Connecticut Public Act No. 25-33 (2025), Sections 17-18: Transfer of Development Rights

Connecticut Public Act No. 25-33, signed by the Governor on June 10, 2025, is a wide-reaching environmental and climate adaptation law that creates new standards and requirements for state and local government as well as the private sector. The Act establishes new obligations and frameworks across several different policy areas: flood risk disclosure, municipal and regional climate planning, local resilience financing, water and infrastructure climate proofing, and pesticide restrictions to protect pollinators and wildlife. Sections 17–18 of the Act authorize municipalities to use transfer of development rights (TDR) programs for resilience purposes.

Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) framework is a land use tool that allows development potential to be moved from one parcel (“sending site”) to another (“receiving site”) through a market based transaction. Previously, Connecticut state law enabled municipal zoning authorities to implement TDR ordinances, but development rights could only be directly transferred between a seller and purchaser upon joint application with no third party permitted to participate in the process. Conn. Gen. Stat. § 8-2(f). (2024). Sections 17-18 connects Connecticut's TDR framework to participatory resilience.  

Municipalities may now establish TDR programs through their POCDs and zoning regulations, creating a mechanism to direct development away from climate-vulnerable parcels, with eligible sending sites explicitly including flood-prone areas and areas impacted by sea level rise. Receiving sites must meet criteria including proximity to public transit and public water, location above the 100-year flood elevation, and exclusion from core forest areas. 

Section 18 rewrites the intermunicipal TDR statute in full. The Act adjusts framework by authorizing cross-municipal TDR programs. Its core structure states that two or more municipalities may enter an agreement to allow development rights to transfer across municipal boundaries and they may establish a TDR bank through interlocal agreement, with defined conversion ratios and incentive structures. The net effect is that TDR is transformed from a largely unused intermunicipal tool into a climate-responsive land use instrument designed to move development away from vulnerable land and toward location with the infrastructure and resilience to support it.

The TDR bank agreement must:

  • Identify potential sending and receiving sites;
  • Include the local legislation governing development rights at receiving sites;
  • Describe procedures for terminating the bank; and
  • Define the conversion ratio to be used at receiving sites; which may express additional development rights in any combination of units, floor area, height, or other development standards, and may be structured to incentivize the purchase of development rights.

 

Key Terms

Element

Requirement

Receiving sites

Public water access; within ½ mile of transit; not in core forest; not in sea level rise impact area; above 100-year flood elevation

Sending sites

Core forest, farmland, agricultural land, endangered species habitat, or flood/sea level rise impacted areas

TDR Bank

Established by interlocal agreement; must define conversion ratio, sending/receiving sites, and termination procedures

 

Sections 17 and 18 transform Connecticut's TDR framework from a largely dormant intermunicipal tool into a climate-responsive land use instrument, explicitly linking the ability to shed development rights to flood and sea level rise vulnerability. Lastly, it ensures that any density gained through transfers lands in locations with the infrastructure and climate resilience to support it. These provisions are codified in Conn. Gen. Stat. § 8-1a and § 8-2e.

Publication Date: June 10, 2025

Related Organizations:

  • State of Connecticut

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