House Bill 8002, known as “An Act Concerning Housing Growth” signed into law this week and is drawing renewed criticism from local officials and state lawmakers who accuse the state of seizing control over municipal land-use decisions.
Governor Ned Lamont signed the measure into law Nov. 26 and defended it as an urgent step to address Connecticut’s housing crisis. In a statement, he called the state’s housing shortage “among the most severe in the country. It is driving up costs for working families, deterring businesses from investing or growing, and worsening homelessness. Simply put, the status quo is unsustainable.”
The new law expands fair rent commissions, eliminates most minimum off-street parking requirements for smaller housing developments and requires towns to prepare housing growth plans, among other changes.
Detractors of the bill’s passage, which occurred during a special session, claim it gives sweeping authority to state agencies. Among its provisions, the law creates of a new statewide framework for local housing planning. Towns must either work with their regional council of governments on a housing growth plan or create their own plan to increase affordable, deed-restricted housing. Municipalities that comply qualify for new state Housing Growth Program grants and certain legal protections, while those that do not risk losing access to those incentives.
Easton Selectman Nick D’Addario had written to Lamont urging him to veto the bill before it was signed. D’Addario said HB 8002 is an improvement over housing bill HB 5002, which Lamont vetoed earlier this year, with its “one size fits all mandates that would have been unworkable for communities without sewer systems or transit areas.”
Despite the revisions, the letter says Easton would still face major challenges under the new law. “However, even without these improvements, HB 8002 still poses significant risks to Easton, particularly to our watershed lands, septic dependent neighborhoods, and long standing open space protection,” D’Addario said.
Newly elected First Selectman Daniel Lent also urged residents, before the bill was signed, to oppose HB 8002, saying it was approved in a special session without the usual level of public process and makes major changes to local zoning authority statewide.
Republican State Senator Tony Hwang voted against the bill, calling it a “top-down mandate” that marginalizes local leaders. “Rather than promoting cooperation, this bill imposes a one-size-fits-all formula that disregards the uniqueness of Connecticut’s 169 towns,” Hwang said in a statement. “Local leaders, local planners, and local residents are sidelined by a centralized approach that fails to acknowledge the real-world constraints of individual communities.”
Republican state Rep. Tony Scott, a ranking member of the Housing Committee, said the bill was crafted “in secret” and revised shortly before the special session. He objected to several provisions outlined on his official House GOP webpage, including a proposed Fair Share housing system administered by the Office of Policy and Management and the creation of a statewide Council on Housing Development appointed largely by the governor, which he argued would shift zoning authority away from municipalities.
“The measure, House Bill 8002, An Act Concerning Housing Growth, would upend how housing is planned and approved across Connecticut and, in the process, give the state’s Department of Housing (DOH) unprecedented power to act as a statewide housing authority,” Scott said.
