Legislators Set Housing Quotas

The House votes, May 27. CT-N

Weston has been assigned a quota of 383 affordable units to be added to its housing stock, a result of legislation passed in both chambers of the General Assembly in the closing days of May.

The bill mandates that the Town develop a detailed plan to reach the quota, submit it to the state for approval by a specific date, and alter certain zoning regulations.

Weston’s representatives in the legislature, State Senator Ceci Maher and State Rep. Anne Hughes, both voted in favor H.B. 5002, “An Act Concerning Housing and the Needs of Homeless Persons.” The bill now awaits the signature of Governor Ned Lamont, who is expected to sign.

383 is only one quarter of the 1,532 deemed Weston’s “fair share” by the state’s Office of Policy and Management (OPM), using a formula that lawmakers will refer to again ten years from now, all in pursuit of eventually adding around 120,000 affordable units statewide.

What towns must do

The law requires towns to submit a “priority affordable housing plan,” telling the state exactly how they will meet their allocations. Plans must specify properties where development could occur and how zoning regulations will be changed. (20 percent of municipalities, those with the lowest grand list per capita, are exempt.)

The bill anticipates the creation of priority housing development zones in town, and sets minimum housing densities that are allowed in them:

• Four units per acre for single-family detached housing.
• Six units per acre for duplexes or “townhouse housing,” defined by the Office of Legislative Research as a group of at least three attached single-family dwelling units.
• 10 units per acre for multifamily housing.

Plans must be approved by OPM, and each town has been given a due date based on the alphabetical order of its name. Weston’s deadline is June 1, 2029. From then on, a new plan must be submitted every five years.

There are rules for types of housing.

At least half of all units must be for families. Up to only 25 percent can be age or disability restricted, and no more than 20 percent can be one-bedrooms or studios.

The units must be deed restricted. For 40 years, they must be sold or rented at a price no more than 30 percent of the annual income of a person or family that is a low-income, very low-income, or extremely low-income household.

A town can appeal its allocation to the legislature with a detailed explanation of why the OPM-generated quota cannot be met (e.g., a lack of developable land), a description of how obstacles would be overcome (e.g., applying for grants to build wastewater systems), and a proposed reduced allocation it believes could be achieved.

What if they don’t?

The bill doesn’t contain much (if anything) in the way of carrots for towns that don’t really want to develop. Sticks take the form of money towns might not get if they fail to comply.

Towns without approved priority affordable housing plans could lose opportunities for discretionary state financial assistance. The bill doesn’t disqualify such towns, in fact it stipulates that nothing written makes them ineligible. But the bill does give preference to those with an approved plan, which is significant because many grant programs are competitive.

Discretionary fund programs most immediately relevant to Weston include the Clean Water Fund and grants from the Small Town Economic Assistance Program (STEAP).

For current examples (none of which, it seems, would be imperiled by this law, given the timing), the Town hopes to take advantage of a Clean Water Fund revolving loan program to help pay for replacing the system that supplies drinking water to the municipal campus and the schools.

STEAP grants totaling nearly $1 million covered most costs to improve Weston Police headquarters and for the new rooftop solar array at Public Works. The Town recently applied for a $645,000 STEAP grant to rehabilitate and expand the recreation trail at Bisceglie-Scribner Park.

Extra preference points and other funding sources are available to towns that form a “housing growth zone” around a central business district and transportation hub. These transit-oriented districts can have higher-density mixed-use zoning, but come with more as-of-right development. Towns without a transit station can join such a district in an adjacent municipality.

Zoning changes

It is not immediately clear, but assuming Governor Lamont signs the bill, H.B. 5002 could have an impact on existing regulations in the Weston Village District, the only part of town with commercial zoning.

Under the new law, “middle housing” can be built as-of-right (i.e., without regard to zoning classification) on any lot zoned for commercial use, so long as it would not adversely affect public health and safety.

Middle housing is a residential building with two to nine units such as duplexes, triplexes, quadplexes, cottage clusters, and townhouses.

The law also prohibits P&Z regulations that require a minimum number of off-street parking spaces in a residential development, again unless there is a demonstrable risk to health or safety.

Weston has no requirements for residential off-street parking, except in the Village District. These rules were a factor in the configuration of mixed-use development at 176 Weston Road as presented by Able Construction, although the developer has not yet filed a formal application and plan.

Another provision in the law makes it somewhat harder for property owners in and near an area proposed for rezoning to protest and force a supermajority vote by P&Z. Yet another gives courts the ability to award attorney’s fees to developers whose 8-30g affordable housing applications are found to be unjustly denied.

The allocation formula

In 2023, the legislature ordered the Office of Policy and Management to study affordable housing needs and report back with a methodology to determine each municipality’s “fair share” of affordable housing units.

The end result closely resembles an approach long favored by affordable housing advocates. Key elements include assigning a greater number of units to towns with grand lists higher than others in the region, a higher median income, a lower population living below the federal poverty line, and a lower percentage of residents living in multi-family dwellings.