Councils of governments in Connecticut


Councils of governments in Connecticut are organizations that bring together the chief elected officials and/or professional managers from member municipalities in Connecticut. The bodies are meant to aid coordination among neighboring cities and towns, and between the towns and the state government, on issue including land use, zoning, and transportation. They serve some functions analogous to county governments in other states, but have no independent taxing authority. They also host some intermunicipal services based on the needs and voluntary participation of member or client municipalities. Councils, or COGs, receive funding through membership dues, state grants, and federal grants. Connecticut state law permits Councils of Government to apply for any grant money offered to county governments or their equivalents.
As of 2018, Connecticut has 9 regional councils following a series of mergers and realignments between 2013-2015. Populations are from the 2010 census. For current membership, see: List of towns in Connecticut. Some COGs also serve as either federal metropolitan planning organizations, rural planning organizations, or share staff with one or more MPOs/RPOs within their borders; the Western Connecticut COG, for example, supports both the Housatonic Valley MPO and the South Western CT MPO.
Population Council of governments Metropolitan Planning Organization
973,959Capitol Region
318,004CT MetropolitanGreater Bridgeport and Valley MPO
175,685Lower CT River Valley
448,738Naugatuck ValleyCentral Naugatuck MPO
96,617Northeastern CT
115,247Northwest Hills
570,001South Central CT
286,711Southeastern CT
589,135Western CTSouth Western CT MPO &
Housatonic Valley MPO

History

The dissolution of county governments in 1960 created an absence of a regionally-oriented governmental level, which created problems when it came to land use and infrastructure planning. Because the power once reserved for county governments was now in the hands of municipal administrations, major land use, environmental, and infrastructure issues often pitted one town against another, sometimes resulting in little or no progress on some projects. Complicating this, the state constitution delegates a large portion of the state's authority to the towns. That means a major multi-town project could be completely derailed if only one of the affected towns opposes the project, since the project would require each affected town to issue its own permits for the portions within its territory. This has often led to long and costly lawsuits between towns that support a regional-scale project and those opposed.
In an effort to resolve these conflicts, the State of Connecticut passed legislation in the 1980s establishing fifteen regional councils, which cluster towns with similar demographics into an administrative planning region, instead of adhering to the old county structure. In 2013, the Connecticut Office of Policy and Management approved a merger of the Connecticut River Estuary and the Midstate planning regions to form the Lower Connecticut River Valley Planning Region. See sidebar for prior region alignment.
In 2014 The Office of Policy and Management recently completed a comprehensive analysis of the boundaries of logical planning regions in Connecticut under Section 16a-4c of the Connecticut General Statutes. This analysis resulted in the number of planning regions being reduced from the original fifteen to nine, as a result of four voluntary consolidations and the elimination of two planning regions. As required by statute, the OPM notified the chief executive officer in each municipality that was proposed for redesignation and offered them a thirty day period to appeal the proposed redesignation. Of the seventeen municipalities that were proposed for redesignation by OPM, only three opted to exercise their right to appeal. OPM staff attended meetings in Bristol, Burlington and Plymouth, and subsequently granted each of the appeals.
Unlike county governments, the authority of regional councils is limited to land use policymaking, infrastructure development, emergency preparedness, and long-term planning for population and economic changes for the communities within their respective jurisdiction. The regional councils have no taxing authority; they are financed by funds from the state and member towns.
Regional councils also have some limited law enforcement authority. If approved by the regional council, member towns can put forth a portion of their law enforcement resources to create regional task forces to combat organized crime and drug trafficking. With assistance from the Connecticut State Police and FBI, several regions have established such task forces. The Northern Connecticut Gang Task Force, Bridgeport Violent Crimes Task Force, and New Haven Safe Streets Gang Task Force are such examples. Individual law enforcement agencies contributing their resources toward these regional task forces retain their original identities, rather than assuming the identity of the regional task force.
Connecticut’s planning regions provide a geographic framework within which municipalities can jointly address common interests, and coordinate such interests with state plans and programs. State statutes authorize the secretary of the Office of Policy and Management to designate or redesignate the boundaries of logical planning regions, whereas the member municipalities of each planning region are authorized under separate state statutes to establish a formal governance structure known as a regional council of governments.
Several similar regional agencies exist, including federally designated metropolitan planning organizations. These include several dual purpose agencies or continuing organizations that were once designated state regional planning agencies. Several may be consolidated in the future.

Defunct regions

These regional planning agencies existed prior to the realignment beginning in 2013:
  1. Capitol Region Council of Governments
  2. Central Connecticut Regional Planning Agency
  3. Connecticut River Estuary Regional Planning Agency
  4. Council of Governments of the Central Naugatuck Valley
  5. Greater Bridgeport Regional Council
  6. Housatonic Valley Council of Elected Officials
  7. Litchfield Hills Council of Elected Officials
  8. Midstate Regional Planning Agency
  9. Northeastern Connecticut Council of Governments
  10. Northwestern Connecticut Council of Governments
  11. South Central Regional Council of Governments
  12. Southeastern Connecticut Council of Governments
  13. South Western Regional Planning Agency
  14. Valley Council of Governments
  15. Windham Region Council of Governments

    Informal regions

Connecticut has a number of informal regions, that have no governmental unit associated with them, although may generally correspond to a regional planning agency or council of government boundary.