Connecticut Public Act No. 25-33 (2025), Sections 21-30: Resiliency Improvement Districts

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 21–30 of the Act create a Resiliency Improvement District framework through which local governments can finance resilience projects.

The Act’s creation of a new Resiliency Improvement District (RID) framework establishes a climate-focused analog to the tax increment financing (TIF) districts municipalities already use for economic development. RIDs give local governments a structured financing mechanism to fund climate resilience infrastructure using the incremental property tax revenues generated by improvements within the district.

Purpose and Eligibility

A municipality may establish an RID by vote of its legislative body in any area that experiences or is likely to experience adverse climate impacts including sea level rise, rising groundwater, extreme heat, wildfire, drought, or flooding. The proposed district must have been identified in a municipal or regional planning document, like a Plan of Conservation and Development (POCD), must demonstrate a reduction of identified risk, and must include an area suitable for commercial, industrial, mixed-use, or transit-oriented development. A POCD is Connecticut's term for the foundational comprehensive planning document that every Connecticut municipality is required to prepare and update at least once every ten years.

District Master Plan

Each RID must be governed by a District Master Plan that describes the district’s boundaries, existing conditions, identified hazards, proposed public facilities and improvements, financial plan, housing rehabilitation or replacement plan (where residential uses exist), and maintenance and operation strategy. The plan may remain in effect for up to 50 tax years. Master plans must be reviewed by the municipal planning commission for consistency with the POCD and adopted at a public hearing with at least 10 days’ notice.

Tax Increment Financing (TIF)

Once an RID is established, the municipal assessor certifies the “original assessed value” of all taxable real property within the district. Each subsequent year, increases in assessed value (the “increased assessed value”) generate a “tax increment” that is deposited into a District Master Plan Fund. The municipality designates a “captured assessed value.” This is the portion of increased assessed value allocated to fund district projects. The municipality may use these revenues to finance resilience projects, environmental infrastructure, and clean energy projects. 

Municipalities may issue bonds backed by tax increment revenues, benefit assessments, or a combination of financing tools. Bonds secured solely by tax increment revenues (rather than the municipality’s full faith and credit) are excluded from the municipality’s aggregate debt ceiling. District Master Plan Fund accounts must be audited annually by an independent licensed public accountant. RID designation does not alter how individual property taxes are apportioned. Property owners within an RID pay taxes at the same rate as owners elsewhere in the municipality.

Eligible Projects

Authorized uses of RID funds include a broad range of resilience and infrastructure investments, such as:

  • Wetlands or marsh restoration, riparian buffers, vegetated dunes, living shorelines, road elevation, levees, and other flood structures;
  • Heat island mitigation through shade, reflective building materials, reflective pavement, and access to cooling;
  • Drought mitigation through land repurposing, impervious surface reduction, and groundwater replenishment;
  • Structure elevation or relocation, flood easements or bypasses; and
  • Clean energy projects using Class I renewable sources and environmental infrastructure improvements.

Equity and Environmental Justice Requirements

The Act requires that RID infrastructure projects give priority to natural and nature-based solutions and to projects addressing the needs of environmental justice communities and vulnerable communities. Two mandatory equity provisions apply within every RID:

Nature-based and EJ priority: Infrastructure projects must give priority consideration to natural and nature-based solutions and to projects addressing the needs of environmental justice communities and vulnerable communities.

Affordable housing replacement: Where a resilience project results in demolition or reduction of affordable housing, the municipality, developer, property owner, or third-party entity must replace all affected units within 4 years. If replacement within the district is not feasible, affordable housing must be replaced in reasonable proximity to the district at a rate of no less than 2 units for every 1 unit that would otherwise have been replaced within the district.

 

Two or more contiguous municipalities may partner to form a Joint Resiliency Improvement District through an interlocal agreement. Lastly, the legislative body may create an advisory board whose members include owners or occupants of property in or adjacent to the RID. The advisory board may advise on planning, construction, implementation, and ongoing maintenance and operation of the district.

 

Sections 21–30 give Connecticut municipalities a self-financing climate resilience tool that did not previously exist in state law. The RID framework positions municipalities to invest in resilience proactively by pairing the proven mechanics of tax increment financing with explicit climate eligibility criteria, equity safeguards, and broad bond authority. The new RID framework established through these sections is codified at Conn. Gen. Stat. §§ 7-159e – 7-159n.

Publication Date: June 10, 2025

Related Organizations:

  • State of Connecticut

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  • Funding program
  • Laws

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Impacts:

  • Socioeconomic

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