article: A property developer in a wealthy Connecticut suburb believes his family are the victims of small-town vengeance which saw his son demoted in the local Little League to punish him for threatening the town's overwhelmingly white ethnic makeup. Christopher Stefanoni, a 50-year-old from Darien, a town of 21,000 with a median household income of $200,000, says his nine-year old was kicked off his team and put in a lower-ranking one just after he proposed developments involving affordable housing. According to a lawsuit filed by Stefanoni, locals are so worried at the prospect of the town's black population - currently 70 people, or 0.33 per cent - getting any bigger that they hit back through the medium of baseball. Small-town fury: Christopher Stefanoni, 50, says his nine-year-old son was moved into a lower Little League team because his affordable housing homes threatened the ethnic makeup of the extremely white town . As well as his son being booted to a lesser team in the league, Stefanoni was also banned from coaching. The town and the Little League both deny that the goings-on of the Little League and Stefanoni's housing plans are linked. In court documents they describe his grievance as 'an imaginary slight that has no connection to reality'. U.S. Census information says that Darien is 94 per cent white, with 620 Hispanic residents and fewer than 100 blacks. Stefanoni said two proposals were rejected by town officials; a 16-apartment complex with five affordable units, and a 30-apartment one with nine affordable units. He said: 'Darien is a little white enclave, sort of a holdout segregated town. The attitudes that people in Darien have are very exclusionary, demeaning. 'When they go after your kids, they've crossed the line'. The town has previously been investigated by the Justice Department over a policy which gave affordable housing priority to people who already lived and worked in Darien. Swanky: This photograph shows Darien's downtown area, complete with picturesque New England architecture and expensive cars parked up in front of boutique stores . The policy was dropped before the investigation finished. The lawsuit and a federal housing investigation reopened old wounds in Darien. The town was made famous by the 1947 Oscar-winner Gentleman's Agreement, starring Gregory Peck, which depicted anti-Semitic residents conspiring not to sell property to Jews. Stefanoni and his wife, Margaret, filed the lawsuit in 2013 against the Darien Little League those who were in charge when their son was demoted, in fall 2010. The demotion came just days after Stefanoni filed an affordable housing application for property right next to the home of a former league official. Several months later, Stefanoni was banned from coaching in the league. Lawyers for the Little League deny the allegations and have filed a motion to have the suit dismissed. According to court documents, league officials say they made a mistake placing the Stefanoni's son on a higher-level team, after the housing application was filed, and corrected the error by moving him to another team. Sceptical: Deli owner Rob WIlliamson, pictured in front of his store, does not think the town is conspiring to keep out black people . In the application they wrote: 'Mr Stefanoni is pursuing a baseless litigation as a means to harass and retaliate against defendants for an imaginary slight that has no connection to reality or to the civil rights laws that he purports to vindicate.' Former Little League board members named in the lawsuit declined to comment. Stefanoni made a total of three affordable housing applications, one of which was ultimately approved. The lawsuit includes allegations about city officials blocking affordable housing applications to keep blacks from moving into town, claims identical to those in another pending federal lawsuit against the town by a different affordable housing developer whose project was rejected. The U.S. Department of Justice in 2010 began investigating whether the town was violating the Fair Housing Act with a zoning policy approved in 2009 that gave top priority for new affordable housing to Darien residents and other people with ties to the town, including town employees. The planning and zoning commission rescinded the policy later in 2010, and the Justice Department closed the investigation in 2012 without taking any action, the Darien Times reported. Unfortunate reputation: Darien was immortalized in 1947 by the likes of Gregory Peck in Gentleman's Agreement, which depicted townsfolk conspiring to keep out Jews by not selling them property . According to state data, 2.6 percent of Darien's nearly 7,100 housing units qualify as affordable. Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy has called affordable housing one of the state's most pressing needs and has committed hundreds of millions of dollars for more affordable housing. In 2010, Darien won a four-year exemption to a state law making it easier for developers to build in towns with less than 10 percent affordable housing and town officials expect to win another after resolving a dispute with the state. The town says it is entitled to the exemption under a complicated formula involving existing affordable housing units. Darien First Selectman Jayme Stevenson said the town has made significant efforts to increase affordable housing and its housing practices aren't discriminatory. 'The Darien of today bears no resemblance to the allegations that the Stefanonis ... are intending to propagate,' she said. 'These folks are developers and they're looking to develop housing and make some money.' Rob Williamson, owner of Uncle's Deli in downtown Darien, said he doesn't believe the town is being discriminatory in rejecting affordable housing applications. 'The town's small, very tight knit,' the resident of nearby Stamford said. 'That doesn't mean we want to keep anyone out. It's a small, little New England town and I think they want to keep it that way.'
highlights: Christopher Stefanoni's son was pushed into low-ranking team in 2010 .
  Followed father's plans for apartment complexes in Darien, Connecticut, which included affordable housing .
  Stefanoni has filed lawsuit claiming townsfolk turned on son to punish him .
  Darien, a wealthy New York City suburb, has a median income of $200,000 .
  The town is 94 per cent white, with only 70 black residents - 0.33 per cent .
  Little League and the town both deny there is any connection .
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