Zoning Ideas for Ashford
Here are some informational articles on some different zoning approaches that Ashford should be considering.
The Buildable Lot: What makes a lot Buildable?
Purpose of Buildable Lot Regulations: Buildable lots must meet specific size, shape, sewer capacity and street access standards to be considered suitable for development. In addition, many municipalities now exclude wetlands, floodplain and steep slopes of 15% of greater since these environmental constraints adversely affect the ability to install septic system leaching fields that meet the Connecticut Public Health Code.
Application: Buildable lot regulations have primarily been used by developing suburban and rural municipalities that have experienced unplanned growth in areas where soils or other environmental constraints have affected compliance with the Connecticut Public Health Code. Only sixteen municipalities in Connecticut have not established buildable lot standards including nine urban municipalities where sewers exist and seven rural municipalities experiencing far less pressure for development.
Buildable lot regulations apply to the subdivision of land and existing lots of record. Each lot created must meet minimum lot size, setback standards, shape requirements and be capable of meeting the requirements of the Connecticut Public Health Code standards for septic systems. The regulations also apply to existing lots of record when: 1) the lot is too small for the zone in which it is located, 2) the shape of the lot or environmental constraints don’t provide sufficient space to construct a house, septic system or driveway and/or, 3) setback standards can’t be met.
Zoning Boards of Appeal are authorized to alter setback standards for non-conforming lots of record when compliance with the zoning regulations creates a hardship caused by the regulations. A uniform application of the zoning regulations can affect certain parcels differently due to their shape or size. In these instances, in order to avoid a taking of property, the zoning board of appeals may vary the regulations – for example a setback standard that can’t be met – if they create an exceptional difficulty or undue hardship on the owner’s use of the land. Yet zoning boards of appeal are not authorized to vary what is considered a buildable lot. In this context, in 2009 the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled “A parcel that was not approved as a buildable lot has never been held to be one of the specified conditions that a variance may be validly used to resolve.” While the variance procedure has been used to vary setback requirements to avoid undue hardships, the Connecticut Supreme Court’s decision recognizes that environmental constraints are legitimate police powers of zoning commissions.
Best Practices: The criteria used to define environmental constraints vary widely across Connecticut. The Table below summarizes recent buildable lot standards compiled by the Western Connecticut Council of Governments. As can be seen, wetlands watercourses and steep slopes are the most commonly used criteria for determining the buildability of a lot.
Townwide Applications: Only sixteen Connecticut municipalities have adopted buildable lot regulations that apply to all zones, including commercial, industrial, office, single family and multi-family housing zones. This approach, while less common, recognizes environmental constraints as being equally applicable to all types of development. Municipalities that have adopted townwide standards recognize that environmental constraints are not limited by zoning district boundaries.
Environmental Benefits: Excluding or limiting the amount of steep slopes, inland wetlands and land in floodplains from buildability standards has many environmental benefits. These benefits include 1) protecting wetlands from direct and indirect impacts, 2) eliminating or drastically reducing the flood hazard potential for lots meeting buildability standards and, 3) preventing erosion and sedimentation caused by development on steep slopes. By law, all Connecticut municipalities must address erosion and sedimentation and stormwater management controls through their zoning regulations. The environmental benefit of a buildable lot standard is its ability to prevent or drastically reduce environmental impacts. Another positive benefit attributable to buildable lot standards is that pollution of the state’s lakes, rivers and streams is minimized thereby reducing hypoxic conditions – insufficient oxygen levels – in Long Island and eutrophication of inland waterways. These benefits are not unique to buildable lots in residential developments. As a best practice, buildable lot standards should be applied to all zones where development of any kind may occur.
Where to learn more about this topic:
· Western Connecticut Council of Governments, The Buildable Square: An Innovative Way to Protect Inland Wetlands and Reduce System Failures, August 2023.
· Cimino v Zoning Board of Appeals, 117 Conn App 569 (Conn App Ct 2009, decided October 13, 2009
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Impervious Cover Standards: Water Quality & Flood Protection
Purpose: Impervious cover (IC) standards are designed to reduce flooding by limiting the amount of land covered with buildings, patios, sidewalks, hard surface areas, and similar structures. Loss of tree canopy and increased impervious surfaces – especially within riparian corridors – are two of the leading factors contributing to increased stormwater runoff, downstream flooding and the degradation of water quality.
Application: The amount of IC within a watershed has a direct relationship with the frequency with which “bank full flows” – that is flows that top river banks – occur. When impervious surfaces cover 65% of a watershed the 100 year flood volumes, compared to the same watershed in a forested condition, will occur annually (Figure 1). Flooding is not merely a function of rainfall intensity and frequency but by the rate of water runoff from compacted soils, deforestation and urban pavement. Yet water quality impacts occur at much lower levels. Degradation of water quality occurs when more than 11% of any given land area is impervious (e.g., buildings, paving, compacted soils, etc.). These findings suggest IC standards are best applied across an entire municipality rather than for individual zoning districts.
One of the overall purposes of zoning is to consider the long term development practices on a municipality’s build-out goals. While an 11% IC standard is a known threshold for water quality degradation, IC standards need not be uniform to achieve long term water quality protection goals. Since most suburban and rural municipalities in Connecticut have zoned more than 90% of their land for residential development, greater IC restrictions for these zones are consistent with long term water quality protection.
Best Practices: Forty five municipalities have adopted IC standards for industrial, commercial and residential zones. Forty three of these municipalities have IC standards that vary by zone with industrial and commercial zones given the most lenient IC standards compared to residential single family zones. On average, municipalities with IC standards for industrial and commercial zones allow 60% and 51% IC standards respectively. In contrast, the allowable coverage for residential development on lots of 40K to 79K square feet and lots of 80K square feet or greater are 20% and 17% respectively. This strategy not only reduces long term water quality degradation and flooding within the municipality it also protects downgradient municipalities within the same watershed.
The most progressive approach, taken by eleven municipalities, limits IC to 12% or less in the largest lot residential zones. This zoning standard is consistent with long term protection of water quality and reduced flood hazards within the affected watersheds. Greater protections should be considered for public water supply watershed lands. For example, Willington limits industrial/commercial zones to 25% or less IC. This standard is consistent with Willington’s goal of protecting the Fenton River, the source of drinking water for Willimantic as well as the University of Connecticut.
Lot Cover versus Impervious Cover: There is often a lack of distinction made between lot cover and IC standards. While these terms may often be used interchangeably in some zoning regulations, the best practice is to define IC as a tool improve groundwater recharge, reduce off-site water quality degradation and, flooding.
Environmental Benefits: Reducing IC has many environmental benefits. Less pavement reduces off-site stormwater discharges. This in turn helps to reduce erosion and sedimentation of streams and rivers. Water quality is degraded by surface water runoff from parking areas, failing or inadequately maintained septic systems and excessive use of fertilizers and pesticides. These practice lead to excessive discharges of nitrogen, phosphorus, total suspended solids and pesticides into the state’s waterways. These concerns are particularly important for municipalities which serve as the source for public drinking water.
Where to learn more about this topic:
· Western Connecticut Council of Governments, The Case for Riparian Corridor Protections, Zoning Strategies to Reduce Pollution of Inland Waters and Resultant Hypoxia of Long Island Sound, August 10, 2021
