The not-quite-finished home on Rainbow Road, not far from Bradley Airport in Windsor, has the unmistakable scent of fresh paint. The trim four-bedroom sits in a row with three other identical Habitat for Humanity homes all, at first glance, functional and no-frills.
But they’re actually a lot more than that.
Joe Amon / Connecticut Public Radio
Connecticut homebuilders are pushing back against legislation that would allow municipalities to require new buildings to meet high efficiency standards.
The bill (HB 6572) would authorize municipalities to adopt a so-called “stretch” building code that would apply to new or substantially renovated buildings larger than 40,000 square feet. Developers would have to demonstrate that the buildings will use at least 10 percent per square foot less energy than the maximum levels permitted under the state building code.
Enacting a stretch energy code would put Connecticut in line with Massachusetts, New York and Vermont, all of which give municipalities the option of going beyond the state building code in the area of efficiency. And a major climate bill recently signed into law in Massachusetts will boost its voluntary stretch code to net-zero by 2023; that would mean new buildings would have to produce as much energy as they consume.