Perhaps these P&Z commissioners should advocate for 8-30g projects next door to their own homes

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Mason Street condo proposal questioned by P&Z’s Dennis Yeskey and Peter Lowe because of “social equity” concerns

Commissioner Dennis Yeskey shared concern about having two buildings – one with mostly the affordable units and one with mostly luxury condos – but noted there was no regulatory or legal support to deny the application on those grounds.

“You have these token couple units thrown between the buildings, but there’s basically an affordable housing rental building and a high end luxury condo building,” Yeskey said.

“We’re still on a slippery slope with 8-30g’s,” Yeskey said, giving some examples including a recent application that proposes all luxury units and a payment in lieu to Greenwich’s housing authority.

“The next one might be remote – ‘We’re going to build this building here but put the affordable units in Port Chester.”

He said it was an issue of equity.

Commissioner Peter Lowe said Mr. Yeskey’s concern was worthy.

“Does it pass the smell test?” he asked. “Is paying lip service through a cross-over units satisfy the spirit of the 8-30g regulation? That is worthy of consideration.”

“The appearance of this is there is a tokenism and potential for a slippery slope. I’ve felt this from the beginning as well.”

Mr. Yeskey lives on Londonderry Drive in a 5,524 sq.ft., 5-bedroom home on 2 acres, while Mr. Lowe owns a more modest home on Indian Field Road; neither has 8-30g neighbors, and I don’t imagine they want any. A planning and zoning commission is probably a necessary evil in a crowded town like Greenwich, but when its members leave the traditional concerns of zoning and start preaching about “social justice”, I reach for my revolver.*

*Said about :culture”, not by Goering, as I’d supposed, but by playwright Hanns Johst — I’ve never heard of him, nor have you, I’ll wager.

(A little) real estate news to report this morning

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686 Lake Avenue, corner of Clapboard, has sold for $2.850 million on an asking price of $3.0. It’s interesting to see that the same house was on the market for 230 days back in 2005, starting at $3.1 million and ending at $2.995 before expiring. Unrealistic pricing will do that.

round hill

And there’s a contract reported for 88 Round Hill Road. Asking price was $2.595, but it went in just 12 days, so that price may have to be adjusted upwards. 3,343 sq. ft. on an acre in the RA-2 zone, so expansion may be limited, but so what? Not everyone’s family size or ego demands a 10,000 sq. ft. sprawl.

I like it, and so, apparently, did at least two would-be buyers.

In fact, it's this Twitchy writer who's clueless if she doesn't understand that there are no journalists left, only political activists

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Just like those who are insisting that the “reporters” (not) covering Kampallawalla “do their job”. They are doing their job, exactly as their masters dictate.

Dimwit tries to dunk on DeSantis’s call for timely vote-counting by posting a non sequitur and succeeds only in revealing his deep, profound ignorance.

Amy Curtis, Twitchy:

Journalists literally have one job: to investigate and report facts. 

It's not that hard of a concept. In theory.

But for Florida journalist AG Gancarski, who lives in Florida, the basic concept of property insurance rates confounds him.

“Absolute doorknob” — love it, will use it myself, going forward.

Well this is weird: the Cackle™ has now been officially renamed "JOY", and the flying monkeys of the press have rushed to conform.

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Legal Insurrection has the tail:

Media Parrots Harris Campaign’s Ridiculous Claim That it’s All About ‘Joy’

“it is no accident that joy — a battle-tested version of it — has become the backbone of Ms. Harris’s campaign in recent days”

If you’ve been following news about the election, you have probably heard the word ‘joy’ repeated over and over. This is not a coincidence. It’s a talking point from the Harris campaign, and the media is doing their very best to play along.

“Joy” is apparently the new hope and change, and the use of the term is not even close to subtle.

You can see it used in this report from Axios:

Harris vs. Trump: America’s mood-swing election

This election is about more than two very different ideologies. It’s about two very different moods: joy vs. rage.

Why it matters: The conflicting rhetoric reflects the conflicting calculations of how to win in 2024 — and how Americans are really feeling about the state of the nation.

Former President Trump sees fear as the primary motivator — fear of illegal immigration, crime, inflation, a declining America. He believes swing voters will embrace his darker view and demand protection, even if they don’t love his style.

Vice President Harris sees hope (or conflict exhaustion) as the primary motivator — hope to move beyond Trump and fighting, hope in a rising/rebounding America. She believes voters are tired of doom-and-gloom.

The New York Times is downright comical in this piece:

Harris Used to Worry About Laughing. Now Joy Is Fueling Her Campaign.

