Regional planners outline municipal responsibilities, deadlines under new housing growth law

Megan Jufless, deputy director of RiverCog, told a joint meeting of RiverCog's regional housing and economic development committees that Connecticut's new housing law (referred to in the meeting as "PA 25-1") establishes a sequence of deadlines and plan requirements that towns must meet over the next two years. "We are in the first bucket of plans that will be due," Jufless said, and she listed the key dates: state and regional housing growth targets are expected from the Office of Policy and Management on 12/01/2026; the Regional Housing Needs Assessment and municipal affordable housing goals are due 06/01/2027; and municipal and regional housing growth plans for the region are due 07/01/2028.

The law replaces the older 8-30j plans and requires OPM, the Department of Housing, DECD and the COGs to set regional targets using multiple factors named in the statute, including replacement housing needs, availability of affordable and deeply affordable housing, household formations, demographic changes, measures of housing cost burden and CHAS-type data, proximity to transit and employment, availability of developable land and share of multifamily housing stock. Jufless warned municipalities that "no recommended goal shall exceed 20% of the occupied dwelling units in the municipality," and described a review and publication process in which COGs must submit needs assessments and goals to the secretary of OPM and publish assumptions and data sources online.

Municipalities must either adopt a municipal housing growth plan or opt into a regional plan within 30 days of goal publication. Municipal plans must, among other requirements, adopt an affordable housing goal (which may match or differ from the regional recommendation), identify zones or parcels that can be used to meet goals (including maximum allowed density), inventory developable land, explain consistency with municipal/regional POCDs and WPCA infrastructure plans, identify strategies to improve accessibility for persons with intellectual or developmental disabilities, and include an implementation schedule and annual progress reports to OPM.

On developable land, Jufless read the statute's definition: it can include "land including any land owned by state or political subdivision of the state, including a municipality, that as of 01/01/2026 can be feasibly developed or redeveloped into residential development or mixed use development," while excluding land already committed to a public use or subject to conservation easement, wetlands, topographically unsuitable areas and other statutory exceptions. Ben Lovejoy, project manager with the Department of Housing, emphasized that "the state will not be identifying the developable land within your specific communities," and that OPM will provide GIS tools to assist municipalities in doing parcel-level or zone-level analysis.

Panelists advised documenting feasibility constraints and ownership limitations when preparing inventories. The group discussed examples that could limit feasibility—landlocked parcels requiring easements, brownfields needing remediation, or parcels lacking access or infrastructure—and recommended that inventories include notes on constraints and recommended infrastructure actions where appropriate. Jufless and RiverCog staff said they will "ground truth" inventories with municipalities and that COGs will provide comments on municipal plans before submission to OPM.

RiverCog staff said initial OPM guidance is expected on 03/01/2026 and that OPM and partners will issue GIS tools and a wastewater capacity study by 07/01/2026 to support the developable land analysis and infrastructure assessment. RiverCog plans to begin municipal outreach within a month, provide template zoning regulations via a pending RFP for zoning assistance, and host forums for questions when the COG summary document is released.

The committee did not take formal policy votes related to the plans during this meeting; members were asked to read the Regional Housing Plan and participate in forthcoming outreach and data collection steps. The most recent procedural step recorded at the meeting was that the COG will circulate the summary document and provide orientation sessions to towns before plan drafting.