Status Report
Analysis of the Boundaries of Logical Planning Regions
Introduction
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 (OPM) to designate or redesignate the boundaries of logical planning regions. The member municipalities of each planning region are authorized under state statutes to establish a formal governance structure.
Section 16a-4c of the Connecticut General Statutes (CGS), as amended by Section 249 of Public Act 13-247, requires OPM to conduct an analysis of the boundaries of logical planning regions by January 1, 2014, and at least every twenty years thereafter. A provision of the statute allows any two or more contiguous planning regions that agree to voluntarily consolidate and begin the process of forming a single council of governments to be exempt from OPM’s analysis, provided the secretary formally redesignates the consolidated region prior to January 1, 2014. OPM has conducted outreach to each regional planning organization (RPO) and consulted with all of the entities prescribed by statute.
Upon completion of OPM’s analysis, the secretary must notify the chief executive officer (CEO) of each municipality located in a planning region in which the boundaries are proposed for redesignation. Within thirty days of such notice, the CEO of the municipality may appeal the proposed redesignation by petitioning the secretary to attend a meeting of the legislative body, in order to provide an opportunity for the legislative body to inform the secretary of its objections. Every effort must be made to schedule such meetings within sixty days of the petition, but in no event shall any meeting take place later than two hundred ten days after the secretary’s original notice. Within sixty days after the meeting, the secretary shall notify the CEO of OPM’s determination concerning the proposed redesignation.