Legislators and members of the public on Tuesday asked the state’s Housing Committee to move forward with a proposed bill aimed at studying 8-30g, Connecticut’s affordable housing mandate. Public testimony urged committee member to exempt watershed towns with public water supplies from the appeals process outlined in 8-30g.
State Senator Tony Hwang, R-28th, urged the Housing Committee to study the affordable housing appeals process because “density building doesn’t fit in every community.” Connecticut’s 28th Senatorial District includes Bethel, Easton, Fairfield and Newtown.
“One of the proposals that I would love for the committee and its study initiatives to focus on is taking a look at watershed communities, communities that provide drinking water — quality and safe drinking water for our surrounding communities — be considered for some appeal processes for 8-30g exemption,” said Hwang. “The idea of watershed communities to be able to protect them from density building, sewage capacity, septic capacity is an important consideration in regard to quality water but also environmental impact.”
Hwang introduced a bill during the last legislative session that would exempt Easton and 13 other municipalities with over 70% of watershed-protected land from the 8-30g appeals process. The bill never made it out of the Housing Committee.
The currently raised bill H.B. No. 5333, An Act Concerning a Study of the Affordable Housing Appeals Process, would study the effects the 8-30g appeals process has on municipalities in the state. Current 8-30g allows housing developers to appeal to the Superior Court when a municipality rejects an affordable housing application. The burden falls on municipalities to prove the decision was necessary to protect public interests in health and safety.
Several Easton residents submitted written testimony in support of the bill. Others spoke in person or via Zoom in favor of the bill at Tuesday’s public hearing.
Scott Olson, a member of Goshen’s Board of Selectmen, also urged the committee to study 8-30g with a specific look at watershed towns.
“The mandates that have been put on all towns, including Goshen through 8-30g, in our case we feel it is extremely unrealistic,” said Olson. “It sets the town up to fail, despite the good faith efforts we have made. We just don’t have here in Goshen the infrastructure to support this kind of a mandate, we don’t have public water, we don’t have public sewers, we don’t have sidewalks, never mind a public transportation system.”
First Selectman David Bindelglass submitted written testimony in favor of the bill, as did Selectmen Nick D’Addario and Kristi Sogofsky. Bindelglass said the need for Easton to protect its environmental resources and preserve water quality for the region makes it difficult for the town to increase its number of affordable housing units.
“The town doesn’t have the infrastructure to build high-density housing,” said Bindelglass. “The state needs housing, there is no question about that. In a perfect world, every town has their share. You make a law that applies to every town in the state, but it’s very difficult to apply them equally to Stamford and Easton.”
The Affordable Housing plan Easton submitted to the state looks at accessory structures, “in-law” or accessory apartments and converting the “old” Samuel Staples Elementary School at 660 Morehouse Road into housing as options.
“We’re certainly trying, but dense housing — the kind of dense housing that is envisioned — is going to be difficult to impossible,” said Bindelglass.
State Rep. Tony Scott, a Housing Committee member, showed support for the bill during a Feb. 22 Housing Committee meeting when H.B. No. 5333 and 10 other housing bills were discussed. But Scott said repealing 8-30g is not realistic and to talk about that is not necessarily going to be beneficial to the Housing Committee moving forward.
“I do think there are some small things that we can do to make 8-30g more palatable to the municipalities across the state,” he said.
The deadline for the Housing Committee to advance a bill is March 14.
