Dear Chairwoman Kavros-DeGraw, Chairman Rahman, Vice Chairman Needleman, Vice Chairman Chafee, Ranking Member Zullo, Ranking Member Fazio, and Distinguished Members of the Connecticut General Assembly Joint Planning and Development Committee:
My name is Melissa Kaplan-Macey and I am the Vice President for State Programs and Connecticut Director at Regional Plan Association.
RPA is a non-profit civic organization that has been working in Connecticut for the past 100 years. We focus on research and planning to improve economic opportunity, mobility, environmental sustainability and quality of life in the NY-NJ-CT region and advocate for public policies that are supported by our research. We strongly support Work Live Ride/HB6890: An Act Concerning Qualified Transit Communities as an important tool for advancing transit oriented communities in Connecticut.
RPA research shows that focusing development around transit is one of the most cost-efficient and environmentally sustainable ways to create more housing opportunity. Transit oriented development concentrates homes in areas with infrastructure and takes the pressure off greenfields, preserving natural spaces, while putting new residences close to businesses and amenities.
And we need more homes in Connecticut.
The housing crisis in Connecticut is no longer a topic of debate. But the question remains- how are we going to solve it? While no one strategy is the silver bullet that will address all of the housing challenges in our state, more homes near transit is one important part of the solution. Encouraging more homes in areas where we have invested in transit is common sense planning and is a smart investment in Connecticut’s future. And it’s also popular among voters -- according to a recent poll conducted by Growing Together Connecticut, 76% of people in Connecticut support building more homes near transit.
According to the Partnership for Strong Communities, almost half of homerenters (49%) and a third of homeowners (30%) spend more than 30% of their income on housing. Connecticut is simply too expensive for too many people and housing costs continue to rise. Lack of housing choice is a problem for individuals and families, and it’s also a problem for our state’s economy. Not only do we continue to hear that our residents can’t afford to live here, but now we’re hearing more and more that the housing crisis is affecting the business community too. According to the Connecticut Business and Industry Association (CBIA), as of November 2022, Connecticut had 102,000 job openings that remained unfilled; 46% more than in February 2020. If we don’t create more opportunities for more homes at price points that workers can afford, jobs will remain unfilled and we lose the companies that our economy depends on.
A key part of the problem is supply and demand- there simply aren’t enough homes that meet the needs of people at different income levels and stages of life in Connecticut. We have lots of single family homes on large lots and not enough of other types of homes like 2, 3 and 4 family homes and apartments. According to the CT Zoning Atlas, single family homes are allowed as of right on 91% of land in Connecticut, while apartments with four or more units are allowed as of right on only 2% of the land in our state. Creating more housing options with more development near transit is a smart way to make tangible progress towards addressing this gap.
In 2013, RPA, together with Partnership for Strong Communities, Connecticut Fund for the Environment, and Tri-State Transportation Campaign, put together a toolkit full of great ideas for implementing transit oriented communities in Connecticut. Here we are 10 years later and we haven’t made much progress.
As proposed in Work Live Ride/HB6890, in order to meaningfully move the needle on the opportunity for TOD in Connecticut, we need stronger incentives and more state support for our local communities who are working to create more homes near transit, with technical assistance and support from the Office of Responsible Growth. Focusing the state’s resources in partnership with those communities that want to advance TOD in the places where Connecticut taxpayers have already made substantial infrastructure investments in transit is a common sense approach, targeting state resources to places where they will have the greatest return on investment.
We can be a state that attracts jobs and workers, where our children can live in the communities where they grew up, where we can see our grandkids without having to fly across the country, where older adults can stay in their communities as they age, and where workers can live near their jobs. We just need to plan for it at the local level and act on it at the local level with support from the state. That is the framework that Work Live Ride/HB6890 provides for Connecticut -- now is the time to act.
Thank you for the opportunity to testify.
