Keep an eye on "Desegregate CT" — they're hard at work in Hartford, in our courts, and in front of our P&Z

Meet your new neighbor, like him or not

Greenwich Free Press has been doing an excellent job covering the invasion of out-of-state developers and their use of CT’s moderate-income housing mandate, 8-3g to cram multi-story condominium projects into Greenwich. Two names that crop up in all these efforts are Desegregte CT and its deputy director Nick Abbott, a young man who grew up in the backcountry was admitted to and graduated from Harvard Law, and now (2021) complains that he was deprived of black playmates in his formative years and whines that even with Harvard Law degree he can’t afford to live in town, not even a single apartment. Jesus wept.

He’s been doing more than merely testifying before the state legislature, he’s been penning articles aimed at his fellow wokettes:

He’s been busy for the past couple of years:
In 2020 he announced the formation of Desegregate CT and its plans to end “Trump-backed (of course) single-family zoning.

All of which is his right, of course, though it’s a right that will surely be denied his opponents in a few years. But do check out the organization he works for, Desegregate CT:
Their goals and legislative agenda for 2022 can be found at their website.

1. Allowing Mixed-Income Homes Around Train Stations

WHAT: Equitable transit-oriented communities are mixed-use neighborhoods near train stations or CTfastrak stations which include diverse housing options.
WHY: At no cost to taxpayers, we could create thousands of affordable homes, jump-start economic growth, connect businesses and employees, and protect our environment.
HOW: Towns choose how to allow as-of-right housing within a 10-minute walk from train or CTfastrak stations, at an overall average of 15 homes/acre (matching Massachusetts' new law), with a 10% minimum affordability requirement and no onerous parking mandates.

2. Creating More Sensible Lot Sizes

WHAT: Minimum lot size mandates are requirements that each home be built on a lot of a certain size. 81% of Connecticut's residential land requires at least 1 acre per home.
WHY: Connecticut could reduce housing costs and foster more interconnected, sustainable communities by reducing large minimum lot size mandates.

HOW: Towns choose whether to reduce lot size mandates to a 1/8 acre, or allow 8 units/acre in a variety of configurations, anywhere there is municipal sewer and water infrastructure

(similar to bipartisan legislation in Vermont, which protects 1/8-acre lots).

That’s just for this year, mind you, a mere “first step”, with far more to come. And mind you, when the group speaks of giving towns “a choice”, and “an opportunity to change their zoning”, they mean no such thing: choice becomes a forced mandate under the left, every time.

One of the first things Biden did, right after canceling the Keystone pipeline and banning exploration and development of oil and gas fields on federal lands, was to sign an executive order revoking Trump’s directive that protected suburbs, and restored Obama’s mandate that towns allow low-income housing.

President Joe Biden on Tuesday signed an executive order calling on the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to review the Trump administration’s “Preserving Neighborhood and Community Choice” and a rule limiting the use of disparate impact to bring housing discrimination claims. Both rules were issued in the summer of 2020.

“This is not only a mandate to refrain from discrimination but a mandate to take actions that undo historic patterns of segregation and other types of discrimination and that afford access to long-denied opportunities,” the executive order said.

The “Preserving Neighborhood and Community Choice” rule essentially repealed an Obama-era Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing rule to allow HUD to suspend housing grants and other funding for communities that don’t do enough to prevent housing discrimination.

Here’s the Sherwood Place project Abbott is presently supporting before the P&Z: