Bill Text: CT HB05508 | 2018 | General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: An Act Regulating The Erection Of Fences And The Planting Of Hedges And Trees That Obstruct Water Views.

Spectrum: Committee Bill

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2018-03-12 - Public Hearing 03/16 [HB05508 Detail]

Download: Connecticut-2018-HB05508-Introduced.html

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General Assembly		Raised Bill No. 5508
February Session, 2018		LCO No. 2306
		*02306_______PD_*
Referred to Committee on PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT
Introduced by:
(PD)

AN ACT REGULATING THE ERECTION OF FENCES AND THE PLANTING OF HEDGES AND TREES THAT OBSTRUCT WATER VIEWS.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Assembly convened:

Section 1. Subsection (c) of section 7-148 of the general statutes is repealed and the following is substituted in lieu thereof (Effective January 1, 2019):

(c) Any municipality shall have the power to do any of the following, in addition to all powers granted to municipalities under the Constitution and general statutes:

(1) (A) Contract and be contracted with, sue and be sued, and institute, prosecute, maintain and defend any action or proceeding in any court of competent jurisdiction;

(B) Provide for the authentication, execution and delivery of deeds, contracts, grants, and releases of municipal property and for the issuance of evidences of indebtedness of the municipality;

(2) (A) Establish and maintain a budget system;

(B) Assess, levy and collect taxes for general or special purposes on all property, subjects or objects which may be lawfully taxed, and regulate the mode of assessment and collection of taxes and assessments not otherwise provided for, including establishment of a procedure for the withholding of approval of building application when taxes or water or sewer rates, charges or assessments imposed by the municipality are delinquent for the property for which an application was made;

(C) Make appropriations for the support of the municipality and pay its debts;

(D) Make appropriations for the purpose of meeting a public emergency threatening the lives, health or property of citizens, provided such appropriations shall require a favorable vote of at least two-thirds of the entire membership of the legislative body or, when the legislative body is the town meeting, at least two-thirds of those present and voting;

(E) Make appropriations to military organizations, hospitals, health care facilities, public health nursing organizations, nonprofit museums and libraries, organizations providing drug abuse and dependency programs and any other private organization performing a public function;

(F) Provide for the manner in which contracts involving unusual expenditures shall be made;

(G) When not specifically prescribed by general statute or by charter, prescribe the form of proceedings and mode of assessing benefits and appraising damages in taking land for public use, or in making public improvements to be paid for, in whole or in part, by special assessments, and prescribe the manner in which all benefits assessed shall be collected;

(H) Provide for the bonding of municipal officials or employees by requiring the furnishing of such bond, conditioned upon honesty or faithful performance of duty and determine the amount, form, and sufficiency of the sureties thereof;

(I) Regulate the method of borrowing money for any purpose for which taxes may be levied and borrow on the faith and credit of the municipality for such general or special purposes and to such extent as is authorized by general statute;

(J) Provide for the temporary borrowing of money;

(K) Create a sinking fund or funds or a trust fund or funds or other special funds, including funds which do not lapse at the end of the municipal fiscal year;

(L) Provide for the assignment of municipal tax liens on real property to the extent authorized by general statute;

(3) (A) Take or acquire by gift, purchase, grant, including any grant from the United States or the state, bequest or devise and hold, condemn, lease, sell, manage, transfer, release and convey such real and personal property or interest therein absolutely or in trust as the purposes of the municipality or any public use or purpose, including that of education, art, ornament, health, charity or amusement, cemeteries, parks or gardens, or the erection or maintenance of statues, monuments, buildings or other structures, require. Any lease of real or personal property or any interest therein, either as lessee or lessor, may be for such term or any extensions thereof and upon such other terms and conditions as have been approved by the municipality, including without limitation the power to bind itself to appropriate funds as necessary to meet rent and other obligations as provided in any such lease;

(B) Provide for the proper administration of gifts, grants, bequests and devises and meet such terms or conditions as are prescribed by the grantor or donor and accepted by the municipality;

