costs.

2. Parking Reform

• Eliminate arbitrary government parking mandates that force private property owners to waste land and money while exacerbating sprawl and flooding.
• Eliminating parking mandates has bipartisan national support and is supported by strong empirical evidence. This does not eliminate parking. It simply respects property and business owners to determine how much parking they need.
• Free up underutilized parking lots for better uses, creating opportunities for new homes, safer streets, and more vibrant neighborhoods.

3. Homeownership Opportunity Districts (HODs)

• Create a new zoning category, called HOD, that explicitly targets market-rate affordable homeownership by allowing modestly sized single-family homes, duplexes, triplexes, and potentially fourplexes on smaller lots without subsidies, without income restrictions, while adhering to the historic character of our town.
• Previously wasted land that is unlocked by parking reform can become HODs.
• Pilot the first HOD at one of our many underused parking lots: an ideal location near schools, transit, and shopping. This could bring 10-20 families into the dream of West Hartford homeownership, while preserving neighborhood character and without overburdening our infrastructure.

4. Focus on Starter Homes

• Build the kind of modest, high-quality homes that West Hartford used to know how to build – homes where families can start, build wealth, and invest in our community.
• Though these might be colloquially termed “starter homes,” these would also be excellent options for downsizing empty nesters or retirees.

Our Promise

We believe that West Hartford must once again be a place where the middle class can thrive – where young families can buy their first home, where empty nesters can downsize without leaving town, and where hardworking residents can still believe in a brighter future.

The Democratic Party’s policies will continue to price us and our children out of our own community. It’s happened in California, Massachusetts, New York, and other blue states. It’s happening here. We must chart a new path.

If you want to fight for the American Dream of homeownership, if you reject the Democrats’ vision of sky-high rents, luxury apartments, or waiting years on a government list for subsidized housing, then join us.

Vote Republican on November 4. Let’s bring back opportunity, affordability, and the American Dream to West Hartford!

Your Republican Candidates for Town Council
Alberto Cortes
Dr. Gayle Harris
Ben Lewis
John Lyons
Dr. Jason Wang
Kyle Zelazny