A new poll shows that Connecticut residents rank the cost of housing and taxes as the top two issues facing the state, and that there is bipartisan support for state level zoning reform.
The poll was conducted by YouGov and commissioned by the Regional Plan Association, a research and advocacy group focused on land use and transit policy. YouGov surveyed more than 800 Connecticut residents across the political spectrum, asking them about specific policies included in the sweeping housing bill vetoed over the summer, House Bill 5002.
The poll showed that 42% of respondents said housing was the most important issue facing Connecticut. Forty percent said taxes were most important, and 27% said inflation.
The survey also found that respondents generally supported most of the major policies included in H.B. 5002, including turning vacant buildings into housing, boosting the amount of housing near transit, requiring towns and cities to allow more homes and easing parking requirements.
“The average voter can be counted on to be relatively reasonable on recognizing how important affordable housing is, how much of a lack there is,” said Pete Harrison, Connecticut director of the Regional Plan Association. “I think there’s a pretty clear correlation that people want the governor to step up and do more because they don’t trust towns to do it.”
Desegregate Connecticut, a program of the RPA, lobbied for a portion of H.B. 5002 that would have pushed towns to allow more housing near train and bus rapid transit stations.
Harrison said he thinks the results show that housing can be a winning platform for candidates. All of the mayors who attended his organization’s housing conference, YIMBYtown, held onto their seats in Tuesday’s election, he said.
H.B. 5002 passed with narrow margins in the House and Senate during the last legislative session. It addressed myriad issues, including homelessness, zoning and housing production. Gov. Ned Lamont vetoed the measure over the summer saying he wanted to see more buy in from local officials.
The General Assembly is expected to convene a special session next week, and key lawmakers say they’re close to a deal with the governor’s office on a new version of the housing bill.
“The Governor is committed to working on a revised housing bill and collaborating with state and local leaders on both sides of the aisle. Plans are underway to unveil that bill ahead of next week’s special legislative session where it will be taken up for a vote by the General Assembly,” said Rob Blanchard, the governor’s spokesman, in a statement.
Questions in the poll directly addressed many specific components of H.B. 5002.
The poll showed that turning vacant buildings into housing was one of the most popular proposals in H.B. 5002 with 86% of respondents saying they somewhat or strongly supported it. The bill specifically would have allowed for more conversions of commercial properties into residential.
Just over 70% of respondents said they supported a policy that would allow more housing near transit. H.B. 5002 would have prioritized certain state infrastructure funding for towns that allow more housing density near public transit.
About 70% also said they supported policies that require towns and cities to allow more housing. The bill had a measure known as “fair share” that would have divided regional housing need between towns and assigned each town a number of units to plan and zone for.
Just over half of those surveyed said they supported policies that allow developers to be more flexible with how much parking they put at buildings. The bill would have removed requirements to build off-street parking for certain smaller apartment buildings.
That support expressed by respondents fell across party lines — although respondents who identified as Democrats tended to be the most supportive. Respondents in urban, suburban and rural parts of the state all expressed some degree of support for the policy proposals, with most coming from cities.
Among lawmakers, however, the components of H.B. 5002 faced pushback from both sides of the aisle. Opponents feared it would dilute local control and put onerous requirements on towns. They also said each solution might not work for every town because they all have unique needs.
Most respondents to the survey said building more housing was more important to them than local control.
House Majority Leader Jason Rojas, D-East Hartford, said he often hears from constituents that the cost of housing is too high. He said be thinks the proposals in the bill weren’t as controversial among average Connecticut residents as they seemed during the legislative session.
“For the average person out there, they’re really concerned about housing, either for their adult children, or for young professionals or for elderly parents, or for just the regular person,” Rojas said.
Ginny Monk is a reporter for the Connecticut Mirror. Copyright 2025 @ CT Mirror (ctmirror.org).