(4) (A) Provide for police protection, regulate and prescribe the duties of the persons providing police protection with respect to criminal matters within the limits of the municipality and maintain and regulate a suitable place of detention within the limits of the municipality for the safekeeping of all persons arrested and awaiting trial and do all other things necessary or desirable for the policing of the municipality;

(B) Provide for fire protection, organize, maintain and regulate the persons providing fire protection, provide the necessary apparatus for extinguishing fires and do all other things necessary or desirable for the protection of the municipality from fire;

(C) Provide for entertainment, amusements, concerts, celebrations and cultural activities, including the direct or indirect purchase, ownership and operation of the assets of one or more sports franchises;

(D) Provide for ambulance service by the municipality or any person, firm or corporation;

(E) Provide for the employment of nurses;

(F) Provide for lighting the streets, highways and other public places of the municipality and for the care and preservation of public lamps, lamp posts and fixtures;

(G) Provide for the furnishing of water, by contract or otherwise;

(H) Provide for or regulate the collection and disposal of garbage, trash, rubbish, waste material and ashes by contract or otherwise, including prohibiting the throwing or placing of such materials on the highways;

(I) Provide for the financing, construction, rehabilitation, repair, improvement or subsidization of housing for low and moderate income persons and families;

(5) (A) Provide for and establish pension systems for the officers and employees of the municipality and for the active members of any volunteer fire department or any volunteer ambulance association of the municipality, and establish a system of qualification for the tenure in office of such officers and employees, provided the rights or benefits granted to any individual under any municipal retirement or pension system shall not be diminished or eliminated;

(B) Establish a merit system or civil service system for the selection and promotion of public officials and employees. Nothing in this subparagraph shall be construed to validate any merit system or civil service system established prior to May 24, 1972;

(C) Provide for the employment of and prescribe the salaries, compensation and hours of employment of all officers and employees of the municipality and the duties of such officers and employees not expressly defined by the Constitution of the state, the general statutes, charter or special act;

(D) Provide for the appointment of a municipal historian;

(6) (A) (i) Establish, lay out, construct, reconstruct, alter, maintain, repair, control and operate cemeteries, public burial grounds, hospitals, clinics, institutions for children and aged, infirm and chronically ill persons, bus terminals and airports and their accessories, docks, wharves, school houses, libraries, parks, playgrounds, playfields, fieldhouses, baths, bathhouses, swimming pools, gymnasiums, comfort stations, recreation places, public beaches, beach facilities, public gardens, markets, garbage and refuse disposal facilities, parking lots and other off-street parking facilities, and any and all buildings or facilities necessary or convenient for carrying on the government of the municipality;

(ii) Create, provide for, construct, regulate and maintain all things in the nature of public works and improvements;

(iii) Enter into or upon any land for the purpose of making necessary surveys or mapping in connection with any public improvement, and take by eminent domain any lands, rights, easements, privileges, franchises or structures which are necessary for the purpose of establishing, constructing or maintaining any public work, or for any municipal purpose, in the manner prescribed by the general statutes;

(iv) Regulate and protect from injury or defacement all public buildings, public monuments, trees and ornaments in public places and other public property in the municipality;

(v) Provide for the planting, rearing and preserving of shade and ornamental trees on the streets and public grounds;

(vi) Provide for improvement of waterfronts by a board, commission or otherwise;

(B) (i) Lay out, construct, reconstruct, repair, maintain, operate, alter, extend and discontinue sewer and drainage systems and sewage disposal plants;

(ii) Enter into or upon any land for the purpose of correcting the flow of surface water through watercourses which prevent, or may tend to prevent, the free discharge of municipal highway surface water through said courses;

(iii) Regulate the laying, location and maintenance of gas pipes, water pipes, drains, sewers, poles, wires, conduits and other structures in the streets and public places of the municipality;

(iv) Prohibit and regulate the discharge of drains from roofs of buildings over or upon the sidewalks, streets or other public places of the municipality or into sanitary sewers;

(v) Enter into energy-savings performance contracts;

