Rally urges local zoning control, opposes state oversight

WEST HAVEN — State and local Republicans on a mission to quash proposed legislation that would remove zoning issues from local control, implored the public at a rally Saturday to raise the matter with their elected officials.

“The power with you the people and with you the people only,” said Steven R. Mullins, a city Planning and Zoning commissioner who has taken on the cause statewide. “This is going to affect your neighborhoods.”

Mullins told the group they elect the legislators and they can “take them out,” at election time.

State Rep. Charles Ferraro, R-West Haven, urged the group of about 15 at the rally to contact their representatives to voice opposition and for each of them to contact 10 people and have those 10 do it as well.

Ferraro said a stateregulated “cookie-cutter” approach to zoning won’t work, in part, because municipalities will lose their character, he said. What works in West Haven might not work in Orange, Ferraro said. He said the capacity of sewers and similar systems vary by community, so the one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t work.

“It’s a very bad idea,” he said.

The rally was hosted CT 169 Strong, a coalition fighting proposed state legislation the group says will take away local zoning.

They have held rallies in East Haven and Fairfield, and promise more to come.

Proposed bills in the state House and Senate call for changes to local zoning, some of which would overrule local zoning authorities and mandate the construction of multi-family and affordable housing, regardless of existing local regulations.

One of a dozen bills that CT 169 Strong is particularly opposed to is S.B. No. 1024, “An Act Concerning Zoning Authority, Certain Design Guidelines, Qualifications of Certain Land Use Officials and Certain Sewage Disposal Systems.

The proposals include mandating where and what type of multi-family housing and accessory apartments are built, and mandating what towns take into account when determining whether to approve a housing project. In some cases, public hearings would be eliminated.

The officials agreed that increasing affordable housing and diversifying communities is an important goal, but state zoning control isn’t the answer.

State Sen. Tony Hwang, R-Fairfield, and a ranking member of the Planning and Development Committee, said what the Democratically-controlled state is trying to do is “unAmerican” and “un-Connecticut,” because “individual rights” and “property rights matter.”

He said nobody knows a community better than local people and that zoning is a difficult issue to get behind because most people think issues won’t arise with them. But it’s local control that keeps those from arising, he said.

Wong decried the “one party rule in Hartford.”

Some 15 attended Saturday’s rally on the Green and several were from Fairfield County and other places outside of West Haven. Organizers said they expected more to attend.

Carola Cammann, of Stamford, said people in Hartford don’t know what’s going on in her city.

“I want to be able to have a say. You can’t do that when it’s (the decisions) up in Hartford,” she said.

Wilm Donath, also of Stamford, called moving control to the state will lead to “huge mistakes,” that will require “money and bureaucracy to rectify.”

“That distance from the action (in local municipalities), you don’t know what’s going on,” Donath said.

The group held a rally in Fairfield, where some 50 people attended, many from other Fairfield County towns, some carrying signs advocating local zoning control.

Aa number of communities statewide expressed objection to the proposals through letters to legislators and local rallies.