New report: 5 things to know about how CT zoning promotes housing inequality

Connecticut’s local zoning laws perpetuate a system of housing divided by racial and income lines, and where single-family homes and apartments can be built — even as the state seeks to promote more affordable residential options for residents, a new report Tuesday shows.

Researchers at the Urban Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit, may provide the strongest evidence yet that even if there is demand for apartments, zoning places obstacles to construction that is not easily overcome.

“And that means, frankly, that there’s a shortage of new housing availability,” Yonah Freemark, lead researcher on the study and research director at the institute’s Land Use Lab, said, in an interview.

Freemark said the study also conclusively shows that the areas zoned for single-family uses are disproportionately white in their populations and with higher incomes.

“And that suggests that in some ways these zoning policies that are used by cities and towns appear to be encouraging somewhat exclusionary living patterns,” Freemark said. “Folks are not living in an evenly distributed way throughout the state. and zoning is contributing to that situation.”

The institute chose to focus on Connecticut because it was the first state in the country to develop a zoning atlas. The atlas, an interactive map, shows how zoning is applied across all of Connecticut’s towns and cities. The map provided critical data for the Land Use Lab’s research.

One of the report’s co-authors, Hartford’s Sara C. Bronin, a professor at Cornell University, was instrumental in developing the atlas. Bronin was a founder of Desegregate CT, formed in 2020 after the murder of George Floyd and a renewed focus on racial justice. Desegregate CT, among other things, promotes local and state land use policies that will lead to economic growth, racial inclusivity and environmental sustainability.

Developing affordable housing in suburban Connecticut locations has come up against stiff opposition.

One developer, New York-based Vessel Technologies, a builder of affordable housing, says it plans to invoke the state’s controversial 8-30g law as its presses a lawsuit for a proposed development in Simsbury.

Vessel hopes a judge will essentially bypass Simsbury’s zoning commission, which two weeks ago rejected its bid to erect a four-story building with 64 units along Hopmeadow Street. The zoning commission said the building would be too jarring because it would be the highest in town.

Vessel also has come up against opposition in Glastonbury and Rocky Hill.

Urban Institute’s Freemark said the organization does not make recommendation but provide the research that it hopes will drive change.

“I’m hopeful that folks in Connecticut see our data, and it makes clear to them that zoning policies are one explanation for unfair distribution of people, unfair distribution of access to opportunity — inequality in general between people of different races and different incomes in Connecticut.”

Freemark said if the state wants to “try to combat those outcomes, we do need to look for ways to change the zoning.”

Here are 5 key takeaways from Tuesday’s report:

1. Across Connecticut’s 169 municipalities, the state’s suburbs and towns have the most restrictive zoning policies.

Over two-thirds of land in suburbs and towns is zoned only for single-family homes, compared to about 56% in the state’s largest eight cities and 59% in rural areas. In addition, suburbs and towns allow buildings with four or more units on just 3% of their land within their borders, compared with about 18% in Connecticut’s largest eight cities.

2. Single-family zones in Connecticut have a higher share of residents who are more likely to be white, have a bachelor degree and be a homeowner.

Zoning districts allowing for multi-family construction are associated with higher concentrations of non-white, Black and Hispanic residents. For example, in the state’s eight largest cities, districts zoned for single-family homes average just below 50% white, compared with those zoned for housing with four or more units, which are about 25% white.

3.  Single-family zoning is associated with higher incomes and housing values.

Across Connecticut, where housing values are in the top quintile is restricted to exclusively single-family housing development. Zoning for buildings with four or more units is predominant only in lower housing value areas in large cities and associated with lower household incomes.

4. There is a stark overall contrast in how zoning shapes housing construction.

Just 2% of Connecticut’s land is zoned to allow construction of multi-family housing without having to seek a variance or other special exception, compared with 91% for single-family homes.

5.  Policymakers should enact reforms to evenly distribute land zoned for multifamily housing.

Governments can provide the means to build and maintain a much higher level of subsidized affordable housing than is currently available in most Connecticut communities. Public stakeholders could do more to assist families with low incomes and people of color in identifying the options for moving to communities with high-quality public services. The state could fund improvements in public services even in the communities that are most segregated.

Reporting by Courant Staff Writer Don Stacom is included. Contact Kenneth R. Gosselin at kgosselin@courant.com.