Danielle Dobin is a current member of Westport’s Board of Finance, and the previous chair of the Planning & Zoning Commission. She submitted this opinion as a private citizen, and not on behalf of any board or commission.
Westporters don’t always see eye to eye — and that’s a good thing.
We are a community that cares deeply, thinks independently, and engages actively with each other and our local officials. Over the past few weeks we’ve seen spirited conversations around zoning decisions like the proposed Hamlet development, and debates relating to our schools, including the Board of Education soccer coach appeal and the possible implementation of a bell-to-bell cell phone ban at Staples.
Just introduced in the state legislature, this massive omnibus “aircraft carrier” bill consolidates numerous housing and zoning proposals into a single piece of legislation — one that could be voted on as early as tonight or tomorrow.
Among its most impactful provisions:
- Density Explosion: Every single commercially zoned lot in Westport (400+ parcels) in every single neighborhood in town will be automatically re-zoned to allow the development of up to 9 units of “middle housing” (townhouses, cottage clusters, etc.) without ANY public hearing, and with no off-street parking required.
- Municipal liability for legal fees: Towns like Westport would be forced, at the court’s discretion, to pay developers’ legal fees when defending against 8-30g affordable housing lawsuits — even when we are trying to enforce reasonable land use protections.
- Off-Street Parking: This bill eliminates ALL off-street parking requirements for buildings under 24 units, and only allows a P&Z to require off-street parking for larger developments based on a developer’s own parking assessment.
- As-of-right office-to-residential conversions: This bill will allow the conversion of any office building in any zone to be turned into multifamily housing. The town will be prohibited from re-assessing the newly created multifamily or higher taxes for 3 years.
- Fair Share housing mandates: Westport would be required to zone for 1,495–2,461 affordable and deeply affordable housing units. If those units are built as part of developments with only 20% affordability — as is typical — this would mean up to 12,305 new housing units, or we both lose infrastructure funding, and we’ll face a tougher battle seeking our next moratorium from 8-30g.
- Work-Live-Ride transit district incentives: Towns that don’t preemptively create designated transit districts may lose access to critical infrastructure grants if they don’t allow high-density, as-of-right multifamily development with no off-street parking, especially where single family home zoning exists (Stony Point, Burritt’s Landing) near transit hubs like the Saugatuck station.
- Loss of state infrastructure funding: Westport will have limited access to essential grants — such as STEAP, Main Street, and Town Aid Road – which will be tied to compliance with state-mandated zoning changes required by Fair Share and Work-Live-Ride.
What does this mean for Westport? It means a potential tidal wave of development with no parking. It means the erosion of local decision-making. And it means the financial burden of litigation costs that towns will be forced to bear.
Whether you support mixed-use development or housing only in Saugatuck; if you advocate for preserving Westport exactly as it looks today or with changes; whether you favor or oppose the closing of Church Lane to vehicular traffic; whatever your thoughts on the high school cellphone ban, every Westporter should be concerned about the loss of local control and the scope of mandates being imposed without adequate consideration of infrastructure, schools, traffic, or environmental impact.
This passage of this bill will immediately transform our zoning to allow for THOUSANDS of new units (via the rezoned commercial lots and office conversions), with little to no parking for the new residents.
This is a moment for Westporters to stand together.
I urge you to contact our state delegation today and share your perspective — before it’s too late:
- State Senator Ceci Maher – ceci.maher@cga.ct.gov
- State Rep. Jonathan Steinberg – jonathan.steinberg@cga.ct.gov
- State Rep. Dominique Johnson – dominique.johnson@cga.ct.gov
We may not always agree — but we all deserve a voice in decisions that will shape the future of our town.