Anika Singh Lemar (’05), Clinical Professor of Law at Yale Law School, was quoted on Connecticut Public Radio / WNPR attributing the affordable housing shortage in Connecticut to exclusionary zoning (“Why Do So Many CT Residents Struggle to Find Housing? One Reason: Exclusionary Zoning,” June 26). Anika noted that most types of housing are illegal across the state, with single-family housing accounting for 90% of housing zoning. She also pointed to residents’ challenges to affordable housing developments in appearances before local zoning commissions. “Once somebody who’s trying to build housing is forced to go through some kind of approvals process, you kind of open the door to all kinds of complaints. . . . More often than not, you see things that are pretty unreasonable. . . . Sometimes you will hear things that are basically classism. . . . [They say] so it’s going to be loud, it’s going to be crowded. This apartment building has balconies; what if people have parties late at night? Local public infrastructure is going to be overrun; this apartment building’s near a park, the park’s going to be too crowded.”
