Connecticut Governor Flip-flops, Vetoes Affordable Housing Bill

Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont (D) on Monday vetoed a sweeping housing reform bill that his administration helped to negotiate.

Lamont said the legislation pushed too far in mandating local zoning changes and lacked adequate support from municipal leaders, the Connecticut Post reported.

“I think for housing to continue growing successfully, it has to be led by our towns, it has to be led by our first selectmen, it has to be led by our mayors,” Lamont said at a news conference. “I just don’t think it works if it’s us against them.”

The vetoed legislation — H.B. 5002 — passed in the final days of the legislative session and aimed to increase affordable housing supply through a mix of zoning mandates and incentives.

Its most contentious provision, the “Towns Take the Lead” initiative, would have required each municipality to zone for a target number of affordable units while rewarding compliance with priority access to certain state funds, according to the Post.

Despite Lamont’s early involvement in shaping the bill, he said his position changed after further review.

The governor emphasized that while he opposes “local red tape,” he wants housing policy to be shaped from the ground up.

“Tell me what you want your town to look like in 10 years and put in place plans to make it happen,” he said, expressing a desire to renegotiate the bill and revisit it during a potential special session in September.

Proponents of H.B. 5002 argued the legislation respected municipal autonomy by allowing towns to opt in or out of major provisions.

It also included measures to promote transit-oriented development, allow residential conversions of commercial buildings, ban hostile anti-homelessness infrastructure and prevent towns from imposing minimum parking requirements for housing.

State House Majority Leader Jason Rojas (D), a supporter of the bill, cast doubt on the feasibility of zoning reform without firm legislative pressure, the Post reported.

“History doesn’t seem to bear out, at least on a consistent basis, or on a statewide basis, that towns really want to do this,” he said. “”There are certainly some pockets of success, but for the most part locally elected officials don’t want to change very much about what they’re doing.”

Municipal leaders and opponents of the bill welcomed the veto.

Joe DeLong of the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities praised Lamont for “listening to local leaders,” while Betsy Gara of the Connecticut Council of Small Towns criticized the bill’s “unrealistic ‘fair share’ housing goal.”

Housing advocates condemned the decision.

“There’s a real difference between the explanations he was giving, which make sense, and the actions he was taking, which was to veto,” Hugh Bailey of the Open Communities Alliance told the Post. “I can’t make sense of it, to be honest.”