PO Box 163, Fairfield CT 06824

Take Action at Housing Committee

Input your Name and Town to email the below Petition to the Housing Committee



NOTE: IF YOU HAVE ANY DIFFICULTY ACCESSING YOUR MAIL WITH BUTTON ABOVE PLEASE CUT AND PASTE THE EMAILS AND THE CONTENT BELOW

Geoff.Luxenberg@cga.ct.gov, marilyn.moore@cga.ct.gov, matthew.lesser@cga.ct.gov, Maryam.Khan@cga.ct.gov, rob.sampson@cga.ct.gov, Jan.Hochadel@cga.ct.gov, Tony.Scott@housegop.ct.gov, Minnie.Gonzalez@cga.ct.gov, Joe.Polletta@cga.ct.gov, Larry.Butler@cga.ct.gov, John.Fonfara@cga.ct.gov, joe.zullo@housegop.ct.gov, Steve.Weir@housegop.ct.gov, kevin.brown@cga.ct.gov, Kadeem.Roberts@cga.ct.gov

Honorable members of the Housing Committee,

Effective public policy related to land use starts by engaging all municipal stakeholders and experts from communities large and small, not just housing advocates! The following bills listed below are a gift to developers that are the patrons of the Housing Advocates and Regional Planning Association (RPA), who have had an outsized voice in the legislative process. The “little guy”, which include local stakeholders and land use experts’ testimonies and concerns have been ignored. These bills, if passed, will escalate local property taxes, destroy commerce and retail around downtowns, exacerbate highway traffic, adversely impact the environment: esp. reservoirs, watershed & coastal communities and offer very little in the way of affordable housing. It has been stated over and over that there is a “significant” need for affordability in Connecticut yet, passing these bills simply increases a massive number of market rate units on the “back” of mandating affordable ones.didunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.

I ask that you take the following items under consideration in your review of bills going to public hearing, in your vote moving bills out of committee and on the floor.

PLEASE OPPOSE THESE BILLS:

SB1411 – “Builders Rush” Bill – allows “as of right” high density overdevelopment of residential rental apartments in ½ mile around any rapid transit bus or train station. First in developers will have the ability to override local zoning to build as many units as they want and as high as they want until the ½ mile transit areas in town have OVERALL AVERAGE DENSITY of 15 UNITS /ACRE. This is onerous density for ANY community with no off-street parking allowance and limited affordability <10%. (P&D HEARING)

SB985 – The Governors bill is a great opportunity for collaboration, but I urge that the following MUST be removed or amended: 1) Remove “as of right” development and allow special permits instead. 2) Remove Zoning Board of Appeals as the designated authority to approve projects and restore approvals by planning and zoning, sewer, water, wetlands, historical preservation or conservation commission or board. 3) Remove provision that there is no requirement for off-street parking – unrealistic 4) Amend: Improve the % affordable required in projects (P&D HEARING)

HB6633 – Fair Share is the largest unfunded mandate to be imposed on municipalities since education and legislators must get a true cost estimate for every town’s allocated fair share before obligating municipalities to underwrite such exponential development. Costs to develop can run 100’s of millions over the 10 years, and the bill allows developers and housing advocates to sue towns. This bill will end single family zoning forever if a municipality can not fund their “fair share.” The bill would force “as of right” 15 units/acre anywhere within a town whether the location was on town water or sewer and, force as much multifamily development on a property as a well or septic could bare everywhere else. (BILL: OUT OF HOUSING COMM.)

HB6593 – Housing Authority Jurisdiction – any outside Housing Authority can build in another town without needing their approval. (BILL: VOTED OUT OF HSG COMMITTEE)

HB 6781 – Mandates towns address equity in housing and social assets for their communities and report demographic and segregation datasets for each municipality to the state – this goes against Fair Housing Laws. Also does not centralize vouchers, creates one size fits all state mandates on septic. (BILL: VOTED OUT OF HSG COMMITTEE)

PLEASE SUPPORT THIS GOOD BILL:

HB 6777- Allow tax abatements for certain senior-owned deed-restricted properties and use those units towards 8-30g moratoriums & 10% calculations. (BILL: VOTED OUT OF HSG COMM.)

Thank you for your consideration.

Connecticut Resident