Connecticut’s Municipal Redevelopment Agency, now has a new name and game plan to boost housing near public transit hubs across the state.
The newly renamed Connecticut Municipal Development Agency (CMDA) will launch a study into the potential for new housing and mixed use developments in downtown areas near transit stations.
David Kooris, the Agency’s executive director, announced the name change at a summit in Hartford Thursday discussing the history and future of Transit Oriented Development (TOD) in Connecticut.
“What is the cumulative potential for transit oriented development within the state of Connecticut? How much of our housing needs can we meet within walking distance of our regional rail system?” Kooris said.
The agency was established last year to help ease the state’s housing crisis and increase economic development. A consultant will help the agency conduct a study into potential areas for development across the state.
CMDA is an opt-in, quasi-public agency that can serve any Connecticut community with a train station, CTTransit bus station or downtown area. Of Connecticut’s 169 communities, 161 qualify to join the agency, Kooris said.
For communities partnering with the agency, it helps with new housing permitting, funding and construction.
“Towns can take it or leave it, but you have to work with us in order to get to the point where you can apply to us for funding and we can fund transit oriented development, housing, building, demolition or rehabilitation,” Kooris said.
Connecticut’s transportation system was made for development along public transit. Kooris says there is a lot of potential.
“We have a lot of neighborhood centers throughout the state that have the perfect pattern to support transit,” Kooris said. “We have town greens and walkable Main Streets radiating out from the regional rail system. Unfortunately, a lot of those communities no longer have the rail service.”
The discussion surrounding transit oriented development highlighted work in New Britain, Windsor and Hartford to bring more eco-friendly transit and affordable housing options to the areas.
Hartford placed a focus on alternative transportation options and tangential benefits of adding more downtown housing, highlighting the trails and ease of access for biking and walking throughout the city and along the Connecticut River.
Grace Yi, senior planner for Hartford’s Department of Development Services, highlighted the city’s motorized scooter rental program, allowing residents to use electric scooters for a small fee to get around Hartford.
In the last six months, there’ve been more than 76,000 rides taken and more than 10,000 riders, Yi said.
“It's not just downtown that benefits from this. Eighty percent of our trip rides and starts are actually in our neighborhoods,” Yi said. “It is about connecting with more than your town center, but your other community areas as well. Our riders are using it to go to work, to meet their friends and family and as well as their activities.”
State agencies also work together to make development along main streets and transportation hubs work, by providing gap funding and helping guide projects, according to state Department of Transportation Deputy Commissioner Laoise King.
“In the past, we've been a little bit more reactive, either to developers or property owners who had ideas about things that could happen in their stations, but we now want to be the ones laying out that vision,” King said.
