A rally against recentlyproposed zoning bills is being planned by CT 169 Strong this weekend.
The group opposes several zoning bills under consideration by the Connecticut General Assembly that would remove local authority of Planning & Zoning commissions.
Among the bills the group opposes:
Transit Oriented Development (HB 5429) is a bill that would enable dense, ‘as of right’ development within a ½ mile of train and transit centers, and it doesn’t take into account historical areas or open space preservation.
Though the TOD bill did not come out of committee, it could be inserted into a placeholder bill or be attached to an omnibus bill during session.
Fair Share (HB 5204): If passed, this bill would create a formula (which hasn’t been determined yet) that would mandate expansion of affordable housing in towns that are deemed not to have enough, and could increase the current Affordable Housing statute (8-30g)’s target of 10% of total housing stock to be as high as 20%. This could require large increases in density to achieve the as-yet-undetermined new objective.
According to the flyer for the CT169strong.org rally, “State legislators have proposed a bunch of zoning bills aimed at flooding downtowns with ‘As of Right’ MARKET VALUE high density apartment developments and removing local control of zoning.”
The flyer continues: “They claim towns’ exclusionary zoning is keeping people of color out. That is a fallacy! Zoning regulations were adopted starting in 1910 to protect property values. Land is finite and unique – these one size fits all state mandates are aimed at overriding local zoning rules, taking away individual property rights and devaluing properties.”
According to the CT 169 Strong mission, there are three groups who benefit from zoning that overrides local zoning control: “opportunistic politicians…who divert attention away from their inability to be effective in their own capacities, political activists with “flawed simplistic thinking” and “misleading statistics” who “build up their resumes at the expense of our futures in our towns and cities,” and predatory builders “Who would get massive as-of-right building access to our towns and cities…”
The Zoning rally will be at the Springdale Train Station, 865 Hope Street in Stamford on Saturday, April 2 from 2:00pm to 3:00pm.