Take Action & Speak Out!

I am requesting your support in exempting towns with over seventy percent watershed land from the application of CT Housing Statute 8-(30) g. The law enables developers proposing development in watersheds that violate local zoning laws to sue these reservoir towns if the developer’s proposal is denied.

CALL TO ACTION: State Housing Committee: Convert Senator Hwang’s “bill concept” into a bill and schedule a hearing in which this bill and other concepts to protect Ct.’s watersheds from high-density development can be considered. This bipartisan effort is vital for protecting Ct.’s water supply, concentrated in reservoir towns.

Other State Committees: Support this concept in your committee. Support this concept in the Housing Committee by contacting members, especially Chairman Marilyn Moore @ [email protected].

Additionally, CT Statute 8-(30)g undermines local zoning and conservation efforts, and unfairly burdens small towns with litigation costs as they struggle to protect everyone’s water. These reservoir towns are not appropriate places for high-density development because they do not have sewers. Without sewers, it is hazardous to build high-density housing safely. Look at Lake Candlewood’s big problem with septic systems leaking into the lake.

Or look at what is happening in Ledyard Ct. Ledyard borders a river that drains into Groton Reservoir, so their zoning requires one and a half acres per house. A developer bought a nine-acre parcel on the river and has proposed twenty-six houses with twenty-six different septic/leeching fields and twenty-six wells. That is 1/3 an acre per home on land that borders the watershed.

How does this kind of development make sense? Ledyard turned the developer down and he sued the town under CT Housing Statute 8-(30) g in Hartford Land Court. The court ordered mediation.

In mediation, the developer offered slightly less dense but unwise proposals that violated Ledyard’s zoning, and the town refused them. This abuse of a well-intentioned law designed to create low-cost housing (which, to be cheap, must be higher density) underscores the urgency of amending 8-(30) g to safeguard our water, secure public health, and protect Connecticut’s environment.

Thank you for considering this critical matter.

Sincerely,

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