Speaker numbers apply only to this recording.
The Stamford Zoning Board convened for a public hearing followed by a regular meeting on September 29, 2026 (the transcript states the meeting date as September 28, 2026). The public hearing focused on three major city-wide zoning text and map changes aimed at improving urban design standards and simplifying the city's 48 zoning districts. The regular meeting included approvals for a major hospital expansion, a historic preservation project, and individual site modifications.
Public Hearing:
Regular Meeting:
We try to incentivize mixed use development. So obviously, if you have residences near your commercial uses, you reduce um traffic. Another thing and the theme that we've been uh following for uh a couple of the recent tax changes is to increase protections for abutting single family real uh districts. So as I said, those are local uh uh commercial districts that are often adjacent to single family districts. So uh we want to um uh have better protections for neighboring residential uses, wider setbacks, screening, those types of things. Um we want to add architectural design standards. Uh so for example, for internal sidewalks that the facades are um uh better designed, higher quality materials. Um and uh another uh thing that we're proposing are uh the approval uh and review guidelines. So currently the CN district is an as of right district, so everything less than 30,000 square feet uh doesn't come to the zoning board. Uh we lower the threshold. Um and uh we also adding a couple of commercial streets um for which special zoning uh requirements apply. So on a commercial street, for example, uh you have to provide a wider sidewalk, you have to provide a 15 foot wide sidewalk, and you have to have a ground floor uh commercial use, while on a side street, the sidewalk requirement is only 10%, and uh you uh don't have to have necessarily um a commercial ground floor use. So um this is just um a comparison between uh the current CN regulations and the proposed CN regulations. We slightly increasing uh the lot size. Um, but as you can see, um we are not increasing the density, the commercial uh density. Um and actually um for for residential uses, they are currently permitted, uh, but there's no floor area limitation. Uh there's only a number of units per acre. We're actually reducing that number slightly. Um we're increasing the um building heights slightly for uh commercial uses because commercial um uh uh floor to ceiling heights are um higher. So we're giving it an additional five feet. Um and for uh residential uses, we introducing a four um foot um uh height limit. Um however, because residential um floors are less high than commercial floors, um, it's actually uh not as much um uh of a difference. Um we slightly increase the building coverage, however, uh currently there is no limitation with regard to the lot coverage. Um so we uh proposing also um a maximum lot coverage to have some uh green space uh per via surface improve um storm water management. Um with regard to setbacks, we're reducing the front setback. Um, but we are increasing the side setbacks uh, especially and the rear setbacks, especially when uh the CN borders on a single family district or one of the lower density uh multifamily districts to get that bigger buffer requirement or bigger buffer uh that I've uh mentioned before. So basically uh we are continuing the work that we uh started with with a couple of other districts. The C L, I think was the most recent one. Um to add urban uh design guidelines uh to make those districts fit better um without um dramatically changing um height requirements or height allowances uh and density. And um I'm happy to answer any questions you may have. Well, thank you. This is um this is something that's needed to be done for a while, and it's uh you did a good job. So thank you. Um Peter, any questions? No, this looks like a really good idea. I think it's uh it's well done. And I think it's uh yeah, it should be done. Okay, Roseanne. So my only question, I mean, most of it is, you know, yeah, no questions at all. But so what if somebody's in the CN district and has a 5,000 square foot lot or has an 8,000 square foot lot? Does that mean they can't build anything new on