LTE: “No growth,” Ragebait and how Fairfield got 8-30gs

To the Editor:

Sen. Hwang, calls HB 8002 a “coercive mandate” that strips local control, weakens 8-30g protections, and threatens towns like Fairfield. Unmoored from facts, his inaccurate description is calibrated to make people furious. It is a false summary of the law that's now on the books.

Oxford University Press chose “rage bait” as their 2025 Word of the Year: online content “deliberately designed to elicit anger,” typically posted to drive traffic and engagement rather than understanding.

Sen. Tony Hwang’s recent letter about Connecticut’s new housing law, HB 8002, fits the definition uncomfortably well. Given his long experience, it is especially disappointing. Sen. Hwang has served in the General Assembly for nearly 17 years.

He definitely knows his statements are false. He held key housing roles, including co-chair of the legislature’s Housing Committee in 2017. He knows how these laws work. For sixteen straight years, TPZ has been under Sen. Hwang’s watch, chaired by Republicans, leading to the 2025 surge in 8-30g applications.

His record does not assign blame, but it does make clear that the zoning framework now under strain was developed and maintained chiefly under Sen. Hwang’s roles in Hartford and Republican leadership of the TPZ.

For much of that time, the dominant message from that leadership was the ineffective cry of “no growth”, promising to “hold the line” on density, apartments, and mixed-use near transit. This was an shortsighted sentiment that was irresponsible in a desirable Town that newcomers wanted to call home.

Sen. Hwang knows the law. When a community consistently refuses to plan for growth, 8-30g takes over. It is the backstop created for towns that do not make room for enough affordable housing.

If we follow Sen. Hwang’s advice and continue to avoid planning under HB 8002, refusing to designate realistic growth areas, modernize our zoning, and right-size parking, the worst forms of unplanned, litigation-driven 8-30g development will continue to be forced on us: out of scale projects on marginal sites instead of smaller, better-located projects in places we choose.

Sen. Hwang and many of his “no growth” supporters simply deny this reality. They attack the state framework while ignoring the local decisions that made us vulnerable to 8-30g in the first place.

HB 8002 is not perfect, but it finally ties new infrastructure money and 8-30g relief to actual planning and zoning for housing. Fairfield can either use that framework, adopting a housing growth plan, zoning for more homes near transit and downtown, or we can spend our limited time relitigating talking points designed to inflame, while the next wave of 8-30g proposals line up.

Given his expertise, Sen. Hwang knows better than to reduce this choice to ragebait. We won’t fix our housing challenges with fear, or lawsuits. We’ll fix them with thoughtful leadership.

Sincerely,

Jeff Randolph

Vice Chair of Fairfield Town Plan and Zoning Commission, 30 year resident of Fairfield

The views expressed in this letter are my own and do not represent the official positions of any government agency, legislative body, or other organization with which I am affiliated.