S419 Summary: Planning and Development Changes

• Enacts new Chapter 160D of the General Statutes consolidating local planning and development regulation authority previously scattered across Chapter 153A (counties) and Chapter 160A (cities) into unified framework.

• Establishes comprehensive procedures for development regulation adoption, administration, and enforcement including zoning, subdivision regulation, building code enforcement, and historic preservation with consistent standards for both cities and counties.

• Creates vested rights framework protecting developers' reasonable expectations through site-specific vesting plans (2-5 years), building permits (6 months), and development agreements, while allowing local governments to modify regulations in limited circumstances.

• Specifies judicial review procedures through certiorari appeals for quasi-judicial decisions with clear standards for standing, scope of review, and remedies available to aggrieved parties.

• Requires local governments to adopt and maintain comprehensive plans as condition of exercising zoning authority, effective January 1, 2019.