Torrington, CT

Muni Initiative Program Town, Year 4

The City of Torrington is the regional center for Litchfield County, and serious about planning and smart growth issues. The approval of a new county courthouse, along with a push for the continued revitalization of the downtown, provided the impetus for an update to the city’s plans and regulations. Joining the Municipal Initiative in 2004, a task force with representation from the major land use departments in the city set goals for the initiative that included updates to the city’s Plan of Conservation and Development, revisions to zoning and subdivision regulations, the inclusion of smart growth provisions, and an update to stormwater management standards.

“We used a team approach in reviewing and revising our Regulations and City Engineering Standards and Specifications,” observed City Planner Martin Connor. “Even our Mayor became involved in the effort.”

In order to facilitate the application and review of both public and private development projects, the engineering department has developed the City of Torrington’s Standards, Specifications, Rules and Regulations. These standards were structured to follow many of the principles presented both in the NEMO workshops and the CT Stormwater Quality Manual, requiring the preparation of a stormwater management plan for both water quantity and quality for all projects that will disturb more than 1-acre of land. The engineering standards also include new stormwater-related details on roads: flexibility in road standards permit a curbless design that allows for sheet-flow to roadside drainage swales, and the permitted use of permeable materials in both roadways and driveways provides a departure from past practice in the city.

The planning department worked with the planning and zoning commission to make major changes to both the subdivision and zoning regulations. In zoning, the major change came with the recognition of different development demands between the sewered and non-sewered areas of the city. In the more rural sections, the commission appended the zoning regulations so that new development would need to meet the “net buildable area” requirements. These requirements assure that the carrying capacity of the land to accept on-site sewage disposal is met, ultimately determining the suitability of a lot for development. In the more urbanized sections of the city, the regulations now allow for higher density mixed-use development, encouraging retail on the street-level with residential uses on the 2nd and 3rd floors.

Both the zoning and subdivision regulations have embraced the use of low impact development and the standards of the Stormwater Quality Manual. Greater effort has been made to bring agreement between the standards of the engineering department and the requirements of the zoning and subdivision regulations, both for consistency and to make the application process easier. The regulations also stress the preservation of the pre-development vegetation, setting forth landscaping requirements for native vegetation and eschewing the use of invasive plants.

“The NEMO Program helped educate Commission members and staff, helping us to focus on smart growth and stormwater treatment related issues,” concludes Conner. “Working together we made important changes that will be very beneficial in the future in protecting valuable natural resources. We are grateful for the guidance, insight and valuable information the Municipal Initiative brought to us and our City.”

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