HARTFORD — Legislative leaders, responding to complaints from municipal officials about the taking of property and worries about a loss of local control, have revamped a proposal by Governor Dannel P. Malloy intended to boost economic development near transportation hubs.
Establishing a Transit Corridor Development Authority is a key part of Malloy's initiative to boost transportation and improve economic development by promoting construction of housing and retail and commercial businesses along corridors such as the Hartford-New Britain bus-only corridor; the planned rail upgrade between New Haven and Springfield, Mass.; Metro-North Railroad; and Shoreline East.
A proposal to give the authority power to acquire property by eminent domain drew opposition from local officials and small-business representatives. Municipal officials also said they worried they would lose control of local sites.
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The National Federation of Independent Business told lawmakers that most of its members favor limiting the state's power to seize property, citing the 2005 US Supreme Court decision allowing the taking of property in New London.
"Here in Connecticut, support for restricting the government's power of eminent domain resonates soundly," the group said.
A committee of the Norwalk Common Council voted 7-0 last week opposing the legislation, with eminent domain a flashpoint, Councilman David McCarthy said.
"To take people's property and convert it even for a reasonable transit project didn't sit well with any of us," he said.
The Malloy administration said most of the provisions of the bill were drawn from existing law that created a development authority in Hartford's capital region.
"We are not breaking new legal ground with this proposal, just extending that model to transit nodes across the state," Gian-Carl Casa, undersecretary for legislative affairs at the state Office of Policy and Management, told lawmakers.
State Senator Cathy Osten, co-chairwoman of the Planning and Development Committee, announced Friday that lawmakers stripped out the proposal permitting condemnation of property and a requirement that municipalities be required to cooperate with the development authority.
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"Part of the lawmaking process is to receive a proposal, get public input on it, and make it better," Osten, Democrat of Sprague, said in a statement. "I believe that's what we've done in this case."
Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff, a Norwalk Democrat, said he and Osten were revising the legislation after hearing criticism of the bill at a public hearing in early March.
"What we were trying to do is match the intent of the legislation with the language of the legislation," he said. "I believe the changes we announced on Friday address most if not all of the concerns."