Affordable Housing Appeals Listing

History: P.A. 88-230 as amended – In 1989 the Affordable Housing Land Use Appeals Procedure was created. As a result, DOH promulgated regulations that provide technical assistance to municipalities, developers and owners/tenants of such projects with regard to compliance with the provisions of this statute. DOH is also required to publish the Affordable Housing Appeals List once a year. This list provides the percentage of affordable units in each municipality based on Census figures for total number of housing units in the particular municipality.

Purpose: This law established a series of procedures that developers, municipalities and courts must follow when a developer appeals a decision by a local board or commission related to a proposed affordable housing development. Any developer of housing has a right to appeal to the superior court when a municipality, through its board or commission, rejects an application to develop affordable housing or approves the application with restrictions that would have a substantially adverse impact on the viability of the project. Appeals are made to the Superior Court, by specifically assigned judges and are treated as “privileged cases.”

The Affordable Housing Land Use Appeals Procedure requires municipalities with less than 10% affordable housing to demonstrate to the court that a municipality’s rejection of a development proposal is supported by sufficient evidence in the record. Municipalities also have the burden to prove, based upon the evidence in the record compiled before them, that: (a) the decision was necessary to protect substantial public interests in health, safety, or other matters the municipality may legally consider; (b) the public interests clearly outweigh the need for affordable housing; and (c) public interests cannot be protected by reasonable changes to the affordable housing development; or the application which was the subject of the decision from which the appeal was taken, would locate affordable housing in an area which is not assisted housing, as defined in C.G.S. Section 8-30g. If the municipality does not satisfy its burden under C.G.S. Section 8-30g, the court will wholly or partly revise, modify, remand or reverse the decision from which the appeal was taken in a manner consistent with the evidence in the record before it.

Developers cannot use the appeals procedure in municipalities where 10% of total housing units are affordable according to the definition in C.G.S. Section 8-30g. In developing the Affordable Housing Appeals Procedure List, DOH counts:

Assisted housing units or housing receiving financial assistance under any governmental program for the construction or substantial rehabilitation of low and moderate income housing that was occupied or under construction by the end date of the report period for compilation of a given year’s list;
Rental housing occupied by persons receiving rental assistance under C.G.S. Chapter 138a (State Rental Assistance/RAP) or Section 142f of Title 42 of the U.S. Code (Section 8);
Ownership housing or housing currently financed by the Connecticut Housing
Finance Authority and/or the U.S. Department of Agriculture; and
Deed-restricted properties or properties with deeds containing covenants or restrictions that require such dwelling unit(s) be sold or rented at or below prices that will preserve the unit(s) as affordable housing as defined in C.G.S. Section 8-39a for persons or families whose incomes are less than or equal to 80% of the area median income.

A complete listing of the types of dwellings counted by DOH can be found in C.G.S. Section 8-30g (k).

Source of Funding: General Fund

Process: The Affordable Housing Appeals Procedure List is published annually on or about February 1. The data for the Affordable Housing Appeals Procedure List comes from different sources including federal, state and local programs. This makes it difficult to ensure complete accuracy, so DOH asks municipalities to provide a local administrative review of and input on the street addresses of units and projects as well as information on deed-restricted units. The responses received by DOH vary widely from each municipality.

Statutory Link: Connecticut General Statutes, Chapter 126a, Section 8-30g

Connecticut State Department of Housing

Affordable Housing Appeals Listing