Connecticut falls behind neighboring states in the passage of land use laws that would make it easier to build new housing.
A new land use data tracker, created by New York University’s Furman Center, determines how easy or difficult it is to construct housing in each state. The tracker places Connecticut in the middle of the pack.
Connecticut’s reliance on local zoning control over state-level control has led the state to fall behind, according to State Rep. Jason Rojas, a Democrat who represents East Hartford and Manchester.
“We have this deep romanticization with local control, even though we're not a home rule state,” Rojas said.
The tracker catalogues the bills each state has passed in recent years that have to do with housing construction. Connecticut falls behind similar-sized states in terms of the number of bills approved that would make it easier to construct housing.
While Connecticut passed 11 land use revision bills in the last nine years, Rhode Island passed 42 and New Hampshire approved 20, according to the tracker.
Connecticut’s current method of incentivising towns to build more affordable housing, without any real consequences for not doing so, isn’t enough, Rojas said.
“There's a lot more interest in providing incentives for communities to do things,” Rojas said. “We've been doing that for a very long time, and given the outcomes that we have around housing production and housing costs in Connecticut, I can't say that the incentive approach is actually working.”
Connecticut has a history of giving towns and cities control over what gets built where, but Rojas said the state should have more of a say.
“I am more of a proponent of being more prescriptive about what towns and cities should be doing, but the politics are not necessarily on my side on that,” Rojas said.
The tracker looks at land use reform approved since 2017 that would help advance the construction of housing. Types of legislation include approving Accessory Dwelling Units statewide, certain environmental reviews or requiring each community to have an affordable housing plan.
“This is going to be an incredibly useful resource, not just for researchers, for journalists who want to track things, and, of course, for policymakers who are always looking for examples of other legislation where they can get ideas (and) figure out pieces to copy,” Jenny Schuetz, Vice President of Infrastructure-Housing at Arnold Ventures said.
