Connecticut’s affordable housing law, 8-30g, is controversial because it is much needed but it does not work. Only 18 percent of the state’s 169 cities and towns are in compliance with the law, which incentivizes developers to build units in towns that cannot defend themselves in court and makes towns and developers adversaries instead of partners.
The formula should be reversed from incentivizing developers to move into towns to incentivizing the towns instead. The carrot rather than the stick is the only way 8-30g can achieve the goals its crafters in the legislature envisioned.
Connecticut’s 8-30g statute pressures towns to provide at least 10 percent of their housing in the affordable range, and has led to lawsuits, non-compliance and housing not consistent with a given town’s character.
Towns could be persuaded to develop more affordable housing units if they were allowed to control their aesthetic, character, and zoning regulations while getting state support equivalent to what is currently budgeted for 8-30g.
Two types of ignored housing opportunities, “naturally occurring affordable housing” (NOAH) and “middle neighborhoods,” are plentiful in most towns, and developers should be encouraged to shift their focus from new, expensive development to the more cost-effective approach of restoring existing types of homes, such as townhouses, duplexes, and small multi-family units as affordable housing.
These units currently do not count toward the 10 percent requirement of...
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