New Canaan committee hears update on HB 5002, weighs local purchase option and middle-housing needs

Tom O'Day, appearing as a guest speaker to update the New Canaan Affordable Housing Committee on state housing proposals, told the committee there is a “high level of confidence that 05/00/2002 is not gonna be jammed through” at an imminent special session, though he added that the issue is likely to return in the next legislative cycle. O'Day described a local alternative he is proposing (bill 64‑92) that would give a town a right to buy a proposed 8‑30g development at a 5% premium and require the town to build roughly 75% of the proposed affordable units within eight years or face specified penalties.

The proposal and the committee discussion focused on three immediate points: maintaining local control, the practical costs of producing deeply affordable housing, and the limits of the state's incentives. O'Day summarized his purchase idea this way: “if an 8 30 g is proposed ... the town could buy that at a 5% premium. And then within 8 years, the town would have to build 75% of what was proposed affordable.” He said the bill would include penalties intended as incentives: one 5% payment to the original seller, one 5% to local…