(C) (i) Lay out, construct, reconstruct, alter, maintain, repair, control, operate, and assign numbers to streets, alleys, highways, boulevards, bridges, underpasses, sidewalks, curbs, gutters, public walks and parkways;

(ii) Keep open and safe for public use and travel and free from encroachment or obstruction the streets, sidewalks and public places in the municipality;

(iii) Control the excavation of highways and streets;

(iv) Regulate and prohibit the excavation, altering or opening of sidewalks, public places and grounds for public and private purposes and the location of any work or things thereon, whether temporary or permanent, upon or under the surface thereof;

(v) Require owners or occupants of land adjacent to any sidewalk or public work to remove snow, ice, sleet, debris or any other obstruction therefrom, provide penalties upon their failure to do so, and cause such snow, ice, sleet, debris or other obstruction to be removed and make the cost of such removal a lien on such property;

(vi) Grant to abutting property owners a limited property or leasehold interest in abutting streets and sidewalks for the purpose of encouraging and supporting private commercial development;

(7) (A) (i) Make rules relating to the maintenance of safe and sanitary housing;

(ii) Regulate the mode of using any buildings when such regulations seem expedient for the purpose of promoting the safety, health, morals and general welfare of the inhabitants of the municipality;

(iii) Regulate and prohibit the moving of buildings upon or through the streets or other public places of the municipality, and cause the removal and demolition of unsafe buildings and structures;

(iv) Regulate and provide for the licensing of parked trailers when located off the public highways, and trailer parks or mobile manufactured home parks, except as otherwise provided by special act and except where there exists a local zoning commission so empowered;

(v) Establish lines beyond which no buildings, steps, stoop, veranda, billboard, advertising sign or device or other structure or obstruction may be erected;

(vi) Regulate and prohibit the placing, erecting or keeping of signs, awnings or other things upon or over the sidewalks, streets and other public places of the municipality;

(vii) Regulate plumbing and house drainage;

(viii) Prohibit or regulate the construction of dwellings, apartments, boarding houses, hotels, commercial buildings, youth camps or commercial camps and commercial camping facilities in such municipality unless the sewerage facilities have been approved by the authorized officials of the municipality;

(B) (i) Regulate and prohibit, in a manner not inconsistent with the general statutes, traffic, the operation of vehicles on streets and highways, off-street parking and on-street residential neighborhood parking areas in which on-street parking is limited to residents of a given neighborhood, as determined by the municipality;

(ii) Regulate the speed of vehicles, subject to the provisions of the general statutes relating to the regulation of the speed of motor vehicles and of animals, and the driving or leading of animals through the streets;

(iii) Require that conspicuous signage be posted in any area where a motor vehicle may be subject to towing or to the use of a wheel-locking device that renders such motor vehicle immovable, and that such signage indicate where the motor vehicle will be stored, how the vehicle may be redeemed and any costs or fees that may be charged;

(C) Regulate and prohibit the construction or use, and require the removal of sinks, cesspools, drains, sewers, privies, barns, outhouses and poultry pens and houses;

(D) (i) Regulate and prohibit the going at large of dogs and other animals in the streets and public places of the municipality and prevent cruelty to animals and all inhuman sports, except that no municipality shall adopt breed-specific dog ordinances;

(ii) Regulate and prohibit the keeping of wild or domestic animals, including reptiles, within the municipal limits or portions thereof;

(E) Define, prohibit and abate within the municipality all nuisances and causes thereof, and all things detrimental to the health, morals, safety, convenience and welfare of its inhabitants and cause the abatement of any nuisance at the expense of the owner or owners of the premises on which such nuisance exists;

(F) (i) Keep streets, sidewalks and public places free from undue noise and nuisances, and prohibit loitering thereon;

(ii) Regulate loitering on private property with the permission of the owner thereof;

(iii) Prohibit the loitering in the nighttime of minors on the streets, alleys or public places within its limits;

(iv) Prevent trespassing on public and private lands and in buildings in the municipality;

(G) Prevent vice and suppress gambling houses, houses of ill-fame and disorderly houses;

(H) (i) Secure the safety of persons in or passing through the municipality by regulation of shows, processions, parades and music;

