Panel debates adding state land to H.50 inventory for affordable-housing potential

The House Committee on Corrections & Institutions on Feb. 27 heard testimony on H.50, a bill to create an inventory of state-owned property to identify parcels and buildings that might be suitable for affordable housing development. Commissioner Wanda Manoli of the Department of Buildings and General Services offered a counterproposal that would add land to the existing “space book” inventory and clarify what information agencies must provide.

Committee members framed the debate as largely procedural: who must collect and update the list, which state agencies must respond, and how frequently the legislature would receive the information. Commissioner Manoli said the inventory already exists for buildings and that adding land to the statutory inventory is principally a data-collection task. “But I think what's most important in what we're talking about is first you want the inventory. You need to have the inventory,” Manoli told the committee, arguing that a consolidated, usable dataset is the necessary first step before any development process is started.

The commissioner…