Connecticut Connecticut ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. ...

councils of governments A council is a group of people who come together to consult, deliberate, or make decisions. A council may function as a legislature, especially at a town, city or county/shire level, but most legislative bodies at the state/provincial or nation ...

, also known as COGs, are regional planning organizations that bring together the chief elected officials or professional managers from member municipalities in Connecticut. Since 2015 and 2022, the Connecticut planning regions served by COGs have been recognized as

county equivalents In the United States, a county or county equivalent is an Administrative division, administrative subdivision of a U.S. state, state or territories of the United States, territory, typically with defined geographic Border, boundaries and some ...

under state and federal law respectively, superseding the eight legacy counties in the state for most federal funding and statistical purposes. The COGs are meant to aid coordination among neighboring cities and towns, and between the towns and the state government, on issues including land use, zoning, and transportation. They serve some functions analogous to county governments in other states, but have no independent taxing authority (Connecticut disbanded county governments in 1960). Councils of government 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 has 9 regional councils following a series of mergers and realignments between 2013 and 2015. Populations are from the 2010 census. For current membership, see

List of municipalities in Connecticut The U.S. state of Connecticut is divided into 169 Municipal corporation, municipalities, including 19 cities, 149 New England town, towns and one borough, which are grouped into List of counties in Connecticut, eight historical counties, as wel ...

. Some COGs also serve as either federal

metropolitan planning organization A metropolitan planning organization (MPO) is a federally mandated and federally funded transportation policy-making organization in the United States that is made up of representatives from local government and governmental transportation authorit ...

s (MPO), rural planning organizations (RPO), 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.

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, 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 opposed the project, since the project would require each affected town to issue its own permits for the portions within its territory. This often led to long and costly lawsuits between towns that supported 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, in contrast 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. In 2014 the state Office of Policy and Management (OPM) completed a comprehensive analysis of the boundaries of logical planning regions in Connecticut under Section 16a-4c of the Connecticut General Statutes (2014 Supplement). 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. In 2019 the state recommended to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...

that the nine Councils of Governments replace eight legacy counties in Connecticut for statistical purposes. This proposal was approved by the Census Bureau in 2022, and will be fully implemented by 2024. In 2015, the State of Connecticut had previously recognized COGs as

under state law in anticipation of future census recognition, allowing them to apply for funding and grants made available to county governments in other states.

Functions

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, 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 (RCOG). Unlike county governments, the authority of regional councils is limited to land use policy-making, 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 Organized crime is a category of transnational organized crime, transnational, national, or local group of centralized enterprises run to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for profit. While organized crime is generally thought of as a f ...

and

drug trafficking A drug is any chemical substance other than a nutrient or an essential dietary ingredient, which, when administered to a living organism, produces a biological effect. Consumption of drugs can be via inhalation, injection, smoking, ingestion, ...

. With assistance from the

Connecticut State Police The Connecticut State Police (CSP) is the state police and highway patrol of the U.S. state of Connecticut, responsible for statewide traffic regulation and law enforcement, especially in areas not served by (or served by smaller) municipal police ...

and

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

, 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 examples. Individual law enforcement agencies contributing resources to these regional task forces retain their original identities, rather than assuming the identity of the regional task force. Several similar regional agencies exist, including federally designated

metropolitan planning organizations A metropolitan planning organization (MPO) is a federally mandated and federally funded transportation policy-making organization in the United States that is made up of representatives from local government and governmental transportation authorit ...

. These include several dual purpose agencies or continuing organizations that were once designated state regional planning agencies. Several may be consolidated in the future.

Alphabetical listing

U.S. Census Bureau

Comparison of county boundaries to planning regions The

formally recognized the planning regions/councils of government as

in the

Federal Register The ''Federal Register'' (FR or sometimes Fed. Reg.) is the government gazette, official journal of the federal government of the United States that contains government agency rules, proposed rules, and public notices. It is published every wee ...

on June 6, 2022. A draft notice of potential recognition would have adapted the existing FIPS codes for the eight " legacy counties", however in response to submitted comments, the bureau retired the codes and assigned new ones to more clearly illustrate the break in geographic continuity. The Census noted that there is substantial correlation between the historic county borders and planning regions, however planning regions may incorporate

towns A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

from several counties. The bureau notes that the recognition of planning regions as county equivalents was unique to the specific conditions in Connecticut, and would not constitute a binding precedent on similar conditions in other states.

