Hugh Bailey

I keep making this point. We have a process where towns and cities signal their buy-in. It's called an elected legislature, and they voted for it.

Just completely baffling and infuriating in equal measures

"The majority were also from a few towns in Fairfield County — New Canaan, Greenwich, Fairfield, Darien and Westport were named specifically. "

Sorry we can't build housing in this state, Darien doesn't want it.

This, for what it's worth, is nonsense from Lamont's spokesman.

"The Governor ultimately did not sign the housing bill into law because of concerns he had around whether local leaders would be able to achieve the goals outlined in the bill"

What?

There were no concerns about policy. There was widespread understanding that the complaints were based on misinformation from people who hadn't read the bill. Almost all the "no" emails were spammed.

And then the governor vetoed it anyway.

Emails: Lamont sought counsel on HB 5002 housing bill opposition CT Gov. Ned Lamont involved his wife, a former state senator and others in discussions over how to respond to opposition to HB 5002.

Just so much going on in this story.
In June, Lamont said he wished he'd been involved earlier in discussions on the bill.
But Patrick Hulin, Lamont’s policy director, emailed in mid-May ... thanking lawmakers “for engaging us so thoroughly in this process.”
ctmirror.org/2025/08/18/c...

It's almost as if they're not arguing in good faith

All this over 80 single-family homes on 60 (60!) acres, restricted to seniors.

It is, as always, a choice to write about housing like this, even if area reporters seem addicted to this format.

As usual, the implication is that if the units were more affordably priced, then there would be fewer objections to their construction. There is no reason to believe that is true.

I'm sorry you don't get to stop people from turning on lights in a suburb. Truly we should block housing because this guy likes to use his telescope.

You, the people testifying, are the problem here. You are the habitat destruction. You are the traffic congestion.

You thought you were raising your kids on a deserted island? You live in a suburb. People live there.

Not for nothing, but the most danger many kids will likely face is living in a car-dependent suburb at all, whether these homes are build or not. Cars are dangerous, not homes.

A "quiet street"? "near an elementary school"? Will the horrors never cease?

Newtown residents blast builder’s zoning change bid to allow 80 senior homes: 'Against it fully' Representatives for Shelton builder A.J. Grasso said rezoning the 60-acre property to allow a cluster development for people 55 and older would address a need for senior housing in Newtown.

Just a master class in anti-housing nonsense from the suburbs in this one. Over and over with the terrifying details. You really need to brace yourself for this one.

Newtown residents blast builder’s zoning change bid to allow 80 senior homes: 'Against it fully' www.newstimes.com/news/article...

ROAN is back—appealing P&Z’s rightful denial of its incomplete Hamlet plan—and continuing their threat of an outsized, Stalin-Esque 100-foot high 8-30g project. They’re cowardly smearing The Westport Alliance for Saugatuck by pretending their threat was our fault and misappropriating our name.

Glad to see everyone in Westport is keeping things in perspective.

westportjournal.com/community/we...

Rob Blanchard, director of communications for the governor’s office, said although the state has made “great strides” to address the housing shortage, post-pandemic building costs have impacted supply. “Connecticut is also reported to have some of the most constrained housing supply in the nation, which has exacerbated our shortage,” Blanchard said.

Truly, the mind reels

CT is adding more housing in most towns, but growth is slowing ctmirror.org/2025/08/15/c...

I can think of a lot of ways to make Greenwich and Westport more affordable but I suspect we'd get a lot of "NO NOT LIKE THAT" if they were pursued.

It is, when you step back a minute, so ridiculous on every level.

You'd think it'd be a stretch to get George Soros into our state's stupid little zoning fight but somehow they found a way.

Exactly. If this building magically filled up again with office workers no one would be demanding traffic fixes

Conversion of downtown Danbury office building into 200-apartment complex hinges on traffic issues “The existing detection equipment and the existing signal wiring at South Street and Main Street is very old," says Veera Karukonda, the city’s traffic engineer.

Office buildings famously generate zero traffic

Conversion of downtown Danbury office building into 200-apartment complex hinges on traffic issues www.newstimes.com/news/article...

CT's opioid settlement is for saving lives, not balancing books Gov. Ned Lamont will be tempted to move funds from the hard-won opioid settlements to fill the gaps. This temptation should be resisted.

In Connecticut, and across the country, the crunch on states and cities from disappearing federal funds will have them eyeing hard-won Opioid Settlement dollars to fill in gaps. We need to keep our policymakers honest to keep this from happening. @yaleadm.bsky.social ctmirror.org/2025/08/12/c...

My senator wants me to stop pretending this is normal. Thanks, Chris.

Also, the implication here seems to be that I wrote the bill or made it needlessly confusing.

That's really not how it works

That's about coming up with a proxy for the number of housing units needed.

Bills are confusing. Most people aren't lawyers.

Why you're going out of your way to defend supposed policy experts lying about what's in the bill is beyond me.

for very low- or extremely low-income households. The only requirement is housing for low-income households, which, as mentioned, is up to 80 percent AMI.

There is (or was) no requirement to plan or zone for 0-30 percent AMI.

It has been discussed in many news stories, for many months.

Thanks for the update.

If you're suggesting CCM made this mistake in good faith, I'd question that.

The bill defines affordable housing unit (line 262). That's up to 80 percent AMI. Everything following on plans for affordable housing uses this definition. There are no requirements (cont'd)

Offhand? No. It doesn't matter anyway, the bill got vetoed

The number of units came from the consultants report. The bill did not call for towns to plan and zone for 0-30 percent AMI.

This has been widely reported for months.

Yes, and I explained why allocating it regionally is a bad idea in this state.