The annual fight over housing and zoning policy in Connecticut’s legislature has recommenced.
It was on display Monday as a press conference from affordable housing advocacy consortium Growing Together Connecticut was held at the same time as a public hearing on this year’s transit-oriented development bill.
Connecticut vacancy rates are among the lowest in the country — and, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, the state needs nearly 100,000 affordable units.
Erin Boggs leads the Open Communities Alliance, a civil rights organization that aims to “redress generations of discriminatory actions and policies based on race, ethnicity, and income to create open and inclusive housing opportunities in historically exclusionary communities,” according to its website. It’s part of Growing Together.
"Ninety-two percent of the residential land area in Connecticut is zoned for single-family homes and generally on very large lots,” Boggs said. “If we don't allow other kinds of denser housing, from duplexes to apartment communities, we will not be able to house the 140,000 households in the state who are housing burdened.”
Many of Connecticut’s smaller municipalities have historically opposed zoning reform. They cite old infrastructure that would need major updates to support new development and population increases.
Those sentiments were expressed just rooms away during the public hearing on HB 6831, An Act Concerning Transit-Oriented Communities. The legislation would provide financial incentives for municipalities that support transit-oriented development—that is, housing near public transit.
Committee Chair Rep. Eleni Kavros DeGraw (D-Avon) said the bill wouldn’t mandate anything (and the word mandate isn't mentioned in the bill’s text). But, Darien First Selectman Jon Zagrodzky’s (R) testimony against it echoed the fear of local-control zoning advocates.
“I think it is a mistake to mandate size, density or location of these developments,” Zagrodzky said. “I also think it's a mistake to subsidize outside developers to meet such mandates. Doing so would encourage these outsiders to build whatever they wanted to maximize profits without regard to the impact on local infrastructure, traffic or architecture. The only thing on their minds will be taking advantage of state subsidies as quickly as possible, no matter how damaging or intrusive their developments are to our community.”
Last year, the state passed HB 5474, a law that incentivized medium-density housing development and requires landlords to provide 45-day prior notice before raising rent.