Defunct regions

These regional planning agencies existed prior to the realignment beginning in 2013: #Capitol Region Council of Governments (Hartford area) #Central Connecticut Regional Planning Agency (

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...

-New Britain area) #Connecticut River Estuary Regional Planning Agency (Old Saybrook area) #Council of Governments of the Central Naugatuck Valley (Waterbury area) #Greater Bridgeport Regional Council (Bridgeport area) #Housatonic Valley Council of Elected Officials (Danbury area) #Litchfield Hills Council of Elected Officials (Torrington area) #Midstate Regional Planning Agency (Middletown area) #Northeastern Connecticut Council of Governments (Danielson area) #Northwestern Connecticut Council of Governments (

Warren Warren most commonly refers to: * Warren (burrow), a network dug by rabbits * Warren (name), a given name and a surname, including lists of persons so named Warren may also refer to: Places Australia * Warren (biogeographic region) * War ...

area) #South Central Regional Council of Governments (New Haven area) #Southeastern Connecticut Council of Governments (Norwich-New London area) #South Western Regional Planning Agency (Stamford-Norwalk area) #Valley Council of Governments (Derby/Shelton area) #Windham Region Council of Governments ( Willimantic area)

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. *

Greater Hartford Greater Hartford is a region located in the U.S. state of Connecticut, centered on the state's capital of Hartford, Connecticut, Hartford. It represents the only combined statistical area in Connecticut defined by a city within the state, being b ...

(Hartford area) *Central Connecticut (Bristol-New Britain area) * Central Naugatuck Valley (Waterbury area) *

Greater Bridgeport Bridgeport–Stamford–Danbury is a metropolitan area in the United States, U.S. state of Connecticut. The area is located in Southwestern Connecticut. In its most conservative form, the area consists of the Metropolitan Connecticut region, i ...

(Bridgeport area) *

Greater Danbury Greater Danbury (Danbury-New Milford Area), also known as the Housatonic Valley Region, is a region in the state of Connecticut centered on the city of Danbury. It consists of the city of Danbury and adjacent towns in the areas around the Housato ...

(Danbury area) *

Litchfield Hills The Litchfield Hills (also known as the Northwest Hills or Northwest Highlands) are a geographic region of the U.S. state of Connecticut located in the northwestern corner of the state. It is roughly coterminous with the boundaries of Litchfi ...

(Torrington area) * Lower Connecticut River Valley (Old Saybrook area) * Quiet Corner (Northeastern Connecticut/Danielson area) * Northwest Corner ( North Canaan area) *

Greater New Haven Greater New Haven is the metropolitan area whose extent includes those towns in the U.S. state of Connecticut that share an economic, social, political, and historical focus on the city of New Haven. It occupies the south-central portion of the s ...

(New Haven area) *

Southeastern Connecticut The Southeastern Connecticut region comprises, as the name suggests, the southeastern corner of the state of Connecticut. It is sometimes referred to as New London County or by the tourist slogan '' Mystic and More''. Southeastern Connecticut h ...

(Norwich-New London area) * Gold Coast (Stamford-Norwalk area) *

Lower Naugatuck Valley The Lower Naugatuck Valley, also known locally as simply "The Valley", is a geographic area located around the confluence of the southern parts of the Housatonic and Naugatuck Rivers. It consists of the municipalities of Seymour, Derby, Ansonia ...

(Derby/Shelton area) *Windham Region ( Willimantic area)

References

Notes

External links

* * * * * * * * * {{United States topic , title =

Local government in the United States Most U.S. states and territories have at least two tiers of local government: County (United States), counties and municipality, municipalities. Louisiana uses the term List of parishes in Louisiana, parish and Alaska uses the term List of bo ...

, prefix = Local government in Connecticut-related lists Connecticut councils of governments