CT agency aimed at increasing housing convenes, picks director

A quasi-public agency that aims to help cities and towns increase housing stock and encourage them to increase density near public transit stations had its inaugural meeting on Thursday, marking the latest step in attempts to solve to the state’s housing crisis.

The Municipal Redevelopment Authority aims to help towns build economic development and transit-oriented development, a land-use concept that encourages increased residential density near public transportation.

“For the first time in a long time, we really have strong economic growth,” Gov. Ned Lamont said during Thursday’s meeting. “And a lot of people want to be coming into this state. We have a population that’s growing. The only thing that can slow us down is housing, and we’re not going to let that happen.”

The authority will ask towns to join the authority, help identify areas that are fast-tracked for more development and help towns zone for the type of development they want, said Matt Brockman, Lamont’s new chief of staff.

Authority board members on Thursday selected David Kooris as executive director. Kooris is a member of the Connecticut Port Authority board, president of Stamford Downtown and a long-time urban planning professional.

Lamont selected Felix Reyes, the director of economic development and planning for the city of New London, to serve as the board’s chair.

“I’m sure I speak for everyone here today that we are truly committed to making sure that the MRDA is a well-respected and impactful partner,” Reyes said.

The authority — also called MRDA — was established without funding in 2019. Lamont said at the beginning of the year that he wants to implement the authority’s work. In 2023, the legislature approved a law that expanded MRDA’s authority and allows the agency to offer financial support and technical assistance to towns that develop “housing growth zones.”

These are areas centered around a business district or a transit station in which local zoning encourages more housing development. Towns have to choose to create these zones to get help from MRDA.

The authority can help with the planning and marketing that goes into increasing density. It’s a 16-member board, many of whom are appointed by legislative leadership and the governor.

The legislature appropriated $600,000 per year for fiscal years 2024 and 2025 for MRDA, as well as $60 million in bonding funds.

Lamont has pushed for more transit-oriented development and zoning changes that allow municipalities to opt-in, rather than requiring statewide reform. He’s been especially interested in MRDA over the past couple of sessions.

Housing advocates have said that the authority will be helpful, although it’s far from the final solution to the state’s housing crisis. Much of the lack of housing growth has stemmed from restrictive local zoning ordinances that make it hard to build more multi-family housing, experts say.

Many have criticized the “opt-in” method of getting towns to build more multifamily housing, saying municipalities have had years to change and haven’t done it. They say an opt-in isn’t enough.

But supporters of opt-in say it’s the best way to preserve local control and to ensure that there are solutions that can be tailored to individual towns’ needs.

Connecticut lacks more than 92,000 units of housing that are affordable and available to its lowest-income residents. Advocates of transit-oriented development have said that in addition to increasing housing stock, the land use concept benefits the environment because it encourages more use of public transit rather than driving and reduces sprawl.

Kooris said he’s looking forward to bringing together expertise on the board and that “we are on the cusp of something special.”

“There’s gaps in capacity, and we can’t expect all 169 of our municipalities to have the same playbook, the same expertise, the same tools available to them,” Kooris said. “And I really hope that what the MRDA ultimately achieves is to provide that support structure that can be deployed to the willing municipalities to help them achieve their objectives.”

MRDA will convene once a month. Lamont joked that one of the first tasks for the authority should be to come up with a better name.

“MRDA, it just doesn’t really have a ring to it,” Lamont said, to laughter. “Come up with something a little jazzier so that people are reminded how important this is.”