Alders OK Upzoning Downtown

by Laura Glesby

A denser and taller Downtown New Haven is on the horizon, now that alders have approved a landmark zoning overhaul aimed at fostering more housing development.

The new zoning legislation was championed by Downtown/East Rock Alder Eli Sabin along with fellow Downtown-area alders Carmen Rodriguez, Kiana Flores, Frank Douglass, and Angel Hubbard, in partnership with the City Plan Department.

All 21 members of the Board of Alders who were present at Monday evening’s full board meeting voted in favor of the ordinance amendment.

The law creates a new zoning designation called the “Downtown for All Overlay District,” which amends — but does not replace — the existing zoning designations that affect Downtown.

Broadly, the overlay district loosens restrictions on the size, density, configurations, and locations of new residential developments Downtown.

As a whole, the legislation makes it easier for developers to build more apartments in the Downtown area, in the face of a housing shortage and rising housing costs.

As of mid-2025, Census data indicated a 1.9 percent vacancy rate (referring to the ratio of housing units to households) in the New Haven-Milford area. The relatively low rate translates to fewer housing options for tenants, and more market power for landlords seeking to hike rents.

The zoning amendment will work alongside existing benefits for developments that set aside a certain percentage of units as “affordable housing” under the city’s Inclusionary Zoning ordinance.

At Monday’s meeting, the alders who co-authored the legislation said they expect the zoning amendment to help bring down rents and spur the development of more affordable housing Downtown.

Downtown Alder Eli Sabin.

“We hear stories about people who are being evicted because the rent went up,” said Sabin. “People who have lost their job and now they’re behind on rent.”

Douglass noted that his daughter recently sought to move back to New Haven after attending college, but found that “she can’t afford the rent. She moved to Hamden.”

“It is real change that will help make the city more affordable for all,” said Flores.

“We will be able to lower rents,” said Hubbard.

Rodriguez argued that by enabling more housing development in underutilized spaces, the amendment “will make better use of land Downtown.”

Douglass made the case as well that “Downtown is a great place to build more housing,” as it “has transportation to support more people.”

Alders Kiana Flores, Frank Douglass, and Angel Hubbard.

Alders envisioned that a denser Downtown would enable more people to ditch their cars for public transit (leading to less pollution and traffic), provide more tax revenue to the city, and power a more vibrant local economy by supplying more customers to small businesses and more job opportunities to the construction business.

Westville Alder Adam Marchand, a member of the Legislation Committee, noted that “numerous residents waited hours to testify in support of the Downtown for All Overlay District” at the committee’s public hearing on the matter.

Within the new overlay district, the ordinance would:

• Enable taller residential buildings by doubling the maximum floor-area ratio (FAR) from 6.0 to 12.0 (or, for inclusionary zoning buildings, 15.0) within the zone’s “inner core”. A building’s FAR refers to the ratio of the total floor area of every floor in the building to the total size of the parcel of land as a whole. A 12.0 FAR would allow for a building taking up 100 percent of a parcel to be 12 stories tall, and a building taking up 50 percent of a parcel to be 24 stories tall.
• Lower the minimum gross floor area ratio per unit in a multi-family development to 400 square feet, down from 1,000 square feet (or 600 square feet for qualifying inclusionary zoning developments). Essentially, this provision means that the total square footage of every floor of a given building divided by the total number of units must be a minimum of 400 square feet. By reducing this minimum, the zoning amendment allows for more density in Downtown apartment buildings.
• Permit single-room occupancy units (SROs) with approval from the City Plan Commission. Developers can now apply for a special permit to create rooming houses and dormitory-style apartments in which tenants share communal bathrooms and/or kitchens while renting out individual bedrooms.
• Reduce requirements for common amenity and yard spaces.
• Reduce regulatory hurdles to building housing in industrial and business enterprise zones within the overlay district.

Read more about the proposal in previous Independent coverage and in the text of the legislation itself.

Correction: A previous version of this article stated that 18 alders were present, but in fact 21 were present.