Connecticut’s newly formed Council on Housing Development met for the first time Tuesday to begin chipping away at priorities amid the start of a new legislative session.
The Council was formed as a result of the omnibus housing bill approved last fall during a special session of the state legislature. Its first meeting was supposed to be held by Jan. 1, but vetting members and the holiday season backed up the timeline.
Wastewater capacity could help determine areas for new housing across the state and is a goal of the Council, according to Rebecca Augur, with the state Office of Policy and Management’s Office of Responsible Growth.
The office is in charge of a wastewater capacity study which will better help communities determine how to increase housing safely.
“There are significant data gaps that will be difficult to fill,” Augur said. “Our approach is going to be to come back to this body with, you know, a summary of ‘Here's what we know. Here's what data we can access. Here’s what we’d like to know.’”
The Council is co-chaired by Democratic State Sen. Bob Duff, who represents Norwalk and Darien, along with John Guszkowski, a planning and policy group founder.
The council includes state lawmakers, representatives from state agencies, academics in the housing field and developers.
“We are going to kind of break new ground as we go along, because this is a brand new council,” Duff said.
The first meeting consisted largely of member introductions and an overview of the Council’s mission, to support the construction of more housing statewide.
One of the Council’s goals is to streamline the collection and organization of housing data, to better determine what is needed, what requires funding and where the state can step in, according to Duff.
“That's the whole idea of this, is to build housing, is to help guide cities, towns and COGs [Councils of Goverment], and ultimately to build housing so that we keep all commissioners here very busy,” Duff said.
The Council’s work will include guiding grant funding applications and reviewing local housing plans.
“We still have a great ability to kind of guide ourselves into what we think our priorities are and how we want to see this council develop itself and set a pathway,” Duff said.
