Fairfield Affordable Housing Could Be Affected By CT Zoning Bill

FAIRFIELD, CT — After months of discussion in Hartford — and Fairfield — several changes to state zoning law that could affect affordable housing in town passed in the House and Senate, just days after the Board of Selectmen approved a resolution opposing the policies.

The proposed changes, which will now go to Gov. Ned Lamont for consideration, inspired a protest rally and several community conversations this spring in Fairfield.

“This is about controlling our No. 1 asset, which is our real estate,” Selectman Tom Flynn said during a May 17 meeting, at which he spoke in favor of the resolution against state-mandated “one-size-fits-all” zoning legislation.

The resolution also opposed granting an outside authority jurisdiction over Fairfield’s affordable housing plan and supported local zoning control. The measure passed along party lines with Democrat Nancy Lefkowitz as the lone dissenter.

“To me, community doesn’t stop at the borders,” Lefkowitz said, arguing the legislative process was the appropriate method to determine zoning laws.

First Selectwoman Brenda Kupchick said that while she didn’t expect the resolution would change minds in Hartford, she wanted to send a message.

“Take a deep breath, stop passing things, and let us work on what we already have before us,” she said. “We should at least be given the chance to submit our housing plans and to comply with what’s already been asked.”

The General Assembly went a different route. On May 20, the House voted to advance an amended version of House Bill 6107, and the Senate approved the changes Thursday. The bill creates a panel to monitor municipalities’ affordable housing compliance and redefines the word “character” to tie it to physical standards, according to the Hartford Courant. It also allows for accessory units — which are already permitted in Fairfield — and limits parking requirements for apartment developers, the Courant reported.

Municipalities can opt out of the parking rules with a two-thirds vote of the zoning commission and Board of Selectmen.

A partisan divide was evident in how Fairfield legislators responded to the bill’s passage.

“HB 6107 will empower communities to plan for their futures, address economic development and environmental sustainability, and promote the creation of equitable and inclusive communities,” state Rep. Cristin McCarthy Vahey, D-133, said in a Facebook post. “COVID has taught us how much what happens in one place impacts another. This bill ... will help us understand that connection to one another and to support one another, both individually as communities and collectively as a state.”

McCarthy Vahey co-chairs the state’s Planning and Development Committee. State Sen. Tony Hwang, R-28, is a ranking committee member.

“I am deeply concerned about how this bill has been misleadingly purported to ‘empower’ local zoning and land use rules,” he said in a news release. “If the legislature truly wanted to implement visionary solutions in affordable housing regulations then we should re-explore CT General Statute section 8-30g which has not been examined since 1989.”

Section 8-30g applies to towns where less than 10 percent of housing stock meets criteria to be recognized as affordable. Under the law, the only way Fairfield officials can avoid approving housing proposals that consist of at least 30 percent affordable units is by proving a project poses a threat to public health, welfare and safety that outweighs the need for affordable housing.

In recent years, the town has signed off on 20 developments with nearly 1,400 total units — just over 300 of which are affordable — under either 8-30g or inclusionary zoning regulations, Fairfield Planning Director Jim Wendt said May 5 at a town hall event to discuss proposed zoning changes.

The Senate zoning vote wasn’t the only affordable housing news to affect Fairfield in recent days. On Thursday, the Fairfield Housing Authority and Operation Hope declared an affordable housing crisis in town in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, citing Fairfield’s restricted economy and high housing costs, and calling on Lamont and local state legislators to allocate funds to address the problem.