There was a time, early in her vice presidency, when Kamala Harris, aware of reams of conservative news coverage criticizing her laughter, privately wondered to confidants whether she should laugh, or show a sense of humor, at all.

They reassured her that she should, according to two people familiar with the discussions at the time. Still, Ms. Harris proceeded gingerly, embarking on a run of tightly controlled appearances. She focused on issues like abortion rights and worked to bolster her foreign policy chops. She took emotionally resonant trips during which she carefully honed her image. Along the way, laughter never really left her.

I couldn’t possibly hate the lickspittles of the press any more than I do already, but I’m still astonished at how these arrogant morons still claim some sort of moral and intellectual superiority to the masses they’ve been instructed to manipulate.

That’s not sad, it’s pathetic.

Historical preservation: sometimes, it can’t be done

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A letter to the editor from one Andrew R. Melillo, Greenwich explaining the rationale for razing the former home of Ernest Thompson Seaton at 608 Lake Avenue. Not every house can be saved, and Mr. Melillo details why this one is in that category. He also points out that the house was on the market for a long time (2007-2008, with an asking price that started at $2.650 and had dropped to $2.350 when it expired in 2008, and again for 63 days this year), and yet no one stepped up to buy it and preserve it. “Put your money where your mouth is” is advice rarely followed when the preservation of private land and old houses are concerned.

And although he doesn’t mention it, the significance of this 1923 house rests on who (briefly) lived there, not the structure itself; that’s probably sufficient reason to preserve some homes, but perhaps not this one.

“Little Peequo” A House Lost to Neglect: Lessons to Current and Future Homeowners

In a letter to this publication titled, Concern for Pending Demolition of ‘Little Peequo,’ the Seton Family House on Lake Ave, dated July 31, 2024, there were concerns which were raised about the proposed demolition of this early 20th century home in the heart of mid-country Greenwich.

These concerns may be valid in the general context of historic preservation, yet they fall short as to what has been taking place on the property with its new owner.

….

The author raises several concerns about how they “…implore you to quickly act,” to “…help preserve this history before it is destroyed forever.” Unfortunately, one cannot stop a house’s demolition simply because one would like it to be stopped – it is private property. “Little Peequo,” that early 20th-century home of the once vast and many Seton Family properties in town has a lot of history attached to it.

Part of its history is that during the past few decades, the previous owner has allowed the house to be neglected – resulting in this charming little house being brought into to a total state of dilapidation.

The new owner, with careful time and consideration alongside experts, looked at the house and determined that it would be an extremely challenging economic (millions of dollars) venture to attempt to restore the house. There are structural issues, asbestos, decay, termites, and black mold among many other areas of concern – yet the new owner realizing the historical significance and unique character of the house has made themselves extremely amenable to the preservation of unique artifacts of the house, such as: various wood and plaster carvings, exterior carvings, and a poem.

Through the diligent and careful coordination of many interested parties, including Seton Family descendants, the new owner has allowed access to the property to the Greenwich Historical Society for them to photograph and craft a final report on the home. In addition, the new owner has allowed the only willing party to safely extract the various unique artifacts of the home and donate them to an appropriate local organization to keep the Seton Family memory alive and Mr. Seton’s naturalist legacy at the forefront of every day life. The new owner should be commended for their efforts to allow all of this to take place when they had no legal obligation or reason to do so whatsoever.

Let it not be forgotten that this is private property and private property held in fee simple by owners to do with it according to their own proper use and behoof. This house could have easily been demolished without a single word or one ounce of cooperation from the new owner to salvage anything from this very badly neglected home – the opposite took place. Furthermore, this house had been on the market for some time and anyone interested in preserving and keeping the home could have been able to purchase the property – they did not. The previous owner could have been legal protections on the property [sic] – they did not. The age and uniqueness of a home, without proper legal restrictions placed upon the property, does not give any citizen or organization the right to interfere or prevent the demolition of it. Let this be a lesson to current property owners who may have similar concerns.

The onus to preserve history is not just on a new owner, but also the responsibility of previous owners who were custodians during their time of ownership – in the case of “Little Peequo” the previous owner decided to allow the house to fall into such a state of disrepair that any new owner, after careful review by structural engineers, would not have been able to salvage it. This house will be removed from the Greenwich landscape, however, pieces of it will live on in perpetuity, and its final photographs and report by the Historical Society will be available for any interested party to cherish and review indefinitely into the future. The new owner of the property allowed these last bits of history to be salvaged, they did not have to do this and the citizens of Greenwich should be thankful this was allowed by the owner to take place.

