38 Distillation Guidebook Co-Lab • 9.18–9.19 2025 has a strong incentive to think strategically about land use, particularly for parcels directly bordering Fairfield, where housing development could represent an important opportunity for increased tax revenue and more efficient use of constrained land. However, the site ultimately became a church – another tax-exempt use in the city that is in need of more revenue for public services. State and Local: Urban Revitalization or Suburban Sprawl? When it comes to understanding regulatory and land-use policy, CDMA is able to mediate between local and state actors, translating insights and priorities in both directions. In many cities, anchor institutions can significantly constrain the amount of developable land, even as housing demand remains high. CMDA communicates to the state that expectations for housing production and growth must be grounded in the physical and institutional limits of each city. David says it’s about striking a balance, resetting state expectations with the ultimate goal to encourage municipalities to think more expansively and identify overlooked sites and development approaches. This is important as the state is able to set expectations for how municipalities approach development in the phase of growth. In Connecticut, “there is still a limited number of small cities that remain oriented around industrial job creation.” In the southeastern corner of the state specifically, there is a sudden industrial workforce surge as an electric aircraft manufacturer broke ground on a 100acre factory, with plans to bring in 8,000 new hires. Currently, the region is not built to absorb this growth and housing demand, and the two focal regions that are grappling with this impending demand are New London and Norwich, and the suburban places surrounding them. In New London, they have many mutli-family buildings on their main streets that have been abandoned for decades and are starting to see mixeduse conversion already. The state now faces a choice to either reinvest in the urban core of New London and Norwich to channel growth into walkable, transitsupportive areas, or allow development to spread outward, risking low-density sprawl. David says the natural check on sprawl may be infrastructure costs (roads, sewers) that make it prohibitively expensive to build further out. New London, which recently completed its first new construction project in 50 years, is one of the 14 cities with certified zones eligible for CMDA funding. The agency is now providing gap financing
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