Westport’s leaders asked Governor Ned Lamont to veto the first version of Connecticut’s big housing bill, and he did. Lamont vetoed House Bill 5002, a 92-page omnibus, in June 2025 after town officials sent him a bipartisan letter urging the veto.
“Governor Lamont’s veto is a victory, for sure, but much work remains to be done,” Jen Tooker, then the first selectwoman, told Patch.
The second version passed. Legislators approved House Bill 8002 in a November 2025 special session, Lamont signed it, and most of its provisions took effect on Jan. 1, 2026, as Public Act 25-1. Westport spent the first half of 2026 working out what it requires.
What the law does
The law reaches into local zoning in several ways that matter to owners of commercial and mixed-use property.
- It removes off-street parking minimums for residential projects of fewer than 16 units.
- It lets owners convert commercial buildings to residential use without a Planning and Zoning special permit, as 06880 summarized it.
- It allows “transit community middle housing,” buildings of two to nine units, on commercial and mixed-use lots through a streamlined summary review.
- It requires towns to adopt housing growth plans and ties future 8-30g moratoriums to compliance with them. Westport’s plan is due in June 2029, according to 06880.
First Selectman Kevin Christie has stressed that the law does not change the map overnight. “It does not trigger immediate zoning changes or new development in Westport,” he said.
Others were blunter about what it costs the town. “The new law is intended to expand housing opportunities, but at the expense of local control,” Town Attorney Ira Bloom said.
Westport’s rewrite
On July 27 the Planning and Zoning Commission unanimously approved a text amendment to bring Westport’s regulations into line with the law. It replaces special permit review with summary review for qualifying projects, allows transit middle housing in non-residential zones and eliminates parking minimums for certain projects.
The commission also passed Map Amendment 873, creating two Conservation and Traffic Mitigation Districts along the Post Road and downtown, a tool the town intends to use to keep some parking standards in its busiest corridors.
The parking change worries the commission’s chair. “While we hope developers would realize the need for onsite parking for their residents, they don’t have to offer any,” Paul Lebowitz said, according to 06880.
The 8-30g math
Connecticut’s 8-30g statute lets developers appeal denials of projects that set aside a large share of deed-restricted affordable units, unless a town is exempt or holds a moratorium. Towns where at least 10 percent of housing qualifies as affordable are exempt. Westport is far from that line, with 424 affordable units, about 4 percent of its 10,567 homes, as of June 2025.
The town held a four-year moratorium from March 5, 2019, to March 4, 2023. It is working toward a second one, targeted for 2027. To qualify it needs housing unit equivalent points equal to 2 percent of its housing stock, a little over 200 points by the June 2025 count.
The path has had setbacks. In May 2025 a plan for 32 affordable apartments at 6 Maple Avenue South was dropped after the owner, Ken Kronberg, declined to sell, costing the town 40.5 points, about 20 percent of what it needs. “Westport has missed an opportunity to meet the needs and goals outlined in the Plan of Conservation and Development,” the planner Rick Redniss said.
Projects in the pipeline as of June 2025 included 78 units at Hiawatha Lane Extension, 22 at 85 Post Road West, three at 785 Post Road East and two at 259 Riverside Avenue, along with six approved units at Ketchum Street and 1620 Post Road East that had not yet started construction.
In April 2026 the commission rejected, 4-3, a text amendment that would have let developers build required affordable units off site. Lebowitz, who voted in favor, argued that “the idea that offsite is somehow verboten” should be dropped from the town’s thinking.
A new long-range plan
Two committees of the Representative Town Meeting voted 10-0 to approve $185,000 for BFJ Planning to write a new Plan of Conservation and Development, due in October 2027. Michelle Perillie, the town’s planning and zoning director, said the approach of the 2017 plan “was to keep everything standstill.”
And on Sept. 16 two RTM committees advised against joining the Connecticut Municipal Development Agency, a new state body, with the planning committee voting 5-2 against. “We don’t want to be guinea pigs,” RTM member Matthew Mandell said.
What owners should take from it
For owners of commercial lots on the Post Road and in the downtown and Saugatuck business districts, Public Act 25-1 and Westport’s compliance amendment widen what can be built by right or through summary review. For homeowners near those corridors, the practical change is that small residential projects can now be approved without the parking minimums that once limited them. Developments with an affordable set-aside, such as the Fitzgerald on Greens Farms Road, will be weighed against the town’s moratorium count.
Sources
- Patch, Governor’s veto of HB 5002 a victory, Westport first selectwoman says, June 26, 2025
- National Law Review, New laws promote affordable housing development, Dec. 3, 2025
- 06880, State zoning bill takes effect Thursday, Dec. 30, 2025
- Town of Westport, News release on PA 25-1 compliance, June 23, 2026
- Patch, Westport P&Z to revisit housing rules, traffic overlay districts, July 22, 2026
- Westport Journal, P&Z hears two pre-apps, passes TA to comply with new state regs, July 28, 2026
- 06880, Affordable apartment plan dropped, moratorium points lost, May 2, 2025
- 06880, 8-30g, P&Z and more. Affordable housing 101, June 30, 2025
- 06880, Affordable housing, just the FAQs, April 26, 2026
- Westport Journal, P&Z votes down offsite affordable housing idea, 4-3, April 7, 2026
- Westport Journal, RTM committees approve $185K for conservation and development plan, Oct. 1, 2026
- Westport Journal, RTM committees advise against joining development agency, Sept. 16, 2026
