Bridgeport State Rep. Antonio Felipe, co-chair of the General Assembly’s Housing Committee, shares this commentary about the new housing legislation passed by the General Assembly in the recent special session.
Last week the Connecticut general assembly, in Special Session, passed a robust piece of Housing policy after what was seemingly a full year of work. In actuality, parts of this bill took a full decade to pass and the underlying problems are far from solved.
I would like to spend my time here focusing on the immense opportunity created in this bill and how we can capitalize on it in the state.
The first thing this bill does is establish a First Time Homebuyer Savings account. This allows people, of certain income levels, to make tax deductible contributions to a savings account that can go towards most costs associated with buying their first home. Currently the median age of all home buyers is 59 years old, for first timers is 40 years old, both record highs. These sections provide some tax relief and structure to saving for a home to counteract the high demand in the current market.
The next and most debated section is about Housing Growth Plans. These plans are exactly what they sound like, a plan for a city or town to create more housing based on a variety of factors that measure needs for all types of housing and the availability of vacant and/or developable land. Towns will be given a number of units they need from their regional Council of Government (COG) and will be able to negotiate and provide updated numbers based on their self assessed ability to reach that number. While the State Office of Policy and Management and the COG’s will assess state and regional need, municipalities will have the final say on their numbers.
More housing stock will relieve some current market pressures and allow more affordable units to be truly available in part due to middle class families moving into true middle housing. The opportunity for more affordable housing in all towns would ease large cities’ responsibility for providing most regional affordable housing. That conflated with towns’ reliance on cities for emergency, government, and nonprofit services leaves a lot of city property tax-exempt, driving our tax rates above those of neighboring communities. Municipalities that provide a valid Housing Growth Plan will be able to access the Housing Growth Fund, a $50M pot of money that will be distributed annually to help towns build more of their needed affordable units.
Other sections include opportunities for more discretionary funding for cities and towns that establish a Transit Oriented District or TOD. These TODs allow for certain types of housing to be built “as of right” or without special permission from zoning boards. The goal of these districts is to stimulate local economy, cutting down on commuter costs, providing workforce opportunities and focusing on creating accessible and walkable communities. This is all incentive based and there is no penalty if you do not establish a TOD.
Similarly we now have the ability to establish priority housing zones. This a zone made up of at least ten percent of a town or city’s total density that would allow for the development of middle housing as of right. Middle housing being multifamily units but not apartment buildings. Duplexes to Quadplexes. Towns that do this will gain extra housing unit equivalent (HUE) points towards a moratorium from 8-30g for every unit built. Like the TODs these are optional and provide benefit upon opting in but no consequences if you don’t.
Mandatory parking requirements have long been seen as an impediment to building in certain areas. While these minimums work to protect certain areas from traffic issues stemming from street parking, in more transit oriented areas it bars developers from building housing where some may opt to take public transit anyway. In House Bill 8002, developments of 16 or fewer units are exempt from minimum parking requirements and developments of more than 16 units must submit a parking needs assessment to local zoning rather than adhere to fixed minimums.
Due to these changes there are two benefits to a municipality. Firstly is the opportunity to create Parking Mitigation Districts, where a municipality can create up to two separate zones no larger than 8 percent of their total land in which parking minimums can be enforced on all development. Secondly there are Fees in Lieu of Parking where instead of parking minimums, local planning and zoning can place a fee on developers for each required space.
Smaller sections of the bill include the ability for commercially zoned properties to be converted into housing as of right. Our Unions can opt into a grant program where they leverage pension funds to build affordable housing. A Pilot program will be established where the Department of Housing will provide mobile shower and laundry services to those experiencing homelessness. There is the prohibition of hostile architecture, which is any structure to impede sitting or sleeping, think a bar in the center of a long bench. Private elevator inspections will be required more often, 18 months rather than 3 full years. The state will also be able to act as a developer through the state department of housing to develop affordable housing on state owned land.
House bill 8002 only begins to make the progress needed to solve our Housing Crisis here in the State of Connecticut but it plants a flag in many regards. It allows for the burden to build affordable to hopefully be spread amongst all parts of the state. This bill incentivizes middle housing to be built to release market pressure and make affordable units truly available. It also removes impediments to building new and making commercial conversions. This is not a silver bullet that will solve housing, it is a document full of opportunity to increase the State’s housing stock should we step up and realize the potential.
