During a Housing Committee hearing in Hartford on Tuesday, officials from Greenwich testified in opposition to SB 151, An Act Prohibiting Certain Land Use and Zoning Limitations on Housing, which is intended to promote construction of starter houses and townhouses.
The bill proposes to cap residential lot sizes to about 1/9th of an acre wherever public water and sewer are available or planned, cap setbacks for homes to 10 feet in front and rear and 5 ft on the sides, ban lot coverage maximums for single-family homes and townhouses (no more height limits), require townhomes to be allowed in single-family zones and require towns to allow single-family zoned lots to be subdivided.
Many testified that towns are still processing the requirements imposed by 8002, a controversial bill signed into law law November by Governor Lamont who previously vetoed a similar bill.
Under 151, there would be no requirements that the housing built be affordable.
Nor is there any consideration of how the bill integrates with HB 8002.
Greenwich was well represented with testimony from State Representatives Hector Arzeno (D-151), Steve Meskers (D-150), First Selectman Fred Camillo and State Senator Fazio (R36) – all in opposition to the legislation. State Rep Courpas is a member of the Housing Committee.
State Rep Hector Arzeno (D-151)
State Rep Arzeno said, “We have heard repeatedly from people of all political stripes that zoning is not the major leading factor in advancing housing diversity. We know that cost and infrastructure challenges are key issues. Yet this bill ignores both.”
“Our constituents asked us to consider the impacts on our environmental and natural resources when we pass bills and reflect them in our regulations,” Arzeno added, noting that the bill would undermine SB9, a landmark climate and environmental protection bill signed into law last June.
“It ignores the fragility of coastal resources, wetlands, endangered species, etc,” Arzeno said.
“It also proposes to cap residential lot size to 5,000 sq ft, but there is no consideration whether utilities have capacity for new connections, and there is no funding for water or sewer expansion. There are no more height limits, and buildings could cover an entire lot except for the minimal setbacks required. It requires townhomes to be allowed in single family zoning districts and requires municipalities to allow single family zoned lots lots to be subdivided.”
Arzeno urged the housing committee to instead support municipalities with their efforts to increase housing diversity and comply with 8002.
State Rep Steve Meskers (D-150)
State Rep Meskers warned that the bill would remove powers of local Planning and Zoning and noted that 8002 requires all towns to come up with individual housing plans.
“This seems to obviate the intent of that bill because it basically eliminates local housing control. It instructs on how we should develop out towns, where we should put the density – basically everywhere there is water and sewer lines – and it allows you to go down to 1/9 of an acre. In my areas where we have high-end homes, it will end up with townhomes of significant size on very small lots. In the areas of my town with more modest communities, it’s going to end up with more vertical structures wherever the builder sees fit.”
In written testimony Greenwich Selectwoman Rachel Khanna (former State Rep for the 149th district) also opposed the legislation.
“These proposals fail to protect endangered environmental and natural resources, manage stormwater, and they weaken important resiliency initiatives to protect communities from flooding and severe storms,” Khanna wrote. “Many communities, in particular coastal communities like Greenwich, are facing unprecedented challenges as a result of climate change.
Zoning is one of the many tools in the toolbox to create affordable housing in communities, which is a critical need in Connecticut and throughout the nation, but we shouldn’t undermine critical efforts to promote environmental resiliency in the process. Local governments are better informed about how
much additional density their infrastructure can handle, and where to locate it.”
Greenwich First Selectman Fred Camillo said Greenwich had spent millions of dollars since 2020 to mitigate flooding in certain areas of town where there is a lot of congestion with houses very close to each other.
“This bill would add impervious surfaces to areas that can’t take it any more, he said. “My concern is going forward, as well-intentioned as a bill like this may be, is if the authors could work with the towns and environmental and conservation groups to pinpoint where these housing proposals could go.”
He said Greenwich is successfully increasing its affordable housing percentage and the town P&Z commission had approved hundreds of new units.
Greenwich First Selectman Fred Camillo
Housing committee co-chair Senator Martha Marx (D-20) is a sponsor of the bill.
In an exchange with Camillo, committee co-chair Senator Martha Marx (D-20) representing New London and several towns in eastern CT, said 151 was not about affordable housing, but rather about creating starter homes and senior homes.
She said the bill would not alter statutory requirements related to environmental protection, pubic health and safety, and would not modify state laws governing wetlands, water and sewer regulations or building code enforcement.
“All it does is change the lot size and the setback, because we need 100,000 new homes,” Senator Marx said.
She noted that Electric Boat in New London has plans to hire 8,000 new employees. “We need to get people out of those apartments, to let new people have those apartments who have been there two, three or four years, who have hopefully saved money for a down payment, to let new people have those apartments because young people want to own homes.”
“It doesn’t touch the wetlands and the environment,” Marx said.
Camillo disagreed.
“You are actually hurting the environment because you are adding impervious surface and there is no place for this water to go. We are trying to add units but not add impervious surface, which means we don’t want to touch the setbacks which you are doing.”
Camillo talked about sewer capacity and fire safety challenges that stem from increasingly dense development.
“You have to be very careful about jamming units in,” Camillo said, noting that he’d heard from residents, particularly on the western side of Greenwich, who are increasingly frustrated at the frequency of proposals for development targeting their neighborhoods.
Senator Rob Sampson (R-80) representing Meriden agreed that impervious surfaces were part of the equation, as well as water and sewer, and other environmental impacts.
“When you’re fooling around with setbacks and changing what can go into a single family zone, you’re courting trouble,” Camillo said, adding Greenwich already has a serious flooding problem.
