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General Assembly Raised Bill No. 1313
January Session, 2025
LCO No. 3733
Referred to Committee on PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT
Introduced by:
(PD)
AN ACT INCREASING HOUSING DEVELOPMENT WITHIN ONE -HALF
MILE OF PUBLIC TRANSIT STATIONS.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General
Assembly convened:
Section 1. (NEW) (Effective October 1, 2025) (a) As used in this section, 1
(1) "as of right" means able to be approved in accordance with the terms 2
of a zoning regulation and without requiring that a public hearing be 3
held, a variance, special permit or special exception be granted or any 4
other discretionary zoning action be taken, and (2) "dwelling unit" 5
means any house or building, or portion thereof, that is occupied, 6
designed to be occupied, or rented, leased or hired out to be occupied, 7
exclusively as a home or residence for one or more persons, without age 8
restrictions and suitable for families with children. 9
(b) Any zoning regulations adopted pursuant to section 8-2 of the 10
general statutes, as amended by this act, shall allow, as of right, housing 11
developments that (1) have a minimum overall average gross density of 12
fifteen dwelling units per acre, and (2) are located within a one-half-mile 13
radius of any passenger rail or commuter rail station or any bus rapid 14
transit station. A municipality with multiple such stations may calculate 15
overall average allowable gross density across all such stations. 16
(c) Any development permitted pursuant to subsection (b) of this 17
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section may be subject to zoning regulations that impose parking 18
requirements not to exceed (1) one parking spot for any studio or one-19
bedroom dwelling unit, and (2) two parking spots for each dwelling unit 20
that contains two or more bedrooms for any housing development with 21
a minimum overall average gross density of at least fifteen dwelling 22
units per acre located within a one-half-mile radius of any passenger rail 23
or commuter rail station or any bus rapid transit station. 24
(d) The following lands are exempt from the requirements of 25
subsection (b) of this section: Roadways, railways, regulated inland 26
wetlands and watercourse areas, steep slopes of fifteen per cent or more 27
in grade change within a single lot, ledges, special flood hazard areas 28
defined by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, wetlands, as 29
defined in section 22a-29 of the general statutes, public parkland, land 30
subject to conservation or preservation restrictions, as defined in section 31
47-42a of the general statutes, coastal resources protected by the 32
Connecticut Coastal Management Act, areas necessary for the 33
protection of drinking water supplies, areas identified as likely to be 34
inundated during a thirty-year flood event by the Connecticut Institute 35
for Resilience and Climate Adaptation pursuant to the institute's 36
responsibilities to conduct sea level change scenarios pursuant to 37
subsection (b) of section 25-68o of the general statutes and areas that are 38
not served by water and sewer infrastructure. 39
(e) The as of right application and review process for approval of 40
housing developments described in this section shall require that a 41
decision on any such application be rendered not later than sixty-five 42
days after receipt of such application by the applicable zoning official, 43
except that an applicant may consent to one or more extensions of not 44
more than sixty-five days for each such extension or may withdraw such 45
application. 46
(f) If a municipality fails to adopt new regulations or amend existing 47
regulations to comply with the provisions of this section prior to 48
October 1, 2026, any such noncompliant existing regulation shall be void 49
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and such municipality shall approve or deny applications in accordance 50
with the requirements of this section until such municipality adopts or 51
amends such regulation in compliance with the provisions of this 52
section. 53
(g) No municipality shall (1) use or impose standards to discourage 54
through unreasonable costs or delays the development of housing 55
developments described in this section, or (2) condition the approval of 56
such housing developments on the correction of a nonconforming use, 57
structure or lot. 58
Sec. 2. Subsection (d) of section 8-2 of the general statutes is repealed 59
and the following is substituted in lieu thereof (Effective October 1, 2025): 60
(d) Zoning regulations adopted pursuant to subsection (a) of this 61
section shall not: 62
(1) (A) Prohibit the operation in a residential zone of any family child 63
care home or group child care home located in a residence, or (B) require 64
any special zoning permit or special zoning exception for such 65
operation; 66
(2) (A) Prohibit the use of receptacles for the storage of items 67
