Opinion: A collision of CT's housing crisis and climate crisis

Each argument has value. Connecticut is pricing out two important groups for long-term stability: families and young people. However, the solution may not be copy-and-paste apartments with little local flavor, crammed full to satisfy the law’s provisions. With Gov. Ned Lamont’s veto of the omnibus housing package, several sections should be resurrected to ensure our state remains affordable. Several provisions are also important to combat the climate crisis on a local level.  

Included in the housing bill were subsidies for more Transit-Oriented Development (TOD). These subsidies would enable more mixed-use buildings and apartments around train stations. Without the housing law, proposals have already sprung up, such as the Hamlet at Saugatuck, in Westport. This community would feature restaurants, a hotel, and residences, including affordable housing. It is redeveloping an area of Westport that hasn’t seen much recent change.

The Hamlet is adjacent to the train station and has below-grade parking. This means a person can take the train to Westport, stroll to dinner, and stay in a walkable hotel. The public plazas and parks (totaling 50% of the project area), open the neighborhood up to the whole town. With the emergence of new local businesses, it promises economic development, offering a window into how zoning laws can influence our approach to climate change.

Single-family homes are the most resource-intensive style of building. While there are ways to make the process more sustainable, each home requires more energy and materials to build than the equivalent unit in a mixed-use building. In many Connecticut towns such as Westport, lot acreage minimums reduce walkability. This increases reliance on cars, resulting in higher emissions from gasoline or electricity. With TODs, we reduce the resource cost of residential units while emphasizing public transit use or walkability.

California recently repealed its 1970 environmental law for much the same reason as Connecticut must streamline these projects. The law (signed by then-Gov. Ronald Reagan) implemented strict environmental reviews for all projects, public and private. Since then, the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) has been used to strike down development after development. Neighbors of potential building sites and conservation organizations have argued in favor of the law, as it serves to protect their interests by providing a valid pathway to object to projects. Now, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law two bills fundamentally changing the way CEQA is applied.

Much like 8-30g, opponents were worried about the effect limiting environmental challenges would have on air and water pollution. The new laws favored CEQA exceptions, prioritizing housing projects, particularly TODs, in areas that have already been developed. These challenges are similar to those protected under 8-30g. Boards or plaintiffs must prove that a project poses an adverse health risk to the community, and then it must hold up in court if a developer chooses to appeal a board’s decision.

If we favor TOD, we are focusing on already developed areas. The Hamlet at Saugatuck poses little health or safety risk. A development near Fairfield-Black Rock station that has been stalled similarly poses no real risk (besides a decided lack of cohesion with the town’s New England aesthetics). Limiting the ability to block developments in urban or industrial areas on environmental grounds will lead to more climate-friendly housing without an outsized risk of environmental harm.

Denials ostensibly on the basis of environmental protection are often against the development on other grounds. These delays and court cases can last five years or more, as with the Greenwich Post Road Ironworks project. This stops good projects with many housing units in dense, walkable neighborhoods. 8-30g may be debated on how successful or unsuccessful it is at building affordable housing and keeping neighborhoods cohesive. Not debatable are the benefits of responsible transit-oriented development for the environment, and the duty we have to build more housing units in a sustainable manner.

Ewan Dignon is a Fairfield resident.