Between Scylla and Charybdis? He may stall by veto now, but Ned Lamont is, after all, a Democrat, so this bill will be back, soon
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Lamont seeking revisions to controversial housing bill (House Bill 5002)
The General Assembly’s 2025 session ended last week, but the debate continues outside Hartford over a controversial housing bill that is prompting Gov. Ned Lamont to consider calling lawmakers into special session for revisions before he must sign or veto the legislation.
…. Options under consideration in talks with lawmakers include Lamont signing the bill on the promise that objectionable sections be revised before they take effect, or insisting on immediate changes in special session while he still has the leverage of a possible veto.
“So the question is: you sign it, fix the bill. Or don’t sign it, and get a new bill that works, takes down the temperature,” Lamont said Monday.
Lamont, a Democratic governor from Greenwich who won reelection in a landslide in 2022 with surprisingly deep suburban support, has heard complaints about the bill from elected mayors, first selectmen and voters from many of those same suburbs.
Some of the complaints involved “a lot of really gross misrepresentation, which I think is no help at all,” Lamont said.
“They say, ‘You’re taking away local authority. It’s the heavy hand of the state government.’ I think just the opposite. We’re trying to give towns the incentives to speed things up, get more housing where they need it,” Lamont said. “I want them to take the lead. That’s why we’re here.”
One piece of the bill known as “Towns Take the Lead” divides housing need among towns and assigns each town a set number of units to plan and zone for. That means every five years, towns would have a certain number of units they need to plan for, and some of those units will have to be for families or set aside for certain income levels.
“I thought it was an unnecessary provocation,” Lamont said. “You know, people are taking those numbers, they’re making it sound like a dictate. All it is is, these are some needs you may have, and how would you get there? It’s up to you to take the lead on that. But I think it was a problem.”
Other provisions generating opposition would require communities to allow developers to convert commercial buildings to residential with nine or fewer units without a special hearing before the planning and zoning commission. Another would ban minimum off-street parking requirements for certain residential developments.
“I don’t worry as much about the commercial piece. I hear back and forth a lot about the parking piece, but it’s just for the very smallest units,” Lamont said.
…. House Speaker Matt Ritter, D-Hartford, who spoke to the governor over the weekend, said in an interview he was under the impression that Lamont was inclined to veto the bill if there are no changes.
“We have not gotten to that specific level of detail, if that’s the option,” Ritter said.
Time is short: The governor is leaving at the end of the week for the Paris Air Show, and he estimates he has about 14 days before he must sign or veto the bill.
House Majority Leader Jason Rojas, D-East Hartford, a primary mover behind the bill, said crafting revisions addressing opposition may be difficult, since some of it is inaccurate in his view. The definition of what a “fair share” is for each community is an example, he said.
“There is a desire for great clarity about what fair share is and isn’t,” he said.
Fred Camillo, the Republican first selectman of Greenwich, is among those who have spoken to the governor. Camillo said there is a widespread perception that the bill as written would empower developers at the expense of local zoning.
He said some of the provisions were too broadly written, such as a matter of right to convert commercial buildings without review. The ban on a parking requirement would be problematic in Greenwich, where narrow streets often mean on-street parking is unsafe, he said.
Camillo, a former state representative, said he was hardly alone in lobbying Lamont.
“He is getting swamped,” Camillo said.
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House Minority Leader Vincent J. Candelora, R-North Branford, said the housing issue controversy had primarily been focused in Fairfield County. But no longer.
“My community never cared about it. Now that it has passed, my community is blowing up,” Candelora said.