Mr. Melillo is Secretary of the Historic District Commission, Vice Chairman of the Greenwich Preservation Trust and Past Grand Historian of the Grand Lodge of the State of Connecticut of Ancient, Free, & Accepted Masons. 

There was a time when candidates found that there was plenty of time between nomination and election day to hold press conferences and outline their policies

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it’s exactly this scenario that they fear

New Yorker reporter urges media to ask Harris actual questions: ‘Job of the press’ to be ‘demanding answers’

The lady’s not for turning; she’ll stick with her proven basement strategy, and the public will just have to elect her to see what’s in store for the country. But “We’re not hiding her”, Obama’s team insists, “there, sadly, just isn’t enough time to expose her to the press, even the lickspittle toadies that comprise today’s journalist class”.

"With under 90 days to go, the Vice President’s top priority is earning the support of the voters who will decide this election," a spokesperson told Fox News Digital. "In a limited time period and a fragmented media environment, that requires us being strategic, creative, and expeditious in getting our message to those voters in the ways that are most impactful – through paid media, on the ground organizing, an aggressive campaign schedule, and of course interviews that reach our target voters.

Friday sales reported

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While I was away at the Small Point Club in Phippsburgh, Maine helping Gideon supervise the birthdays of Fr. Anthony and Sister Lorin, the MLS was (semi) active. Gideon by the way, tells me that the market is bubbling along under the surface, with multiple-showings of the few houses available, negotiations over pending deals, and busy little agents scurrying all over the place. Because he spent most of his “family time” hidden away and mumbling into his cellphone, I suppose I believe him, but the fruits of all that frenetic labor have yet to ripen, and some of them are bound to rot on the vine. Stay tuned.

pilgim drive (representative)

5 Pilgrim Drive, Glenville. Listed at $899,000, sold for $1.1. The same owners tried to sell the same house in 2019-2020 for $724,999 and went nowhere. Patience can be a virtue.

306 Stanwich Road,

306 Stanwich Road, $2.7 asked, $2.8 got. The owners paid $2.7 in 2015, so no huge win here.

stanwich lane

22 Stanwich Lane. Priced at $2.150, sold for $2.050.

lake avenue

623 Lake Avenue, $3.8 million. Began at $4.375 million in June 2023.

No surprise here, but then, I don't wear Birkenstocks, or roll naked in granola mosh pits

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SunPower Corporation, once a leading name in the U.S. residential solar market, recently filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Known for its high-efficiency solar panels and comprehensive installation services, SunPower had established itself as a significant player in the renewable energy sector. The company focused on residential, commercial, and utility-scale solar solutions, and its strategic decisions, such as spinning off its manufacturing operations in 2019 to concentrate on residential installations, initially seemed promising. However, financial strain, high interest rates, and economic downturns have significantly impacted their operations, culminating in severe liquidity issues and eventual bankruptcy.

Beege, RedState:

“The "financial strain" owes more to the end of the gravy train than anything else. The subsidies that have sustained the industry - witness the largesse a year ago - and the power companies' deals encouraging installation have all begun to fall by the wayside. To no one's surprise, a renewable energy source and industry that, from the very beginning, was built on and subsidized by other people's money vice letting free markets test the viability of the technology and naturally sort out winners and losers?

“Residential solar finds itself desperately kicking, begging, and bobbing to the surface to avoid sinking altogether.

“Even the friendliest states, who were once home solar's biggest allies, are working against the industry. Much of it in the name of equity, too - that has to sting.”

A year ago, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) approved NEM 3.0, a rulemaking decision implemented in April 2023 that slashed compensation for exported rooftop solar generation by roughly 80%.

Now, several months after implementation, the effects of NEM 3.0 have become clear. Utility interconnection queues show an 80% drop in installation applications. The California Solar and Storage Association (CALSSA) reported that nearly 17,000 rooftop solar jobs, about 22% of the workforce, were lost this year as a result.

Solar Insure, which backs many installation companies in the state, told pv magazine USA that its data shows 75% of solar installers are now in the “high risk” category following CPUC’s decision to implement NEM 3.0.

“We have seen a wave of recent solar installer bankruptcies and believe another wave will come in Q1 2024,” said Ara Agopian, chief executive officer, Solar Insure.

