Small Lots in Smart Places
Connecticut could foster more equitable, sustainable communities by rethinking one-size-fits-all lot sizes.
What’s good about reducing lot sizes?
Protects the environment.
Building closer together reduces our consumption of resources, our reliance on automobiles, and the climate risks of sprawl and deforestation.
Creates housing options.
Diverse lot sizes allow home builders to meet the unique demands of seniors, young people, and families while enriching a town’s appearance.
Reduces housing costs.
Smaller lot sizes mean more affordable options for owning or renting, for all Connecticut residents in all kinds of communities.
Download our one-page Fact Sheet on Minimum Lot Sizes!
Want more than one-size-fits-all lots?
Most importantly, contact state leaders to support change! Attend our events to learn more, or watch the video below for an introduction to our research on minimum lot sizes. Check out our Zoning Atlas to see how your town fares with minimum lot size requirements.
FAQs
What are “minimum-lot-size” requirements?
Zoning codes can require that a parcel of land must be a certain minimum size before it can be developed. The larger the minimum size, the fewer homes can be built in the community. When minimum-lot-size requirements constrain supply, housing prices increase - for everyone. Learn more about these requirements from our past webinars!
Why are minimum lot size requirements relevant to equity?
When a town requires a large minimum lot size, it constrains who can live in the town. Lower-income people cannot generally afford large-acre lots, especially since larger lots mean they have to have cars. Research has repeatedly shown that larger lots correlate with people with higher incomes, and to a lesser extent to race. Other research has shown that when cities decrease minimum lot size, gentrification decreases, too.
Does Connecticut require large minimum lot sizes?
Yes. Our Zoning Atlas shows that 81% of residential land in Connecticut requires about 1 acre per home, and 49% requires about 2 acres per home (a football field and a half!). Larger lot sizes increase additional road, sewer, and utility costs for a town without adding substantial revenue to pay for them. Connecticut’s large lot sizes are larger than other states, which is one big reason Connecticut is one of the most expensive states to live in.
Why do towns mandate such large lot sizes?
Historically, towns sometimes mandated large lot sizes to explicitly limit racial and economic diversity. Today, many suburban communities mandate large lot sizes because of inertia. Some say that large lot sizes protect the environment. But, as noted below, this could not be further from the truth.
Wait, do large minimum lot sizes actually harm towns?
Yes! Despite claims that they maintain a town's character or manage growth, they rob the town of new sources of revenue by blocking more residents and businesses. Added sprawl also forces the town to expand into more forestland and farmland, where we have lost about 13.3 acres per day over the last 25 years. And large lot requirements near our main streets and transit stations prevent the potential for walkable neighborhoods--exactly the type of characteristics zoning rules should promote, not thwart.
Has any other place adopted these kinds of reforms?
Yes! The Vermont legislature unanimously adopted legislation protecting 1/8-acre lots in 2020. California, Houston, and other places have also changed lot size requirements.
What does 8 homes per acre look like?
Like these images of 4 duplexes, 8 single-family homes, and an 8-home apartment building! Under our proposal, towns can decide which configurations they like best and incorporate them into their zoning code.
Will your proposal take my large lot and force me to divide it into small lots?
No. Our proposal will give property owners more options in how they use their properties. If they own a lot that could benefit from our proposal, then they can choose how to configure it, and create one or more homes for others in the process.
Will your proposal force my town to build apartments?
No. Our proposal will allow the town to retain its authority to identify the nature of the housing in affected areas of town. The town could choose to permit several single family homes on a smaller lot, a few duplexes, or at the town’s option, homes that are apartments. Our proposals allow towns the freedom to choose what new housing looks like.
RESOURCES
The location of sewer infrastructure is shown in orange.
Our Issue Brief about minimum lot sizes.
Highlight: If just 1% of CT land is rezoned under this proposal, we can create 185,000 homes at no cost to taxpayers.
Recent doctoral research about the inequitable and economically detrimental impact of Connecticut’s lot sizes:
Highlight: “[R]eform halving minimum lot areas in CT… would substantially increase supply of small & cheap homes, benefit racial minorities, minimally affect existing home values."
A study by Harvard researchers detailing how large lot size regulations increase housing costs.
Highlight: “One-acre increase in minimum lot size is associated with a 13 percent increase in housing prices, even for comparable house types.”
A Journal of Urban Economics paper highlighting how lot size requirements deter developers and future homebuyers.
Highlight: Data in the Boston area study suggests “that as the town increases the average lot size needed to build by one acre, the number of new permits declines by -0.4 log points, or about 40 percent.”
A law review article outlining the regressive effects minimum lot size regulations have on our economy and environment.
Highlight: “Large lot zoning restrains landowners who wish to build, drives up the costs of housing by restricting supply, and pushes demand to suburban outskirts,” exacerbating sprawl.
A Forbes article demonstrating how exorbitant lot size requirements suppress economic growth.
Highlight: “Ultimately, the only way to keep housing affordable is to increase supply in high-demand areas. Minimum-lot-size regulations are just one of many regulations standing in the way.”
An article by Yale Law professor taking a comparative approach to the history of lot size mandates and analyzes their effect on Greater New Haven neighborhoods.
Highlight: “By national standards, lots of this size [in New Haven County] are remarkably spacious. The New Haven suburbs’ aversion to small house-lots pervades New England, and perhaps much of the Northeastern United States.”
A Brookings study explaining how smaller lot sizes reduce the cost of buying a home.
Highlight: “[I]n places where land is expensive, building multiple homes on a given lot is the most direct way to reduce housing costs, because it spreads the cost of land across multiple homes.”
A Bloomberg article detailing how smaller lot sizes cost towns less in infrastructural resources than large lots.
Highlight: “Compact development costs, on average, 38 percent less in up-front infrastructure than ‘conventional suburban development’ for things like roads, sewers and water lines.”
An Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development report highlighting the high cost due to urban sprawl to the public.
Highlight: “The cost of providing schools, roads and utilities could be more than three times higher in areas where the density is low.”
An Environment Colorado report demonstrating how sprawl hurts taxpayers and towns.
Highlight: “Sprawl can inflate the costs of this new [water and sewer] infrastructure by 20 to 40 percent.”
A research paper showing that larger lots separate people by race, and to a lesser extent, income.
Highlight: “[A]verage household income increases by 4.5% for a decrease in the density by one dwelling unit per acre.”
A Journal of Planning Education & Research paper showing that the 1998 reform of minimum unit sizes in Houston resulted in new, more affordable developments.
Highlight: “The proliferation of 1,400 to 4,999 square feet lots between 1999 and 2016 in Houston reveals that there was substantial demand for dense residential housing in the city… [T]he 1998 subdivision reform has facilitated substantial infill development in many of the city’s neighborhoods, as old industrial parcels and single-family homes on 5,000 square feet lots have been converted into multiple townhouse-style developments.”