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June 2, 2025

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Shelton Residents:

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Please take the time to get acquainted with the following, which are two important issues that occurred last week in the Connecticut General Assembly.

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Anthony F. Simonetti, Chair

Shelton Republican Town Committee

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House Bill 5002

The proposal that would undermine local planning processes, impose difficult compliance burdens on towns, and create greater uncertainty regarding the availability of discretionary funding needed to address water pollution, support community and economic development, and investment in infrastructure.

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The Conn. State Senate passed HB 5002 early Saturday morning, May 31.  HB 5002 represents the most sweeping and overreaching state legislation in over 30 years with massive one-size-fits all re-zoning and “as-of-right” development mandates.  There has been bi-partisan opposition to the dangerous reach of this bill which contains multiple harmful provisions, not limited to the following:

 

Fair Share Housing Mandate - Requires the Conn. Office of Policy and Management to determine how many affordable housing units must exist in each town based on the town’s housing mix, grand list strength, wealth, and poverty.  A town’s water and wastewater capacity and other critical factors needed to support housing development cannot be considered.

 

Affordable Housing Allocations - Requires a town to adopt zoning regulations to “create a realistic opportunity” for developers to build affordable housing units to meet the affordable housing allocation to be determined by the state.  The OPM would be responsible for reviewing a town’s compliance and those towns who are may be prioritized for certain discretionary state funding, including grants from the Clean Water Fund, the Urban Act, the Small Town Economic Assistance Program (STEAP), the Main Street Investment Fund, and the Incentive Housing Zone program.  No consideration is given for small towns that do not have the capacity to meet the assigned housing allocation requirement.

 

Minimum Parking Requirements - Prohibits local zoning commissions from establishing minimum off-street parking requirements for certain housing developments.

 

As-of-Right Conversion of Commercial Buildings - Mandates that towns allow commercial buildings to be converted to residential housing developments as-of-right.

 

Municipal Liability Costs - Subjects a town to attorney’s fees and costs if a court determines that the town acted in bad faith or caused undue delays in appealing a decision on an 8-30g affordable housing project.  This would deter towns in its right to appeal projects that may pose certain environmental, traffic congestion, or other issues in their community.

 

Transit-Oriented Communities – Prioritizes funding for towns that qualify as a TOC and potentially removes small towns, who do not have the ability to qualify as a TOC, from receiving funding for municipal projects.

 

In light of the above, we ask you to help save our towns and cities from this very bad policy by contacting Gov. Lamont today by email (governor.lamont@ct.gov) or by phone (800-406-1527) to urge him to veto HB 5002.  The more emails and calls the Governor receives, the more he may realize that this bill must be vetoed in the best interest and general welfare of our State.

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Supporting Special Ed Funding

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Recently, I voted for a bill that supports our special education needs in Shelton.  In my comments, I raised concerns with certain legislative mechanisms and how relying on grant funding for new jobs and programs could leave us additional costs down the road; however, I believe that overall this is a step in the right direction.

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Not all laws are perfect, but some do have critical parts that address the needs of our community.  I look forward to keeping the conversation going on this bill to ensure we can provide long-term support for our

special education.