He said along the Byram River in Greenwich there is already high density residential housing and that the town is working with the federal government through Congressman Jim Himes on a $35 million flood mitigation project involving the bridges at the NY state line.
“If you’re starting to allow even more density and fooling around with setbacks, the millions of dollars we’ve already spent here on the local level will be undone,” he added.
Betsy Gara, Director of the Connecticut Council of Small Towns, said the solution to the housing shortage was not zoning because it does not address the significant cost of construction.
“Until we do that I don’t think developers are willing to build these starter homes because it doesn’t pencil out for them. They can’t make their money back on those kinds of projects.”
Senator Marx said in the New London area there is demand for senior housing which is addressed in 151, which is not explicitly addressed in 8002.
Gara said even residences initially built as starter homes decades ago typically have a high price tag today.
And while 8002 primarily focuses on meeting affordable housing needs, Gara said it had broad impacts.
“It will involve looking at all kinds of things including housing for seniors, housing for people with disabilities, addressing homelessness. It is going to be a very comprehensive planning process that will take into consideration all of these issues, and hopefully provide the technical assistance and resources towns need to figure out how to meet those needs within their community.”
Casey Moran from Hartford said other states had passed legislation similar to 151 to spur townhomes and starter homes.
“We’ve buried our heads in the sand for decades now. I cannot tell you all of the conversations I’ve had with people roughly my age who cannot afford to buy something,” Moran said, adding that the solution was to build more homes.
He said the housing crisis reflected longtime zoning regulations originally created to exclude certain people.
“I encourage the committee and everyone listening to think critically about giving some hope to those struggling in our state, to those looking for housing,” Moran said. “Two states have done this in the past two years and 10 more states have a similar bills pending.”
Peter Harrison, the CT Director of the Regional Plan Association, said reducing the amount of land required to construct a home was a powerful low cost solution to the state’s severe housing shortage.
He said minimum lot size reform would responsibly unlock thousands of new, high quality starter homes to lower prices and open the door to families who have been priced out of home ownership and seniors who want to downsize and age in their communities.
Harrison said Texas and Maine had passed similar laws as part of a “growing bi-partisan national consensus,” and 10 states were reviewing similar laws, including Maryland.
He said zoning with “oversized” lot size requirements drives up costs by inflating the price of the land and shrinks supply by limiting how many homes can be built.
“In 2024 Connecticut, had the 4th lowest housing production in the country. Our housing stock grew by .4% while our while our population grew by 1.6%. The result of this imbalance is a market where single family starter homes are increasingly scarce.”
“SB 151’s primary goal is to cap lot size at 5,000 ft, served on existing or planned public water and sewer infrastructure,” Harrison continued. “It would reduce excessive setback requirements that would allow greater lot coverage. In practice the bill supports reasonable 3-story height restrictions consistent with building and fire code standards for single family homes and town homes, and these developments would fall under existing stand and/or local conservation and stormwater management laws.”
State Senator Fazio told the committee, “the ink is barely dry” on HB 8002.
“It contained over 50 sections of new mandates on our towns for re-zoning, reporting, planning and developing and more,” Fazio said, adding that towns and cities haven’t yet had the opportunity to fully understand their obligations under the new law.
“It was passed without a public hearing and was released to the public just an hour before debate began on the state house of representatives floor,” he said.
Fazio said, “SB 151 would add insult to injury, make light density neighborhoods virtually illegal and virtually end towns as we know them in Connecticut.”
“It would limit setbacks to just 5 ft, so every house can be on top of one another. It would ban size and height limitations so there is nothing to stop sky-high buildings in every neighborhood. No space, no greenery, no planning, no local control.”
Senator Marx repeated that Electric Boat intends to hire 8,000 people who will need to be housed.
“It’s about starter homes. It’s not affordable housing, so if people say this is going against 8002, which we just passed, let it work, absolutely. And then let’s also do this for starter homes. There are a lot of 30-year olds saying do something for me,” Marx said.
Land use attorney Kevin Curseaden testified that the bill would not impact “guardrails for development.”
“There’s still statewide MS4 storm water regulations that have to be complied with. There’s still local regulations. There’s still the building code. There’s still the fire code. There’s still FEMA flood requirements that need to be put in place,” Curseaden said. “If they can’t meet those factors they’re not going to be built.”
As for unintended consequences, including that the legislation might result in “McMansions” rather than townhouses and starter homes, Curseaden acknowledged there was nothing in the bill limiting housing to affordable instead of luxury.
Fazio, who is seeking his party’s nomination to run for Governor, said he’d been traveling across the state and heard opposition to the bill from people in a variety of towns and cities.
State Rep Tina Courpas asked Fazio, who represents Greenwich and parts of New Canaan and Stamford, to respond language in the bill about restricting towns from prohibiting townhouses in single-family zoning districts.
“Are we ending single family zoning with a proposal like this – if the section about townhomes says there can be no restriction on any number of townhomes that being built on every lot,” he said. “That’s something I’d like clarification on.”
You can submit written testimony here.
Click here to read previously submittedwritten testimony on SB 151.
See also:
Lamont Signs Revised Housing Bill into Law, Following Months of Controversy
Nov 27, 2025
CT Governor Lamont Vetoes HB 5002, Controversial Housing Bill
June 23, 2025
Six Story, 120-Unit 8-30g approved behind St Mary Church in Downtown
May 2025
Greenwich P&Z Approves Mason St 8-30g with Significant Modifications
Dec 18, 2025
Mason Street 8-30g Applicant Sues Town over Conditions of Approval
Jan 17, 2025