Administrative divisions of Connecticut
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The primary political subdivisions and administrative divisions of Connecticut are its towns. New England towns are conceptually similar to civil townships in that the entire territory of the state is completely covered by them. However, they differ primarily in that New England towns, particularly in Connecticut, have broad home rule, and have powers comparable to those that a city in other states would normally have. There are advantages and disadvantages to this system: residents have a greater voice in the decision-making process over local issues. On the other hand, the state's delegation of broad powers to the towns has created a modern-day feudalist-like system in Connecticut, with numerous bitter rivalries between towns stemming from projcets and programs that encompass multiple towns. Decades of legal battles between Bridgeport and Stratford over the expansion of Sikorsky Airport and political fighting between Norwalk and Wilton surrounding construction of the US-7 Freeway are two such examples, but many more exist.
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[edit] County
While Connecticut is divided geographically into eight counties, these counties do not have any associated government structure. The Connecticut General Assembly abolished all county governments on October 1, 1960. The counties continued to have sheriffs until 2000, when the sheriffs' offices were abolished and replaced with state marshalls through a ballot measure attached to the 2000 presidential election. Counties are, however, still used by the state to organize its judicial and state marshall system. Connecticut's court jurisdictions still adhere to the old county boundaries, with the exception of Fairfield, Hartford, and New Haven, which has been further subdivided into several jurisdictions due to their large populations relative to the remaining five counties.
- See also: List of counties in Connecticut
[edit] Regions
The dissolution of county governments in 1960 created a vacuum of power at the regional level, which created huge 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. 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 15 regional councils, which cluster towns with similar demographics into an administrative planning region, instead of adhering to the old county structure. These regions are:
- Capitol Region (Hartford area)
- Central Connecticut Region (Bristol-New Britain area)
- Central Naugatuck Valley Region (Waterbury area)
- Connecticut River Estuary Region (Old Saybrook area)
- Greater Bridgeport Region (Bridgeport area)
- Housatonic Valley Region (Danbury area)
- Litchfield Hills Region (Torrington area)
- Lower Naugatuck Valley Region (Derby/Shelton area)
- Midstate Connecticut Region (Middletown area)
- Northeastern Connecticut Region (Danielson area)
- Northwestern Connecticut Region (Sharon area)
- South Central Connecticut Region (New Haven area)
- Southeastern Connecticut Region (Norwich-New London area)
- Southwestern Connecticut Region (Stamford-Norwalk area)
- Windham Region (Willimantic area)
Unlike county governments, the authority of regional councils are 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.[1]
[edit] Town
The 169 towns of Connecticut are the principal units of local government in the state and have full municipal powers including:
- Corporate powers
- Eminent domain
- Ability to levy taxes
- Public services (low cost housing, waste disposal, fire, police, ambulance, street lighting)
- Public works (highways, sewers, cemeteries, parking lots, etc.)
- Regulatory powers (building codes, traffic, animals, crime, public health)
- Environmental protection
- Economic development
Towns traditionally have the town meeting form of government and is still used by many of the 169 towns. 19 towns are also incorporated as cities, while 1 town (Naugatuck) is also incorporated as a borough. The 20 consolidated borough-town and city-towns are classified by the Census Bureau as both minor civil divisions and incorporated places, while the other 149 towns are classified only as minor civil divisions. Some of the larger, urban towns are also classified in their entirety as Census designated places
- See also: List of towns in Connecticut
[edit] City
There are 20 incorporated cities in Connecticut. 19 of these cities are coextensive with their towns, with the city and town governments also consolidated. 1 incorporated city (Groton) has jurisdiction only over part of its town. Cities in Connecticut are dependent on their town if they are not consolidated with the town government.
All cities are treated by the Census Bureau as incorporated places.
- See also: List of cities in Connecticut
[edit] Borough
In addition to cities, Connecticut also has another type of dependent municipality known as a borough. Boroughs are usually the populated center of a town that decided to incorporate in order to have more responsive local government. When a borough is formed, it is still part of and dependent on its town. There are 10 boroughs in Connecticut. One borough is coextensive and consolidated with its town. The other nine boroughs have jurisdiction over only a small part of their town.
All boroughs are treated by the Census Bureau as incorporated places.
- See also: Borough (Connecticut)
[edit] Village, neighborhood, section of town
Connecticut also has a fair number of unincorporated communities that are known locally as villages (usually in more rural areas), neighborhoods or "sections of" (phrasing particularly popular in Stamford, Connecticut) a city or town. Villages often have no separate legal/corporate existence from the town they are in, although a taxing district or volunteer fire department may exist for specific services. People who reside within a village often identify with the town rather than the village.
These unincorporated areas are often associated with historic districts. Many of these villages are treated by the Census Bureau as Census designated places.
- See also: Category:Villages in Connecticut
- See also: Category:Neighborhoods in Connecticut
- See also: Category:Census-designated places in Connecticut
[edit] External links
[edit] See also
List of municipalities of Connecticut by population
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