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May 7, 2024

CT House passes expansive housing bill, with nod to New Canaan

GINNY MONK / CT MIRROR Rep. Tom O'Dea, R-New Canaan, testifies before the Planning and Development Committee on Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2024 in the Legislative Office Building. O'Dea testified in support of a bill that would encourage towns to use transit-oriented development.
By Ginny Monk, CT Mirror

Connecticut’s House of Representatives passed an expansive housing bill late Friday night that, among other measures, offers incentives for towns to allow more duplexes and townhomes and requires landlords give tenants 45 days notice of rent increases.

Passage came without the hours of debate that often accompanies housing bills, and a couple of Republicans voted in favor of the legislation. Democrats accepted two Republican amendments to House Bill 5474.

One of those amendments — a proposal with just 11 lines of text — could end an ongoing dispute between the state and the town of New Canaan over whether the town should be granted a reprieve to 8-30g, the state’s affordable housing law.

The winner of the dispute if the bill passes? Likely New Canaan.

The state’s 8-30g law allows court remedies to developers whose affordable housing applications are denied. It shifts the burden of proof to the town, meaning officials have to prove they denied the application for health or safety reasons.

Towns are exempt from the law if at least 10% of their affordable housing stock is set aside as affordable. They can also earn points toward temporary exemptions from the law by building affordable housing.

New Canaan achieved a moratorium in 2017, with about 31 affordable housing units more than the minimum to get a moratorium. In a future application, they wanted to essentially bank those 31 additional units and apply them to future exemptions.

The state Department of Housing told officials that wouldn’t work. The two have been embroiled in a legal battle over the issue since 2022. It’s uncertain how the amendment, if passed, would impact the court case.

“It’s about building affordable housing and getting credit for it,” said Rep. Tom O’Dea, R-New Canaan. O’Dea proposed the amendment. “Unlike many towns up here, per acre costs in New Canaan is about a million dollars. So for us to build affordable housing, we need time to plan and look at where we can build it.”

The town has had to take charge of building public housing to meet 8-30g specifications, O’Dea said, because of high land costs that can deter developers.

New Canaan residents have spoken at public hearings opposing many affordable housing developments. About 4% of the town’s housing stock is designated affordable, according to state data.

O’Dea’s amendment would settle the issue in statute moving forward. Towns would be allowed to bank any additional affordable housing units to apply to future moratoria.

“We want to build as much [affordable housing] as we can, and we don’t want a disincentive to build it,” O’Dea said. “And essentially, 8-30g, that was a disincentive because we’re not going to get credit. That doesn’t make any sense.”

House Majority Leader Rep. Jason Rojas, D-East Hartford, said the amendment was “part of the conversation,” as lawmakers were negotiating how long they’d debate the bill Friday. The bill contains several measures that Rojas proposed earlier in the session, following conversations with his affordable housing working group.

Rojas said the amendment helps clarify state policy and that it acknowledges the reality that for some officials, getting an 8-30g exemption is a major goal.

“It’s one and the same,” Rojas said. “I want them to build more, they look at it as a moratorium so they can get out from having to deal with this.”

Members met over the past few months to hear best practices on increasing affordable housing. Connecticut lacks more than 92,000 units of housing that are affordable and available to its lowest income renters. 

As the legislature enters the last few days of the session, the minority party gains power. It’s fairly common practice for Republicans to extend debate on bills to keep the Democrats from calling up some of their more tenuous measures.

Legislative leadership negotiates the length of debate, among other pieces of legislation.

“They raised the policy question,” Rojas said. “If a community has done what they’re supposed to do to earn points, but then can’t use them, what kind of question does that leave for communities who struggle with this whole notion of 8-30g and delivering affordable housing?”

Few towns have hit the 10% threshold to be exempt from 8-30g.

Other elements

The sweeping legislation also offers municipalities one-quarter of an 8-30g point for each unit of so-called “middle housing” that they build “as-of-right,” or without a special hearing before the zoning commission.

Middle housing refers to lighter density developments such as duplexes, triplexes and townhomes. The middle housing developments wouldn’t be required to have affordability elements under the legislation.

“That [8-30g moratorium] is a significant incentive, I think, for communities to try to move in that direction,” Rojas said. “And ultimately, my goal is to get more communities to think more proactively about allowing for as-of-right, which really reduces the amount of time that somebody who wants to build housing has to spend going through the process.”

Housing Committee ranking member Rep. Tony Scott, R-Monroe, referred to the awarding of 8-30g points toward a moratorium as a “carrot,” a reference to a longstanding debate in the legislature about whether to use mandates or incentive-based approaches to get towns to allow more multi-family housing.

The measures in the bill largely came from the Housing and Planning and Development Committees.

“The bills that are in this bill, especially from Housing, which I’ve gone over, they’re not horrible bills,” Scott said.

H.B. 5474 also includes a requirement that abandoned nursing homes can be turned into affordable housing without a special zoning hearing. The conversions can only happen if the existing building doesn’t need to be demolished and the developer can’t change the building’s footprint.

It also mandates that landlords offer tenants at least 45 days of notice ahead of a rent increase. For month-to-month leases, it would require notice the same as the length of the lease. Current law doesn’t have time requirements for notice of rent increases.

The bill also offers more flexibility for the state’s rental assistance program. It allows participants to use the state Department of Housing maximum amount, as is now used, or to also now consider the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s fair market rent amount, whichever is higher. This could allow people with state housing assistance more options for apartments.

It would also give towns more explicit authority to adopt ordinances about the operating and licensing of short-term rental properties. Many towns across the country that are already struggling with a housing shortage are seeing homes taken off the market by people operating short-term rentals through platforms such as Airbnb or VRBO.

The bill also requires the Department of Economic Development to send out annual questionnaires about applications to build more housing, whether they’re approved, how many are denied and any destruction of existing housing.

Housing advocates this session have said that there isn’t enough information about how many applications to build housing towns receive each year — and how many they deny.

The bill next heads to the Senate for approval.


 

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