Camillo Testifies at Planning & Development Committee against Work live Ride Act

Good morning, Honorable Sen. Rahman, Rep. Kavros-DeGraw, Sen. Fazio, Rep. Zullo, and members of the Planning & Development Committee….

My name is Fred Camillo, a former colleague of yours and current First Selectman of Greenwich.

I am writing to express my strong opposition to HB 6890, the Work-Live-Ride Act. This is yet another punitive/threatening legislative proposal that, like 8-30g, benefits developers and developer-backed organizations, whose lobbyists are mostly paid for by the developers, at the expense of 163 of 169 municipalities.

The Hartford driven proposal is the latest bill to punish towns by taking away local autonomy and giving it to bureaucrats who make up the theoretical Office of Responsible Growth. Make no mistake about it, there is nothing ” responsible ” in these bills, others like it, and its goals. This baffling proposal gets even stranger when you read that it proposes to mandate how many units need to be built per acre. Mandates on towns that are well run, and diverse, is bad policy. Mandating that all towns share the same characteristics is absurd.

I have faith in our local planning & zoning commissions whose job it is to ensure appropriate development that incorporates a focus on infrastructure, the environment, historic preservation, and most importantly. the health and safety of our residents.

Please work with all stakeholders in our beautiful state to bring back jobs, stop outmigration, and implement more pro-growth policies that mirror the time that Connecticut was an economic power, even for a small state. Doing so would keep everyone busy, productive, and away from bad, one size fits all legislative proposals that just divide, rather than unite, our state and its residents.

Fred CamilloFirst SelectmanTown of Greenwich