Welcome to the Connecticut Fair Housing Center's residential zoning analysis, a website with data on residential land-use regulations for municipalities across the state. In 2012 in partnership with Trinity College’s Cities, Suburbs, and Schools project, the Connecticut Fair Housing Center read, analyzed, and coded all available residential zoning ordinances in the state. The work was completed by Lisa Dabrowski (currently with Open Communities Alliance) and Fionnuala Darby-Hudgens, the Director of Operations with the Center, with a goal to link exclusionary zoning policy with schooling performance, and residential segregation.
The data and analysis show that zoning is a powerful tool for communities to exclude specific populations of people from their communities, and prohibit a diversity of housing opportunities. Information is current as of May 2013, unless otherwise stated, and based on definitions as described below. See this 2013 presentation.
If you have any questions, email Fionnuala Darby Hudgens, Connecticut Fair Housing Center Director of Operations at finn@ctfairhousing.org.
Use the maps below to expore whether Connecticut towns permit multifamily housing, what percentage of zones allow building multifamily housing, and various housing and demographic variables by town.
Some municipalities limit minimum lot size for a multifamily building. When the minimum is set too high, it may prevent developers from constructing some multifamily building: Why build a 4-unit on 20 acres?
On the other hand, municipalities restrict the maximum density of units per acre. By setting maximum density too low (compare Hartford's 300 units per acre to Colebrook's 0.5 unit per acre), some municipalities make multifamily units effectivey impossible to construct.
The visualization below shows minimum multifamily housing lot size for each town, and the maximum number of units per acre that can be constructed on such lot.