designated for recycling in accordance with section 22a-241b or require 68
that such receptacles comply with provisions for bulk or lot area, or 69
similar provisions, except provisions for side yards, rear yards and front 70
yards; or (B) unreasonably restrict access to or the size of such 71
receptacles for businesses, given the nature of the business and the 72
volume of items designated for recycling in accordance with section 22a-73
241b, that such business produces in its normal course of business, 74
provided nothing in this section shall be construed to prohibit such 75
regulations from requiring the screening or buffering of such receptacles 76
for aesthetic reasons; 77
(3) Impose conditions and requirements on manufactured homes, 78
including mobile manufactured homes, having as their narrowest 79
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dimension twenty-two feet or more and built in accordance with federal 80
manufactured home construction and safety standards or on lots 81
containing such manufactured homes, including mobile manufactured 82
home parks, if those conditions and requirements are substantially 83
different from conditions and requirements imposed on (A) single-84
family dwellings; (B) lots containing single-family dwellings; or (C) 85
multifamily dwellings, lots containing multifamily dwellings, cluster 86
developments or planned unit developments; 87
(4) (A) Prohibit the continuance of any nonconforming use, building 88
or structure existing at the time of the adoption of such regulations; (B) 89
require a special permit or special exception for any such continuance; 90
(C) provide for the termination of any nonconforming use solely as a 91
result of nonuse for a specified period of time without regard to the 92
intent of the property owner to maintain that use; or (D) terminate or 93
deem abandoned a nonconforming use, building or structure unless the 94
property owner of such use, building or structure voluntarily 95
discontinues such use, building or structure and such discontinuance is 96
accompanied by an intent to not reestablish such use, building or 97
structure. The demolition or deconstruction of a nonconforming use, 98
building or structure shall not by itself be evidence of such property 99
owner's intent to not reestablish such use, building or structure; 100
(5) Prohibit the installation, in accordance with the provisions of 101
section 8-1bb, of temporary health care structures for use by mentally or 102
physically impaired persons if such structures comply with the 103
provisions of said section, unless the municipality opts out in 104
accordance with the provisions of subsection (j) of said section; 105
(6) Prohibit the operation in a residential zone of any cottage food 106
operation, as defined in section 21a-62b; 107
(7) Establish for any dwelling unit a minimum floor area that is 108
greater than the minimum floor area set forth in the applicable building, 109
housing or other code; 110
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(8) Place a fixed numerical or percentage cap on the number of 111
dwelling units that constitute multifamily housing over four units, 112
middle housing or mixed-use development that may be permitted in the 113
municipality; 114
(9) Require more than one parking space for each studio or one-115
bedroom dwelling unit or more than two parking spaces for each 116
dwelling unit with two or more bedrooms, unless the municipality opts 117
out in accordance with the provisions of section 8-2p; [or] 118
(10) Be applied to deny any land use application, including for any 119
site plan approval, special permit, special exception or other zoning 120
approval, on the basis of (A) a district's character, unless such character 121
is expressly articulated in such regulations by clear and explicit physical 122
standards for site work and structures, or (B) the immutable 123
characteristics, source of income or income level of any applicant or end 124
user, other than age or disability whenever age-restricted or disability-125
restricted housing may be permitted; or 126
(11) Prohibit the as of right development of housing developments 127
with a minimum overall average gross density of fifteen dwelling units 128
per acre that are located within a one-half-mile radius of any passenger 129
rail or commuter rail station or any bus rapid transit station, in 130
accordance with the provisions of section 1 of this act. 131
This act shall take effect as follows and shall amend the following
sections:
Section 1 October 1, 2025 New section
Sec. 2 October 1, 2025 8-2(d)
Statement of Purpose:
To require municipal zoning regulations to authorize a greater density
of housing development within one-half mile of a public transit station.
[Proposed deletions are enclosed in brackets. Proposed additions are indicated by underline, except
that when the entire text of a bill or resolution or a section of a bill or resolution is new, it is not
underlined.]