Petition 2025

Please veto the 104-page housing bill passed in a special “emergency” session by both chambers in under 48 hours. There were no public hearings, no detailed summaries or fiscal notes, and last-minute errors went unnoticed until debate. This isn’t the transparent, collaborative “towns taking the lead” approach promised after vetoing a prior bill in June — it’s just another “top-down” overreach with “to be determined” development mandates foisted on our towns.

Key Controversial Provisions (Unique in the U.S.):

1. No Parking Mandates: Zero required parking for new projects of 16 units statewide. For under 16 units, towns can opt into an 8% “safe harbor” zone where parking is capped by developer studies or state maxes—hardly local control.
2. Top-Down Quotas: State Office of Policy and Management (OPM) sets statewide housing goals, divided up by 9 regional Councils of Governments (COGs). COGs mandate town-specific targets via buildout analyses, approved by OPM or—after 120 days—an unaccountable, developer-influenced Housing Council. Towns must comply or lose state grants and 8-30g moratorium eligibility. Real “towns taking the lead”? We say: “no”.
3. Commercial-to-Residential Conversions: Statewide fast-track for converting any commercial space to up to 9 residential/mixed-use units via desk approvals—no local planning/zoning input. This risks gutting commercial tax bases, hiking property taxes, and creating bedroom communities with subsidized parking—worsening, not improving, affordability.

Towns will have just seven months to revise zoning regulations or face haphazard development. If it were about repurposing empty lots and malls, we’d support it — but this bill hands developers unchecked power, potentially harming the environment and the municipality’s tax revenues.

HB 8002 doesn’t provide for a sound process forward on affordable housing development —it’s simply a developer giveaway.

Sincerely, Connecticut Resident