Start Capital LLC filed to tear down an existing house at 9 Meadow Place, rebuild a new single-family home, replace the seawall, and add a pool, a spa, a floating dock, and a boat lift. That kind of project, sitting close enough to the water to touch a seawall, always needed a full coastal site plan review from Greenwich's Planning and Zoning Commission. Shoreline structures were never eligible for the exemption that let ordinary single-family construction skip that review.
What changed on August 12 is that the exemption itself is gone. A house on a dry, unremarkable interior lot in Old Greenwich, one that never touches a wetland or a beach, now needs the same coastal sign-off that used to be reserved for projects like the one at Meadow Place.
The Exemption That Took Ten Months to Catch Up
Connecticut's legislature made this change at the state level well before Greenwich did. Governor Lamont signed Public Act 25-33 on June 10, 2025, and the provision covering single-family construction took effect October 1, 2025. The law struck the old rule that let towns exempt individual single-family homes from coastal site plan review as long as the home sat more than 100 feet from tidal wetlands, beaches, dunes, coastal bluffs, or coastal waters. Under the prior version, a lawyer reviewing the change for Carmody Law noted that this exemption let homeowners avoid what can be an expensive and time-consuming review process, and most towns, including Greenwich, had adopted that exemption into their own zoning code.
For nearly a year, Greenwich's own regulations still contained language exempting single-family homes even though state law no longer permitted it. The town's Planning and Zoning Commission formally closed that gap on August 4, 2026, approving a zoning text amendment to Section 6-111 that removed the single-family exemption from the coastal site plan review process, with an effective date of August 12, 2026. That is the date the rule became unambiguous in Greenwich's own code, not just in the state statute sitting behind it.
Why Old Greenwich Absorbs This More Than Most of Town
Old Greenwich sits almost entirely inside Greenwich's Coastal Overlay Zone. Current filings with the town's Planning and Zoning Commission show how much of the neighborhood's ordinary housing stock carries that overlay designation alongside its base residential zone. A new single-family build at 22 Shoal Point Lane sits in the R-12 and COZ zones. A new residence at 14 Eggleston Lane sits in the same combination. A variance appeal at 23 Ballwood Road for a pool addition falls in the same overlay. None of these are waterfront mansions with docks and seawalls. They are the kind of ordinary lots that make up most of the neighborhood, and under the old rule, a straightforward new build on one of them could often skip coastal review entirely as long as it stayed 100 feet clear of a specific coastal resource.
That distance test is what disappeared. It no longer matters how far a lot sits from the water. If the parcel falls inside the Coastal Overlay Zone boundary and the project involves constructing a new single-family home, the review applies.
What the Application Actually Asks For
The town's own coastal site plan packet lays out what a builder or homeowner now has to assemble for a project that used to sail through without it:
- Three copies of a site plan showing existing and proposed conditions, including grading and drainage
- Three copies of drainage forms matching the town's current Drainage Manual
- Three copies of architectural plans and elevations, the same set going to the Building Department
- A completed Inland Wetlands and Watercourses Agency questionnaire, signed off by agency staff
- Certificate of mailing to every abutting property owner, including owners across the street, along with a copy of the notice letter
- A GIS map obtained from the town's Information Technology office
- The original building permit application itself
The town's application form states plainly that if a project falls within the coastal area as defined by state statute, the Building Department will not process a building permit until Planning and Zoning has issued its coastal sign-off first. That sequencing is the part that catches people off guard. It is not a parallel track that runs alongside the building permit. It is a gate the building permit sits behind.
Public Act 25-33 adds one more layer for certain sites. Coastal site plans within special flood hazard areas must now also be referred to the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection for comment, something the old law only required for shoreline flood and erosion control structures like seawalls and bulkheads. A new single-family home in a mapped flood zone now picks up a state-level review step that a similar home outside the flood zone does not.
What This Looks Like Against a Market Moving This Fast
Old Greenwich's resale market has been moving quickly this year. Over the three months ending August 2026, the median sale price reached $3.2 million, up sharply from the same period a year earlier, and homes were selling in about 14 days on average compared with 20 days the year before. That kind of speed rewards buyers who already know their timeline before they write an offer, especially buyers who are purchasing with a teardown or full rebuild in mind rather than a move-in-ready house.
A buyer closing on a lot with plans to demolish and rebuild used to be able to assume that a modest, inland parcel might avoid the coastal review track altogether. That assumption no longer holds anywhere inside the overlay. Submitting a coastal site plan application means scheduling an appointment with the town's Application Coordinator, assembling the packet above, and building in the two weeks of abutter notice required before any hearing where the Conservation Commission is involved. None of that has to derail a purchase, but it does need to sit in the schedule from the start rather than surface as a surprise after closing.
For a seller marketing a lot with rebuild or new-construction potential, this is now a fact worth stating plainly rather than leaving a buyer to discover during due diligence. A property inside the Coastal Overlay Zone is not going to offer a shortcut around this review anymore, regardless of how far it sits from the water.
What This Doesn't Touch
The change is narrower than it might sound. Public Act 25-33 removed the exemption specifically for "construction of an individual single-family residential structure," which covers new homes and full rebuilds. It did not touch the separate exemption categories that Connecticut law still allows towns to adopt for minor additions to existing buildings, detached accessory structures like garages and sheds, or improvements incidental to residential use such as walks, terraces, driveways, and tennis courts, provided those stay clear of the same coastal resource setbacks that always applied. A homeowner adding a deck to an existing house on an interior Old Greenwich lot is not automatically pulled into this review just because the new-construction exemption disappeared elsewhere in the code.
The distinction that matters is whether a project involves building a new single-family structure. Renovations that leave the existing house standing fall under different sections of the zoning code, and those provisions were not part of what changed on August 12.
A Few Practical Comparisons
| Project type | Before August 12, 2026 | After August 12, 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| New single-family home, interior lot, no water frontage | Could often skip coastal site plan review if outside 100 feet of coastal resources | Requires coastal site plan review regardless of distance |
| New single-family home within 100 feet of tidal wetlands or coastal waters | Already required coastal site plan review | Still requires coastal site plan review |
| Seawall replacement, dock, or boat lift | Never eligible for the exemption | Still never eligible for the exemption |
| Deck, garage, or driveway addition to an existing home | Exempt if outside coastal resource setbacks | Same exemption still applies |
| New home in a special flood hazard area | Reviewed locally, no automatic DEEP referral | Locally reviewed and referred to DEEP for comment |
The projects that already needed the full process, like the rebuild underway at Meadow Place, are not affected by any of this. The projects that changed are the ones that used to look routine on paper.
A Few Questions Worth Asking
Does this affect a purchase I've already closed on? The rule applies to the application process for new construction, so it matters most at the point of filing plans, not at closing. A completed home built before the change is not affected retroactively.
Who do I talk to about scheduling a coastal site plan submission? The town's Planning and Zoning Department handles intake by appointment through its Application Coordinator, currently listed as Lauren Lockwood, reachable through the department's published contact information.
Does every Old Greenwich address sit inside the Coastal Overlay Zone? Not necessarily every parcel, but a large share of the neighborhood does, and the only way to confirm a specific address is to check it against the town's official Coastal Overlay Map before assuming either way.
If you're weighing a lot in Old Greenwich with a rebuild in mind, or you're getting ready to list one, it's worth walking through what this review actually adds to your timeline before you're mid-contract. I've spent years working through Greenwich's zoning process with buyers and sellers, and I'd rather you hear the real sequence now than find it in the fine print later. Let's connect and figure out what your specific address requires.