Connecticut Assembly to Reconsider TOD Bill

A bill that would encourage more transit-oriented development is back before the Connecticut State Assembly, reports Sam Hilton in Connecticut Mirror.

Dubbed Work, Live, Ride by the housing advocacy group DesegregateCT, this measure would prioritize communities with qualifying transit-oriented districts when doling out discretionary infrastructure funding or grants such as the Small Town Economic Assistance Program (STEAP) or the Urban Act Grant Program, both of which help municipalities invest in economic revitalization.

The law defines transit-oriented districts as “an area within a half-mile radius of a train or bus station that a city or town has designated for mixed-use and more dense development.” The zones would permit middle housing such as duplexes as well as higher-density multifamily housing. 

Notably, this new version of the bill allows “transit-adjacent” communities without their own transit stations to create their own transit-oriented districts as well. The updated bill would create a public water and sewer rehabilitation or expansion account to assist communities with improving their infrastructure to accommodate new development. 

Opponents say the law could force cities into zoning changes without community input. Hilton notes that the bill doesn’t force cities to create transit-oriented districts, but “specifies that a city must ask the secretary to designate such an area as qualifying for priority funding at a state level, and that areas that are already sufficiently dense can be grandfathered in at the town’s request, but don’t have to be.”