Municipal Plans of Conservation and Development
Resources:
Section 8-23 of the Connecticut General Statutes (CGS) requires each municipality to prepare or amend and adopt a
plan of conservation and development (POCD) at least once every ten years. In accordance with Public Act 24-132, any municipality that fails to adopt a POCD every ten years shall be ineligible for discretionary state funding in excess of $25,000 unless such prohibition is expressly waived by the OPM Secretary.
Discretionary state funding includes, but is not limited to, any source
of funding that a state agency administers through a competitive process, e.g.
the Urban Action Program, Small Town Economic Assistance Program, Brownfields Remediation,
etc. Discretionary funding does not include entitlement or formula-based
programs, such as the Local Capital Improvement Program (LoCIP), Education Cost
Sharing (ECS), Town Aid Road (TAR), etc.
Each municipality must notify OPM within 60 days of adoption of a POCD and enumerate any inconsistencies with the State Conservation and Development Policies Plan, as required by CGS 8-23. When notifying OPM through the contact listed below, include a link to the POCD and clearly specify the date of adoption.
Each municipality must notify OPM within 60 days of adoption of a POCD and enumerate any inconsistencies with the State Conservation and Development Policies Plan, as required by CGS 8-23. When notifying OPM through the contact listed below, include a link to the POCD and clearly specify the date of adoption.
Whenever a municipality fails to adopt a new
or amended POCD within the required 10-year timeframe, CGS Section 8-23(a)
requires the Chief Elected Official of the municipality to notify the OPM
Secretary and the Commissioners of Transportation, Energy and Environmental Protection,
and Economic and Community Development with an explanation. A sample Notice of
Expired POCD is provided above and can be mailed to required recipients, copying the OPM contact listed below.
CGS Section 8-23(b) authorizes the OPM Secretary to expressly waive the prohibition on discretionary state funding in excess of $25,000. Waiver requests will not be considered without a Notice of Expired POCD on file.
A copy of
the Notice of Expired POCD must be included with
each application for discretionary state funding submitted to any
administering state agency, until a new POCD is adopted.
Concurrent with, or prior to, the municipality’s submittal of
each application for discretionary state funding to an administering state
agency, the Chief Elected Official of the municipality should submit via email
a Waiver
Request Letter to the OPM Secretary via Rebecca.Augur@ct.gov
requesting a waiver of the discretionary state funding prohibition. A new
Waiver Request Letter is required for each application for
discretionary state funding.
The OPM Secretary shall consider the
information provided in each Waiver Request Letter and provide a timely written
response to both the Chief Elected Official of the municipality and to the
administering state agency’s point-of-contact, as to whether or not the
discretionary state funding prohibition is waived for the subject application.
Contact: Rebecca.Augur@ct.gov 860.418.6343