Despite public protest and industry warnings of devastating effects, the CPUC ruled in favor of its private investor-owned utilities. These utilities pushed forward the assumptions of NEM 3.0 based on a call for equity and fairness, saying that renters were being left behind by rooftop solar. Not long after pushing the policy through, CPUC revealed the equity concerns were merely talk, and it moved through further rulemaking decisions that made it harder for renters reap the benefits of rooftop solar.

“ … A decade ago, someone knocking on your door to sell you solar panels would have been selling you solar panels. Now, they are probably selling you a financial product—likely a lease or a loan. 

“Mary Ann Jones, 83, didn’t realize this had happened to her until she received a call last year from GoodLeap, a financial technology company, saying she owed $52,564.28 for a solar panel loan that expires when she’s 106, and costs more than she originally paid for her house. 

“In 2022, she says, a door-to-door salesman from the company Solgen Construction showed up at her house on the outskirts of Fresno, Calif., pushing what he claimed was a government program affiliated with her utility to get her free solar panels. At one point, he had her touch his tablet device, she says, but he never said she was signing a contract with Solgen or a loan document with GoodLeap. Unbeknownst to Jones, the salesman used "yoursolarguyujosh@gmail.com" as her purported email address—that of course, was not her email address. She’s on a fixed income of $960 a month, and cannot afford the loan she says she was tricked into signing up for; she’s now fighting both Solgen and Goodleap in court.

“There are a few truths to the sleazy used car = solar salesman equation.

...Residential solar has always faced a big impediment to growth: installing and maintaining solar panels is expensive, and few consumers wanted to spend tens of thousands of dollars in cash to pay upfront for what was a relatively untested product. To get around this problem, a company called SolarCity came up with a new model in the early 2010s—leasing solar panels to customers, allowing them to pay little to no upfront cost. Companies like SunRun quickly followed; by 2014, this “third-party owned” kind of leased solar accounted for around 70% of total residential installations.

Besides enabling sales, there were other, even bigger, financial benefits of this practice for SolarCity. Since the company, not the consumer, owned the solar panels, SolarCity could claim the hefty 30% tax credit for solar panels the government approved in 2005. It then took those tax credits and sold them to companies like Google or Goldman Sachs who, unlike SolarCity, were making a profit and so owed money on their taxes. Those sales helped fund SolarCity’s further growth.

...Meanwhile, the pressure for fast sales may have led some companies to look the other way when salespeople obscured the terms of the solar panel leases and loans they were selling in order to close a deal. Consumer lawyers have made allegations about salespeople fudging consumer incomes on loan applications so they could qualify; telling them they’d get a tax refund for solar panels even if their income wasn’t high enough; and sending important documents to fake email addresses so consumers wouldn’t see them and protest. 

Jesus Hernandez, 53, says a salesman from Southern Solar called him in 2019 with the pitch that installing solar panels could cut his monthly electric bill to as low as $50 a month; Hernandez was paying around $500 a month at the time. Hernandez, a housekeeping supervisor, couldn’t afford the up-front costs, but the salesman said GoodLeap would give him a loan. When the salesman later came to his house in Dallas to close the deal, he also promised that were Hernandez to get panels, the government would write him a solar-subsidy check for $16,000. Hernandez was sold; he agreed to take out a 20-year loan to install about $62,000 worth of solar panels.

After interests and fees, that $62,000 turned out to be more like $90,000. Today, Hernandez pays about $400 a month on the loan. Worse, his electric bill is still in the $500 range, because the panels do not produce the promised electricity. The company took out a lien on his house without his knowledge, he says, and it turns out that his 2019 income—around $50,000—meant that he wasn’t making enough money to qualify for the tax incentive upfront. He sued Southern Solar, and a jury awarded him $500,000 in November 2023 but he hasn’t seen a penny yet, he says. He tells anyone who asks that they shouldn’t buy solar panels, and if they do, that they should record the whole sales pitch in case the salesperson isn’t telling the truth. “Everything they told us was a lie,” he says. (In response to a request for comment, Southern Solar said it was filing an appeal and so would not answer questions at this time.)

….

Technological and operational inefficiencies have been significant hurdles for the residential solar market. Variability in solar panel quality and performance has led to operational challenges, with inconsistencies in efficiency and durability causing issues for both installers and consumers. Despite advancements, integrating new technologies, such as battery storage systems, remains complex and costly, leading to longer installation times and higher expenses.

Maintenance and reliability concerns also persist. Homeowners often worry about the long-term upkeep and reliability of their solar systems, which can deter investment. This is especially true as many older installations near the end of their warranty periods, necessitating repairs or replacements and further straining resource.