Towns respond to proposal from Desegregate CT

GOSHEN — Bob Kenny of the state Department of Emergency Management and Homeland Security (and filling in for DEMHS Region 5 coordinator John Field) told the members of the Northwest Hills Council of Governments that increased supplies of COVID-19 vaccine should be arriving in the next couple of weeks.

The NHCOG is made up of municipal leaders from 21 area towns.

Kenny spoke to the NHCOG on Thursday, March 11 (on Zoom).

He said DEMHS is working on a “fixed site” for vaccinations in Bridgeport, Conn., and the agency has requested that two mobile sites be activated.

The mobile sites could be in the form of a bus, Kenny added, but he wouldn’t commit to it.

The mobile sites would be used not only for densely populated areas but for “less densely populated” areas, such as the northwest and northeast corners of the state.

Kenny said DEMHS is also working on ways to transport people to vaccination sites.

Michael Criss, first selectman of Harwinton and the chair of the NHCOG legislative committee, sounded the alarm on several bills that are getting public hearings in the state House and Senate during the week of March 14. 

The bills concern housing and related issues and are largely the result of proposals from a group called Desegregate CT.

Criss said the bills are not “fair or equitable” for small towns and would contradict long-standing environmental regulations (especially those concerning water quality).

He said a better starting point would be to discuss the state’s goal of municipalities having 10% affordable housing.

Donna Hamzy from the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities opened the meeting with a report on how that organization has met with Desegregate CT and agreed on some changes to the language used in some of the bills.

Criss made many of the same points he made during his legislative report later in the meeting.

NHCOG Chair Don Stein (of Barkhamsted, Conn.) asked if the legislation would override local zoning. Hamzy said that issue didn’t come up.

Criss continued to press the issues, noting that a proposed requirement for training for members of planning and zoning commissions would represent a burden for small towns who have trouble finding volunteers for such boards already.

He said such requirements would make local planning and zoning commissions “obsolete,’ and wondered aloud if the goal is to replace local boards with regional or a state-wide approach.