On the rat patrol: Budget bill halts warehouse plan for Middlebury.

The biennial budget and implementer bill is available for examination as the legislature prepares to vote on the 832 page legislation. It is far more than an appropriation of $50 billion in public funds.

Section 182 of the bill is a rat’s nest that has nothing to do with the state’s long, circuitous and often secret budget process. Instead, it does what many in the legislature oppose: preempts local zoning. The bill precludes the zoning authority of any town with a population of fewer than 8,000 people from approving a warehouse or distribution center of more than 150,000 square feet “if such (1) facility is located on one or more parcels of land that are less than one hundred fifty acres in total, (2) parcels contain more than five acres of wetlands in total, and (3) parcel or parcels are located not more than two miles from an elementary school.”

Middlebury–with a population of 7,574, according to the 2020 census–has been a local zoning battleground over a distribution center. A Middlebury selectman resigned in April, citing “a conflict between his beliefs in how the town should be developed and the current situation that is unfolding,” according to the Bee News.

Land use has long been a source of enduring contentions throughout Connecticut. Zoning policies for housing has been a major issue during this legislative session. It rarely makes its way into the annual budget bill–particularly with such a specific purpose of stopping one local proposal. The budget provision has nothing to do with state spending.

Whatever the merits and faults of the Middlebury application, it does not belong in the budget bill as a favor to the Middlebury delegation and others. If the legislature is within its authority to reach its heavy hand into a local zoning controversy to stop an application, it may also use that power to compel approval of one or more. And if it does, listen for the Middlebury delegation and many who vote for this to squeal the loudest in their struggle to the death to exclude affordable housing from their lofty precincts.

Published June 5, 2023.