A housing-abundant Fairfield County will be a driver of the American Dream in Connecticut, and we need state leadership to help get us there.
A small number of anti-homestead activists are trying to maintain an exclusionary status quo, often using climate and environmental arguments to oppose wider prosperity, and as Hugh Bailey emphasized in his featured edition of August 7we don’t have to listen to them.
Thomas Broderick
Housing shortages are not a natural state, and a housing-friendly and opportunity-friendly Fairfield County will be a plus for its residents and the entire state.
Even though the 2022 legislative session ended in May, anti-opportunity activists continue to flood Connecticut opinion sections with anti-growth and anti-housing cries. For example, a recent article in the Connecticut Mirror made the incredible claim that local control in suburban Connecticut is actually climate and environmental politics. The author, a member of the Fairfield Zoning and Plan Commission and frequent opponent of Connecticut’s 8-30g affordable housing law, wrote:
This law [section 8-30g] it has seen little change in the more than 30 years it has been in place, and climate change has worsened in that time. Our lawmakers need to seriously re-visit and evaluate this law, which has created low affordability…and negatively affects our natural environment.
Amazingly, the article claims that affordable housing laws are actively harming the environment and implies that 8-30g is somehow to blame for not preventing climate change on its own. Like Marcus Palumbo he noted to the Fairfield Patchthe reality is exactly the opposite.
In fact, the truth is that towns like Fairfield have done nothing for the climate and the environment with their local control. A recent study from the University of Connecticut found that leveraging Connecticut’s existing Metro-North line will make the state more climate-resilient, but noted that Fairfield stations are not particularly walkable and are underutilized. Only 2% of Fairfield land allows something as small as three houses on one plot, whereas large portions of the city require two-acre minimum lots, increasing driveability and emissions.
What about the related claim that only local planning boards know how to manage their vulnerable waterways and wetlands? Unfortunately, that doesn’t hold up either.
While Fairfield has both a Conservation Commission i Inland Wetlands Agency, no organization was formed through local control. Instead, how Write the City of Fairfield website, “the regulation of inland wetlands and waterways in the City of Fairfield is a process initiated in 1974 by the Connecticut State Legislature.” Fairfield County’s suburban zoning boards have exercised their local control not in the name of the environment or the climate, but in the name of scarcity and exclusion, leaving us with the lowest vacancy rates in the country i home shredding i rental expenses.
So we know what exclusionary local zoning hasn’t done, but I want to focus on what a Fairfield County with abundant housing will do in its place. People looking for housing here take the housing shortage for granted and I don’t think they can imagine how transformative the housing abundance will be. Instead of middle-class families bidding against each other for a limited number of “member slots” in the county’s suburbs, they could spend that money on family vacations, hobbies, and experiences that make life worth living. pity We don’t have to accept the exclusive status quo supported by a vocal minority. We can choose prosperity over scarcity.
Housing abundance will mean more opportunities for families of all income levels to own, more affordable housing for those who need it, more grandparents who can downsize and age close to loved ones, more young adults in the region who can afford to settle near family and more customers for local businesses that are currently nothing more than a dream. A housing-abundant Fairfield County will be a job-generating machine for Connecticut, and a growing and dynamic economy will increase property values; we don’t have to artificially reduce the number of homes to achieve this. And most importantly, a housing-abundant Fairfield County will use its existing hubs and transit stops to generate less CO2 emissions and cleaner air.
With its access to New York City, the beautiful coastline, and great schools, Fairfield County is a lovely place to live, and I think more people should have the opportunity to make a life here if they flight. They should have the opportunity to own a single-family home with a backyard and they should have the opportunity to rent in a walkable downtown or live in an accessory housing unit near their family if that is what they would prefer.
The cornerstone of the American Dream is the ability to pursue opportunity, but that can only happen if you have a place to call home. Local control is restricting our choices and dreams, and we should ignore the voices that pretend it’s good for the environment or that exclusion is a valid policy.
In 2007 then Sen. Barack Obama said, “When our fellow Americans are denied the American Dream, our own dreams are diminished,” and I couldn’t agree more. Fairfield County in the first half of the 20th century was a place where people could achieve those dreams, but it wasn’t always equally available. Today, we need state leadership to usher in a fair and housing-abundant Fairfield County and help thousands achieve their American Dream. In the end, we will all be better off.
Thomas Broderick lives in Trumbull.