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General Assembly Substitute Bill No. 1313
January Session, 2025
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 permit, as of right, 11
housing developments that (1) have a minimum overall average gross 12
density of fifteen dwelling units per acre, and (2) are located within a 13
one-half-mile radius of any passenger rail or commuter rail station or 14
any bus rapid transit station. A municipality with multiple such stations 15
may calculate overall average allowable gross density across all such 16
stations. 17
(c) Any development permitted pursuant to subsection (b) of this 18
section may be subject to zoning regulations that impose parking 19 Substitute Bill No. 1313
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requirements not to exceed (1) one parking spot for any studio or one-20
bedroom dwelling unit, and (2) two parking spots for each dwelling unit 21
that contains two or more bedrooms for any housing development with 22
a minimum overall average gross density of at least fifteen dwelling 23
units per acre located within a one-half-mile radius of any passenger rail 24
or commuter rail station or any bus rapid transit station. 25
(d) The following lands are exempt from the requirements of 26
subsection (b) of this section: Roadways, railways, regulated inland 27
wetlands and watercourse areas, steep slopes of fifteen per cent or more 28
in grade change within a single lot, ledges, special flood hazard areas 29
defined by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, wetlands, as 30
defined in section 22a-29 of the general statutes, public parkland, land 31
subject to conservation or preservation restrictions, as defined in section 32
47-42a of the general statutes, coastal resources protected pursuant to 33
chapter 444 of the general statutes, areas necessary for the protection of 34
drinking water supplies, areas identified as likely to be inundated 35
during a thirty-year flood event by the Connecticut Institute for 36
Resilience and Climate Adaptation pursuant to the institute's 37
responsibilities to conduct sea level change scenarios pursuant to 38
subsection (b) of section 25-68o of the general statutes and areas that are 39
not served by water and sewer infrastructure. 40
(e) The as of right application and review process for approval of 41
housing developments described in this section shall require that a 42
decision on any such application be rendered not later than sixty-five 43
days after receipt of such application by the applicable zoning official, 44
except that an applicant may consent to one or more extensions of not 45
more than sixty-five days for each such extension or may withdraw such 46
application. 47
(f) If a municipality fails to adopt new regulations or amend existing 48
regulations to comply with the provisions of this section prior to 49
October 1, 2026, any such noncompliant existing regulation shall be void 50
and such municipality shall approve or deny applications in accordance 51
with the requirements of this section until such municipality adopts or 52 Substitute Bill No. 1313
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amends such regulations in compliance with the provisions of this 53
section. 54
(g) No municipality shall (1) use or impose standards to discourage 55
through unreasonable costs or delays the development of housing 56
developments described in this section, or (2) condition the approval of 57
such housing developments on the correction of a nonconforming use, 58
structure or lot. 59
Sec. 2. Subsection (d) of section 8-2 of the general statutes is repealed 60
and the following is substituted in lieu thereof (Effective October 1, 2025): 61
(d) Zoning regulations adopted pursuant to subsection (a) of this 62
section shall not: 63
(1) (A) Prohibit the operation in a residential zone of any family child 64
care home or group child care home located in a residence, or (B) require 65
any special zoning permit or special zoning exception for such 66
operation; 67
(2) (A) Prohibit the use of receptacles for the storage of items 68
designated for recycling in accordance with section 22a-241b or require 69
that such receptacles comply with provisions for bulk or lot area, or 70
similar provisions, except provisions for side yards, rear yards and front 71
yards; or (B) unreasonably restrict access to or the size of such 72
receptacles for businesses, given the nature of the business and the 73
volume of items designated for recycling in accordance with section 22a-74
241b, that such business produces in its normal course of business, 75
provided nothing in this section shall be construed to prohibit such 76
regulations from requiring the screening or buffering of such receptacles 77
for aesthetic reasons; 78
(3) Impose conditions and requirements on manufactured homes, 79
including mobile manufactured homes, having as their narrowest 80
dimension twenty-two feet or more and built in accordance with federal 81
manufactured home construction and safety standards or on lots 82
containing such manufactured homes, including mobile manufactured 83 Substitute Bill No. 1313
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home parks, if those conditions and requirements are substantially 84
different from conditions and requirements imposed on (A) single-85
family dwellings; (B) lots containing single-family dwellings; or (C) 86
multifamily dwellings, lots containing multifamily dwellings, cluster 87
developments or planned unit developments; 88
(4) (A) Prohibit the continuance of any nonconforming use, building 89
or structure existing at the time of the adoption of such regulations; (B) 90
require a special permit or special exception for any such continuance; 91
(C) provide for the termination of any nonconforming use solely as a 92
result of nonuse for a specified period of time without regard to the 93
intent of the property owner to maintain that use; or (D) terminate or 94
deem abandoned a nonconforming use, building or structure unless the 95
property owner of such use, building or structure voluntarily 96
discontinues such use, building or structure and such discontinuance is 97
accompanied by an intent to not reestablish such use, building or 98
structure. The demolition or deconstruction of a nonconforming use, 99
building or structure shall not by itself be evidence of such property 100
owner's intent to not reestablish such use, building or structure; 101
(5) Prohibit the installation, in accordance with the provisions of 102
section 8-1bb, of temporary health care structures for use by mentally or 103
physically impaired persons if such structures comply with the 104
provisions of said section, unless the municipality opts out in 105
accordance with the provisions of subsection (j) of said section; 106
(6) Prohibit the operation in a residential zone of any cottage food 107
operation, as defined in section 21a-62b; 108
(7) Establish for any dwelling unit a minimum floor area that is 109
greater than the minimum floor area set forth in the applicable building, 110
housing or other code; 111
(8) Place a fixed numerical or percentage cap on the number of 112
dwelling units that constitute multifamily housing over four units, 113
middle housing or mixed-use development that may be permitted in the 114
municipality; 115 Substitute Bill No. 1313
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(9) Require more than one parking space for each studio or one-116
bedroom dwelling unit or more than two parking spaces for each 117
dwelling unit with two or more bedrooms, unless the municipality opts 118
out in accordance with the provisions of section 8-2p; [or] 119
(10) Be applied to deny any land use application, including for any 120
site plan approval, special permit, special exception or other zoning 121
approval, on the basis of (A) a district's character, unless such character 122
is expressly articulated in such regulations by clear and explicit physical 123
standards for site work and structures, or (B) the immutable 124
characteristics, source of income or income level of any applicant or end 125
user, other than age or disability whenever age-restricted or disability-126
restricted housing may be permitted; or 127
(11) Prohibit the as of right development of housing developments 128
with a minimum overall average gross density of fifteen dwelling units 129
per acre that are located within a one-half-mile radius of any passenger 130
rail or commuter rail station or any bus rapid transit station, in 131
accordance with the provisions of section 1 of this act. 132
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 Legislative Commissioners:
In Section 1(b), "allow" was changed to "permit" for consistency, in
Section 1(d), "by the Connecticut Coastal Management Act" was
changed to "pursuant to chapter 444 of the general statutes" for
consistency with standard drafting conventions, and in Section 1(f),
"regulation" was changed to "regulations" for consistency.
PD Joint Favorable Subst. -LCO