State Senator Ryan Fazio again defended local zoning control in the Hartford legislature, opposing the ‘Work Live Ride’ bill (H.B. 6831), which he argued would undermine municipal authority by withholding essential funding from towns that do not comply with strict high-density zoning mandates.
Fazio introduced four amendments to ease what he called the bill’s “aggressive” anti-zoning requirements and to reduce the financial penalties imposed on municipalities.
“Voters and local leaders can make decisions about their own communities better than the state can,” Fazio said. “Threatening to withhold hundreds of millions in vital funding for failure to comply with aggressive state-prescribed zoning is wrong.”
Fazio’s amendments were rejected along party lines, but he pledged to continue efforts to find a middle ground. “My colleagues and I offered four amendments in good faith to make this bill less onerous on towns, to reduce the funding they could be deprived of, and to make the development and zoning changes less aggressive,” he said.
He was clear that he would not back down from efforts to prevent state overreach in local zoning decisions. “I remain committed to finding common ground on policy that defends local control of zoning while improving our housing sector in this state for everybody,” Fazio said. “I will always work with others when possible but will also always fight to protect local control when necessary. As such, I am prepared to continue fighting ‘Work Live Ride’ and other anti-local control policies vigorously and for many hours on end if they ever come to the Senate floor.”
