Make Your Voices Heard - Protect Local Zoning

You can submit testimony for Monday's hearing

As you may recall, the the “Work Live Ride” zoning proposal was defeated thanks to the Connecticut Republicans last year.

Like any bad bill in Connecticut, they get re-treaded and put back for consideration and now with a Supermajority in the House and Senate in Hartford for the democrats, it is back for the passing - UNLESS YOU SPEAK UP.

The proposal, HB6831, would require municipalities to adopt as-of-right development for up to 10 units around/near bus or train stations or deprive municipalities of their eligibility for hundreds of millions of dollars in state funding. THESE THREATS MUST STOP.

The 4th Congressional District sends billions in taxpayer dollars to Hartford every year and your taxation gets you limited representation. There are a handful of sensible State Representatives and State Senators that actually represent our interests and fight for local control of our towns. The rest want a dictatorship from Hartford telling us what to do. The Power to make this stop is IN YOUR HANDS.

This latest round of a bill forces our downtowns to put up developments or withhold the limited state funds that come back into the district.

We have fought hard to bring this issue to your attention and push for local control and the only real way to improve housing is to leave it in the hands of your local towns while making Connecticut affordable with home ownership opportunities (not Rentals), make the commutes better on I-95, increase jobs in the district and make your electric bill affordable again. This latest bill is another run-around of 8-30g and enough is enough. - See our past article on 8-30g here - You should also check out CT-169 Strong here

If you are reading this, then you can make a difference and impact the discussion from the convenience of your armchair. In this rare instance, armchair avengers can spread this like wildfires on social media and inundate Hartford with testimony.

Please testify against Work Live Ride and in favor of local control of housing decisions. The live hearing is Monday Feb. 3rd starting at 10:30AM.

To sign up to testify over Zoom or in person, do so HERE.

To submit written testimony, do so HERE.

Here is a canned testimony if you need some talking points:

Dear Senate and House representatives of Connecticut.

My name is ____________ and I am a resident of the town of _____________.

I am writing this testimony in opposition to HB6831 concerning transit oriented communities and development as of right in downtown areas that are located near bus transit or rapid transit areas. I have a real problem with legislators making housing decisions for my community when they do not live there and threatened to withhold sending back tax revenues if they failed to comply with legislation such as this one. This is classic overreaching.

The opt-in options required by this bill would force a town like mine to surrender local decision making to some zoning coordinator that would overrule local zoning boards. Our town actually takes into consideration meaningful objections by neighbors and other impacted residents which would disappear under HB 6831.

I know that local control of zoning and housing development is in the best interest of my community and such overarching control by Hartford will cause developments that will cause unintended consequences such as increased traffic, increased frustration, and increase friction among neighborhoods or such larger developments and do not fit in with the landscape.

We already have similar developments in my town, and the majority of my fellow neighbors are not pleased with the results.

I strongly object to this bill in favor of local zoning. Enough is enough.

Sincerely ___________

Thank you for your continued support. Please subscribe and spread the word.

Dr. Michael Goldstein & Jonathan Goldstein

The father-son team continues on so please spread the word and lets really rebuild CT together in a meaningful way.

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