HARTFORD, CT – House Democrats pushed through their “Work, Live, Ride” legislation last week to address the state’s housing shortage, which fair-housing advocates describe has having reached a crisis level, but Republicans voiced concerns about how the bill might be implemented in local communities.
The legislature’s lower chamber approved the bill on a 90-61 vote. It is now on the Senate calendar for further consideration.
The legislation – House Bill 5390 – was dubbed “Work, Live, Ride” because of its focus on zoning and public transit-oriented housing development – the latter of which means development within walking distance of trains and buses.
The bill has garnered strong support along with ire from detractors who view it as an onerous burden on towns. Some described it as harmful to the way of life in some Connecticut communities.
Rep. Eleni Kavros DeGraw, a Democrat from Avon who co-chairs the Planning and Development Committee, championed the bill as a huge step forward for housing in Connecticut. The state is currently facing a shortage of housing at every price point, rather than just within the “affordable” sector, following the COVID-19 pandemic, which generated a big influx of home buyers from New York and Boston.
“The whole purpose is to, again, empower towns, especially the towns that need help with the planning and setting up of these TOD guidelines,” Kavros DeGraw said during the House debate last week.
She also emphasized the optional nature of the bill, and added that no funding would be taken away from a town or city for not opting in or electing to designate a “transit-oriented” development.
Work, Live, Ride would give qualifying or complying municipalities access to various state discretionary funds if they commit to creating a plan for a certain number of developments, but Kavros DeGraw said that 30% of the units must be classified as “affordable housing units.”
That would include multi-family units that would be approved through the as-of-right process – which means there would be no hearing.
The bill would also create an interagency council on housing, and would establish other funds and definitions related to housing and infrastructure.
Republican members of the chamber voiced strong concerns about the effects of having a strict participation policy in housing when it comes to town receiving or being prioritized for housing.
Rep. Joe Zullo, R-East Haven, said on multiple occasions that towns in the state are being put into a bad situation regarding the possible loss of both funding and autonomy.
Zullo, a ranking member on Planning and Development, said that by not opting in, a town is losing out, and that the raw amount of funds they would be losing access to could be as much as $3 billion. If they do opt in, he said, they will lose a considerable amount of control over the decisions made regarding affordable housing in their towns.
“Towns that opt in to this are going to have their zoning policies dictated by bureaucrats in Hartford,” Zullo said. “Once these towns opt in, there are going to be massive financial penalties, if they try to get back out. It really creates a very perilous state for many communities.”
While developments in municipalities would be overseen partially by the Office of Policy Management, local governments would still maintain autonomy when it comes to their own zoning plans.
Kavros DeGraw challenged Zullo’s reading of the bill and said that decisions regarding zoning would very much still belong to individual towns, and that the process for those decisions would not be affected – merely the result of them.
“Inside the transit-oriented district of the transit-oriented community, you would have the opportunity, as the municipality, to decide what happens there,” Kavros DeGraw said. “In other words, it retains local authority for the municipality.”
She added that municipalities would hold public hearings on projects that would remain under the purview of local decision makers.
Municipalities that opt out of creating a plan for transit-oriented development or for the community overall are still eligible for many discretionary state funds, Kavros DeGraw said, including the option to apply for waivers from OPM if the towns TOD guidelines are different from those that are decided on by OPM.
Of the 169 towns in the state, 111 currently have some form of public transit. Those towns would be eligible for funding under the bill, according to Desegregate CT. About 50 municipalities either have already created a transit-oriented district, or have a plan to do so.
The bill is partially the brainchild of Desegregate CT, a nonprofit advocacy group focused on reforming housing and zoning in the state.
The Connecticut Council of Small Towns previously submitted testimony in opposition to the bill, saying that it creates a “confusing array of requirements” for towns that are already trying to build affordable and transit-oriented housing.
The short session ends at midnight on Wednesday, May 8.
