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Yes! Governor Lamont name dropped Work Live Ride specifically and outlined funding for staffing to provide technical assistance for the proposal. He didn’t include all of the funding we want to see, but it is a great start and signals that there is real momentum for Work Live Ride this session.

Check out our News page to read the latest the press coverage about Work Live Ride

We want to make it clear that the future of our state’s economy and population growth is tied to building more homes around public transportation. We want to see more homes and more job and greater access to both. Work Live Ride does that.

Yes! We listened to good faith concerns about the previous bill, conducted extensive research and local organizing over the past year, and collaborated with a wide range of public and private groups to determine how we could make the best TOC bill for Connecticut that works for everyone.

None! Transit Oriented Communities and Transit Oriented Development are the same planning concept - building more homes and jobs near transit service - but we prefer to emphasize the community part.

TOCs are a popular and proven concept to generate more homes. States like Massachusetts and California have recently passed similar bills and other states like New York are looking to pass them this year as well.

It is true, there are no mandates. Towns and cities have the choice to opt-in or not. We want to support communities that are eager for these kinds of developments and think that’s a better way to see growth in our state and our state’s capacity to plan. Mandates from the state (without the proper support) have been hard even for pro-homes allies locally to support and we want to change that dynamic.

That’s up to the local community! Rather than dictate the size of a district or location near a specific station, Work Live Ride allows the local Planning & Zoning Commission to determine the district’s size and what transit route it is concentrated around by working with the ORG. All that matters is that the community creates one district within its borders that is a reasonable size and matches the density requirements based on its population and transit service.

It was established in 2006 by Governor Rell to coordinate planning and funding across agencies to promote smart growth policies at the local level and lives in The Office of Policy and Management. It currently oversees municipal Plans of Conservation and Development, affordable Housing Plans, and some discretionary grant projects so we think it is the right office to lead this effort. We are requesting the hiring of additional land use planners in the office to coordinate Work Live Ride.

Almost every town and city in the state! 111 or nearly ⅔ towns or cities that have at least one regular public transit route. There are 40 that have train or rapid bus routes, 71 that have bus routes and there are also 52 towns that border communities with transit service that can qualify. Only 6 towns do not.

The Office of Responsible Growth will help towns and cities with three “buckets” of funding: planning and design, infrastructure improvements, and home construction subsidies. Funding will come from existing grants overseen by other state agencies that the office will streamline and from a discretionary fund the office will oversee directly that we are requesting in the budget this year.

Yes. If a community has a transit route but decides not to opt-in, that’s fine, but it becomes ineligible for discretionary state funding related to brownfield remediation, revitalization, and TOD programs. We want to maximize limited state resources in the places that want to invest in the growth of CT.

Yes! This year we are including local bus, rapid bus, and train service to expand the types of riders and communities that can benefit from TOCs.

Yes! Contrary to some people’s perception, there is a rich density of transit service across the state. It has been underfunded and underappreciated in many circles, but we think the best answer to these problems is more transit riders, which Work Live Ride will create.

There are a number of big differences, but the big three are 1) this bill focuses exclusively on development near transit 2) it empowers the Office of Responsible Growth to help all aspects of planning and provides more funding and 3) towns and cities are on the hook to pass reasonably sized TOC districts.

Yes, very! 76% of likely CT voters support building more homes near bus and rail routes according to a recent poll conducted by Growing Together CT