The jam Woodbridge has gotten itself into – allowing virtually no housing for the folks who cut their lawns, make their lattes, care for their elderly parents, teach their children – is a jam lots of Connecticut towns could soon face.
Yehyun Kim :: ctmirror.org
Mansions are lined up along Oenoke Ridge in New Canaan. The area is zoned for a 4-acre, single-family home.
On a sunny spring afternoon in 2016, Richard Freedman went on a bike ride through New Canaan.
The housing developer was fresh off a disappointment. He had applied to build housing for low-income people in Westport, but his plan had just been rejected.
As he rode through the hillsides that afternoon where mansions with gated entrances were separated from each other by four acres and stone walls Freedman wondered whether civil rights groups or developers would ever find a way to change zoning laws so that more than one housing unit could be built on these huge lots. The properties take up most of the town and largely shut out those who need affordable housing.
Controversial housing reform stumbles but Democrats vow to revive it By Ken Dixon and Julia Bergman May 4, 2021
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1of5A file photo from last December of a site for an affordable housing development in Stamford.Photo: Frank Franklin II / Associated Press
2of5House Majority Leader Jason Rojas, D-East HartfordPhoto: Contributed /
3of5State Rep. Steve Stafstrom, D-Bridgeport, co-chairman of the Judiciary CommitteePhoto: Emilie Munson / Hearst Connecticut Media
4of5State Rep. Craig Fishbein, R-Wallingford, ranking member of the Judiciary CommitteePhoto: Brian A. Pounds / Hearst Connecticut Media
5of5House Minority Leader Rep. Vincent Candelora, R-North BranfordPhoto: Dan Haar /Hearst Connecticut Media /
HARTFORD A controversial bill that would make it easier to file lawsuits against towns if they didn’t support new affordable housing, has quietly di