Comprehensive Planning
COGCNV continued to provide
planning, coordination, and technical assistance on behalf of member
municipalities throughout fiscal year 2001–2002. COGCNV uses the
Regional
Plan of Conservation and Development 1998
as the guiding framework for comprehensive planning in the region.
Listed below
is a summary new and
ongoing comprehensive planning projects undertaken between fiscal year
2001 and 2002:
State Data Center Affiliate
As an affiliate to the State Data
Center, COGCNV provided census and other statistical information to
municipal, non-profit, and private organizations. Census 2000 data and
tables on population, gender, age, race, and housing were distributed to
municipal officials in the Central Naugatuck Valley Region. In addition,
a memorandum on retail sales provided municipalities with information
from the economic census.
Intergovernmental and Statutory Reviews
and Referrals
Staff responded to referrals on planning and zoning issues as required by state law.
Specific comments were prepared for ten referrals deemed to have
regional or intermunicipal significance — on density calculations of
subdivisions, earth excavation, country inns, adult entertainment, and
permitted trees to plant. In addition, general memos on billboards and
sexually oriented businesses were written.
Police Mobile Data Communication
The regional police mobile data
communication system for local police departments, under the oversight
of COGCNV, became fully operational this year. The seven participating
municipalities — Middlebury, Naugatuck, Thomaston, Torrington,
Waterbury, Watertown, and Winsted — have a total of 168 units equipped
with laptop computers and wireless modems. The system enables police
departments to download motor vehicle, criminal, and other law
enforcement information, including mug shots, to laptops in their
cruisers. Officers are also able to send alerts and messages to other
officers and police departments and can help in coordinating
emergencies. The system, originally developed in the Capitol planning
Region, was funded through a State Office of Policy and Management grant
to COGCNV and by the participating municipalities.
Impervious Surfaces
As the percentage of imperviousness
increases within a basin (watershed), increased degradation of the streams
within that basin occurs. COGCNV staff have been working for the past year
to build on work done by the University of Connecticut (Uconn) Cooperative
Extension Service, Non-Point Education for Municipal Officials (NEMO) to
analyze the effects on water quality at full build out, based on current
zoning regulations. COGCNV staff are doing this on a town-by-town basis,
with the first presentation held in Thomaston. Analysis is designed to
increase awareness of the issue of impervious surfaces so that preventive
or corrective measures can be taken as development occurs.
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