MILLBROOK, May 14 — Let's be honest with ourselves: Millbrook has a housing problem, and it isn't going away by itself. The median home price in our city has climbed 34 percent over the last four years, according to the Millbrook Regional Housing Authority's spring report, while median household income has grown less than 9 percent in the same period. That's not a gap — that's a canyon. And yet, at last Tuesday's City Council meeting, our elected representatives spent 45 minutes debating the font size on a historic district sign. Priorities, people.
The Zoning Question Nobody Wants to Answer
The core issue isn't funding or federal policy — it's local zoning. Millbrook has enormous swaths of land along the Hendricks and Coldwater corridors that are zoned exclusively for single-family homes. Other mid-size cities our size — Fairvale, Port Carston, New Alden — have embraced gentle density reforms like allowing duplexes and small apartment buildings in residential zones, and they've seen real results. Our planning commission has had a density reform proposal sitting on its desk since last October. Seven months. I've called Planning Director Sandra Keown's office three times this month. Three times. The voicemail is very professional.
- Millbrook median home price: $298,400 (up from $222,000 in 2020)
- Current affordable housing units in city: 1,840 — a shortfall of an estimated 3,100 units
- Density reform proposal submitted to planning commission: October 2023
- Council votes on housing measures scheduled this year: zero
I'm not asking for Manhattan. I'm asking for a city that a schoolteacher or a paramedic can actually afford to live in. The council will hold its next regular meeting on May 21. I'd encourage every working family struggling with rent or a mortgage in Millbrook to show up and ask one simple question: What are you going to do about this? Because the status quo isn't neutral — it's a choice. And it's a choice that's pushing our neighbors out of town one lease renewal at a time.
