Connecticut’s affordable housing law — the famous, or infamous, statute 8-30g — is a law the state has been reluctant to tamper with. But that may be changing.
State Sen. Toni Boucher, whose 26th District includes Ridgefield and six other bedroom communities, said this week that a bill had come out of the Housing Committee that would address a few of the concerns smaller towns have with the law.
“This bill, it didn’t pass the House and Senate yet, but it got out of the Housing Committee, which is a big deal,” Boucher said.
Under 8-30g, adopted in 1990, developers can ignore local zoning rules if they’re proposing developments with at least 30% of units to be rented under state affordability standards. The other units may be rented at market rates.
Although long unpopular with suburbs, the law has been supported by big city representatives who control the legislature, Boucher said, and the door to change has remained shut. Now there’s a crack in the door, she said.
“There’s a bill this year that just got out of the Housing Committee that would do a couple of very substantial things,” she said.
Affordable units built under the law may now be rented at rates affordable at 60% or 80% of either state median income or the region’s “area median income” — it’s the developer’s choice.
Boucher said the bill coming out of committee would require use of the lower of the median income figures to calculate the 60% and 80% rents.
“It would say the lesser of the area median income or the state median income — it has to be the lower of the two,” Boucher said.
The other area where the bill offers some changes concerns the four-year moratoriums that towns can seek, but which are hard to qualify for — Ridgefield is one of the few towns that’s gotten one.
The bill would adjust some of the rules for the “point system” used to demonstrate a town is making progress on expanding affordable housing.
“What they’ve done in this bill is to make the moratorium more user-friendly,” she said.
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