Upcoming Forums and Bill Descriptions

mccv
April 8, 2021
I hope this finds you well and enjoying the crocuses and daffodils that are welcoming Spring. This past week has been the conclusion of committee work for each of my three committees, including the Planning and Development Committee, which I co-chair. A number of the proposals that were passed out of the committee have been the subject of much conversation and some misconception. This is a step in the process and certainly not the final action. Below I have included information on those bills, along with links to the bills themselves. In addition, I have shared information on some of the groups who have been the proponents of the bills. This gives you an opportunity to take a look for yourselves at the bill language and who has championed some of these proposals.

One procedural note – in time the nonpartisan Office of Legislative Research will post a bill analysis. This is the plain language summary of what is included in the bills as they have passed out of the committee. These are not yet available, but should be soon. You can check the bill's page for these summaries. Do so by clicking here

and entering the bill # in the "Bill" tab at the bottom of the webpage. I will also post them on my website when they become available to make it a bit easier for folks to access the information.

As I said many times during our final committee meeting, each of these bills below remain works in progress. This is very typical of the legislative process – bills move out of committee in order to keep the conversation going, but negotiations will continue. That is certainly the case with all of these, and I remain in conversation with many stakeholders, colleagues, proponents, and opponents.

In the spirit of continuing the conversation, Senator Hwang and I will talk with Fairfield Senior Advocates about the proposed zoning bills next Tuesday. Later that evening, I will host another conversation with Fairfield's Community and Economic Development Director, Mark Barnhart, Donna Hamzy of the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities and Matt Fulda of MetroCOG. I hope you will join me.

While we continue to work together to modify these bills, my priority is to empower local zoning officials to help our seniors remain in their communities, our young people have the ability to move back to the town where they grew up, and to stimulate economic growth. As we continue to move through this process this session, with your input, I know we will accomplish these goals.
Learn More About the Bills

H.B. No. 6107 (RAISED) AN ACT CONCERNING THE REORGANIZATION OF THE ZONING ENABLING ACT AND THE PROMOTION OF MUNICIPAL COMPLIANCE
  • The bill re-organizes, simplifies and clarifies the 8-2 zoning statute, otherwise known as the zoning enabling statute. This is the law that gives municipalities the right to create local zoning regulations. It removes the use of the word character as a specific consideration for zoning, and underscores that zoning must affirmatively further the purposes of the federal Fair Housing Act. Clarifies that affordable housing plans developed by municipalities are required to be submitted to the state Office of Policy and Management by June 1, 2022. Fairfield's current affordable housing plan is in the process of being updated, led by Mark Barnhart of our Economic Development office and our volunteer Affordable Housing Committee.
  • The bill also creates a working group that will recommend guidelines and incentives for compliance with 8-30j, how compliance would be determined, and what evidence of compliance would be required. An almost identical version of this bill passed the House in 2019 with broad bipartisan support and passed out of committee last year with only one no vote.

S.B. No. 1026 (RAISED) AN ACT CONCERNING TRAINING FOR CERTAIN PLANNING AND ZONING OFFICIALS

  • This bill requires individuals who serve on land use commissions participate in 5 hours of training upon election or appointment. Training may be done electronically and provided by a variety of organizations, including the Land Use Academy at the Center for Land Use Education and Research at the University of Connecticut and the American Bar Association. Planning and zoning commissions are required to report training compliance to the legislative bodies of the municipality.
  • This bill has been championed by the Partnership for Strong Communities. You can learn more about that organization, who participates in the coalition, and the research they have done on training requirements in other states here.

H.B. No. 6613 (RAISED) AN ACT CONCERNING ACCESSORY APARTMENTS, MIDDLE HOUSING AND MULTIFAMILY HOUSING

  • This bill was not voted on by the committee and will not move forward.

H.B. No. 6611 (RAISED) AN ACT CONCERNING A NEEDS ASSESSMENT AND OTHER POLICIES REGARDING AFFORDABLE HOUSING AND DEVELOPMENT

  • Referred to by some as the "Fair Share" bill, based on a program that is in place in New Jersey, this legislation requires the state to work to provide towns with goals for the development of housing units. Towns would locally develop their own plans for how to meet these goals.
  • As described on the Connecticut General Assembly website, this bill would "provide for (1) an assessment of the state-wide need for affordable housing and an allocation of such need to planning regions and municipalities, (2) the creation of affordable housing planning and zoning goals for each municipality, (3) the implementation schedule for such goals, (4) enforcement of such goals, and (5) state support to meet affordable housing needs beyond those met through such goals."
  • The substitute language change from the original bill combines MetroCOG and WestCOG planning regions for the purposes of accounting for a regional fair share.
  • You can learn more about the background on this proposal and Fair Share at  the Open Communities Alliance website.

S.B. No. 1024 (RAISED) AN ACT CONCERNING ZONING AUTHORITY, CERTAIN DESIGN GUIDELINES, QUALIFICATIONS OF CERTAIN LAND USE OFFICIALS AND CERTAIN SEWAGE DISPOSAL SYSTEMS

  • Advocated for by "Desegregate CT", this legislation also re-organizes and makes additional modifications to the 8-2 statute beyond HB 6107. The bill replaces "character of the district" with "physical site characteristics and architectural context." It provides homeowners the right to add "accessory dwelling units " (ADUs) to their properties. It limits the ability of towns to mandate parking minimums above certain levels and uses bedrooms in a dwelling unit to guide the decision making. It requires zoning enforcement officers to be trained and allows for subsurface community sewage systems to handle greater capacity, in part to address potential ADUs. It creates a working group to develop model codes which local bodies can choose to adopt for the review building proposals.
  • It creates a working group to develop model codes which local bodies can choose to adopt for the review of building proposals.
  • What was NOT voted out of committee and was removed from the original proposal was a requirement that municipalities permit transit orientated development (TOD) construction and "main street" construction of multi-family units This was section 6 of the original bill. Also removed were lines 357-364 of the original bill that would allow aggrieved parties to take legal action on noncompliant municipal zoning regulations. The training requirements for land use commissioners, section 9 of the original bill, were also removed.
  • To learn more about who Desegregate CT is click here.