AN ACT CONCERNING AFFORDABLE HOUSING APPLICATIONS.

House of Representatives
sHB5376 / File No. 244 1

General Assembly File No. 244
February Session, 2026 Substitute House Bill No. 5376

House of Representatives, March 30, 2026

The Committee on Insurance and Real Estate reported through
REP. WOOD of the 29th Dist., Chairperson of the Committee on
the part of the House, that the substitute bill ought to pass.

AN ACT CONCERNING AFFORDABLE HOUSING APPLICATIONS.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General
Assembly convened:

Section 1. Section 8-30g of the 2026 supplement to the general statutes 1
is amended by adding subsection (n) as follows ( Effective October 1, 2
2026): 3
(NEW) (n) Notwithstanding any provision of subsection (g) of this 4
section, a commission may deny or return as incomplete any affordable 5
housing application that utilizes nonstandard, prefabricated or 6
proprietary construction assemblies if the applicant fails to provide a 7
preliminary life safety report. Such report shall be prepared by a 8
licensed professional engineer or fire protection engineer and shall 9
certify that the proposed design, including means of egress and fire -10
rated separations, is capable of compliance with the State Building Code 11
and State Fire Safety Code without requiring a modification to the 12
proposed design. The commission may require a third -party peer 13
review of said report at the applicant's expense. 14
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This act shall take effect as follows and shall amend the following
sections:

Section 1 October 1, 2026 8-30g(n)

INS Joint Favorable Subst.

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The following Fiscal Impact Statement and Bill Analysis are prepared for the benefit of the members of
the General Assembly, solely for purposes of information, summarization and explanation and do not
represent the intent of the General Assembly or either chamber thereof for any purpose. In general,
fiscal impacts are based upon a variety of informational sources, including the analyst’s professional
knowledge. Whenever applicable, agency data is consulted as part of the analysis, however final
products do not necessarily reflect an assessment from any specific department.

OFA Fiscal Note

State Impact: None
Municipal Impact: None
Explanation
The bill, which adds an additional ground for a land use commission
to defend its decision to reject or deem incomplete an affordable housing
application, does not result in a fiscal impact as it is not anticipated to
impact the number of appeals brought forward.
The Out Years
None.

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OLR Bill Analysis
sHB 5376

AN ACT CONCERNING AFFORDABLE HOUSING APPLICATIONS.

SUMMARY
Generally, under § 8 -30g, local land use commission s (for example,
zoning commissions) have the burden of showing that their decision on
an affordable housing application was based on statutory criteria . This
bill makes a change to § 8-30g by adding an additional ground for a local
land use commission to defend its decision to reject or deem incomplete
an affordable housing application.
Under the bill, regardless of the existing criteria, if an affordable
housing application uses nonstandard, prefabricated, or proprietary
construction assemblies, the commission may deny or deem incomplete
the application because the applicant did not submit a preliminary life
safety report. Under the bill, a qualifying preliminary life safety report
must be prepared by a licensed professional engineer or fire protection
engineer. It must certify that the proposed design can comply, without
design modificat ions, with the state building and fire safety code s
(including means of egress and fire-rated separations). The bill specifies
that the local commission can require a third -party peer review of the
report and charge the applicant for the costs.
EFFECTIVE DATE: October 1, 2026
DEFENDING AN APPEAL BROUGHT UNDER § 8-30G
Generally, under current law, if a commission’s decision could be
appealed under § 8-30g (see BACKGROUND) , it may only reject or
condition approval of an affordable housing development if necessary
to protect substantial public interests . These include health, safety, or
other matters the municipal commission may legally consider . T he
municipality must show that these interests clearly outweigh the need
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for affordable housing and cannot be protected by making reasonable
changes to the proposed development. The commission can also defend
its decision by showing that the development is not government-
assisted housing and will be in an industrial zone that does not permit
residential uses.
Regardless of these requirements, the bill specifies that a commission
can reject or deem incomplete an application if the applicant does not
submit a qualifying life safety report or agree to the third-party review,
under the conditions described above.
BACKGROUND
Affordable Housing Land Use Appeals Procedure (§ 8-30g)
The procedure generally requires municipal land use commissions to
defend their decisions to reject affordable housing development
applications or approve them with restrictions that would have a
substantial adverse impact on the project’s viability or the affordability
of income-restricted units. (In traditional land use appeals, the appellant
(for example, developer) must convince the court that the commission
acted illegally or arbitrarily or abused its discretion.)
Generally, a prospective developer can use the appeals procedure to
contest a commission’s decision on an application if (1) fewer than 10%
of the municipality’s housing units are affordable, based on certain
statutory criteria, and (2) the municipality has not qualified for a
moratorium.
Related Bills
The Housing and Planning and Development committees favorably
reported several bills impacting § 8 -30g, including: sSB 338 (prohibits
the allocation of housing unit equivalent ( HUE) points after § 8 -30g
litigation, under certain circumstances); sHB 5362 (reduces the required
affordability period for set -aside developments on municipal land,
requires the court to stay appeals when a municipality applies for a
moratorium, extends moratoria to align with housing growth plans,
requires towns to report on affordable housin g applications, and
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clarifies middle housing HUE point allocations); sHB 5364 (redefines
“set-aside development” to reduce required affordability periods and
aligns HUE point allocations with them); sHB 5365 (modifies HUE point
allocations, including for accessory apartments and certain deeply
affordable housing); and sHB 53 95 (allocates HUE points to modular
and prefabricated homes that do not otherwise qualify for points).
sHB 5395, favorably reported by the Planning and Development
Committee, generally requires all municipal zoning regulations to treat
modular and prefabricated homes like traditionally built homes (“stick-
built homes”).
COMMITTEE ACTION
Insurance and Real Estate Committee
Joint Favorable Substitute
Yea 11 Nay 2 (03/12/2026)