(ii) Regulate and prohibit the carrying on within the municipality of any trade, manufacture, business or profession which is, or may be, so carried on as to become prejudicial to public health, conducive to fraud and cheating, or dangerous to, or constituting an unreasonable annoyance to, those living or owning property in the vicinity;

(iii) Regulate auctions and garage and tag sales;

(iv) Prohibit, restrain, license and regulate the business of peddlers, auctioneers and junk dealers in a manner not inconsistent with the general statutes;

(v) Regulate and prohibit swimming or bathing in the public or exposed places within the municipality;

(vi) Regulate and license the operation of amusement parks and amusement arcades including, but not limited to, the regulation of mechanical rides and the establishment of the hours of operation;

(vii) Prohibit, restrain, license and regulate all sports, exhibitions, public amusements and performances and all places where games may be played;

(viii) Preserve the public peace and good order, prevent and quell riots and disorderly assemblages and prevent disturbing noises;

(ix) Establish a system to obtain a more accurate registration of births, marriages and deaths than the system provided by the general statutes in a manner not inconsistent with the general statutes;

(x) Control insect pests or plant diseases in any manner deemed appropriate;

(xi) Provide for the health of the inhabitants of the municipality and do all things necessary or desirable to secure and promote the public health;

(xii) Regulate the use of streets, sidewalks, highways, public places and grounds for public and private purposes;

(xiii) Make and enforce police, sanitary or other similar regulations and protect or promote the peace, safety, good government and welfare of the municipality and its inhabitants;

(xiv) Regulate, in addition to the requirements under section 7-282b, the installation, maintenance and operation of any device or equipment in a residence or place of business which is capable of automatically calling and relaying recorded emergency messages to any state police or municipal police or fire department telephone number or which is capable of automatically calling and relaying recorded emergency messages or other forms of emergency signals to an intermediate third party which shall thereafter call and relay such emergency messages to a state police or municipal police or fire department telephone number. Such regulations may provide for penalties for the transmittal of false alarms by such devices or equipment;

(xv) Make and enforce regulations for the prevention and remediation of housing blight, including regulations reducing assessments and authorizing designated agents of the municipality to enter property during reasonable hours for the purpose of remediating blighted conditions, provided such regulations define housing blight and require such municipality to give written notice of any violation to the owner and occupant of the property and provide a reasonable opportunity for the owner and occupant to remediate the blighted conditions prior to any enforcement action being taken, and further provided such regulations shall not authorize such municipality or its designated agents to enter any dwelling house or structure on such property, and including regulations establishing a duty to maintain property and specifying standards to determine if there is neglect; prescribe civil penalties for the violation of such regulations of not less than ten or more than one hundred dollars for each day that a violation continues and, if such civil penalties are prescribed, such municipality shall adopt a citation hearing procedure in accordance with section 7-152c;

(xvi) Regulate, on any property owned by the municipality, any activity deemed to be deleterious to public health, including the lighting or carrying of a lighted cigarette, cigar, pipe or similar device;

(8) (A) Provide for the protection and improvement of the environment including, but not limited to, coastal areas, wetlands and areas adjacent to waterways in a manner not inconsistent with the general statutes;

(B) Regulate the location and removal of any offensive manure or other substance or dead animals through the streets of the municipality and provide for the disposal of same;

(C) Except where there exists a local zoning commission, regulate the filling of, or removal of, soil, loam, sand or gravel from land not in public use in the whole, or in specified districts of, the municipality, and provide for the reestablishment of ground level and protection of the area by suitable cover;

(D) Regulate the emission of smoke from any chimney, smokestack or other source within the limits of the municipality, and provide for proper heating of buildings within the municipality;

(9) (A) Provide for fair housing;

(B) Adopt a code of prohibited discriminatory practices;

(10) (A) Make all lawful regulations and ordinances in furtherance of any general powers as enumerated in this section, and prescribe penalties for the violation of the same not to exceed two hundred fifty dollars, unless otherwise specifically provided by the general statutes. Such regulations and ordinances may be enforced by citations issued by designated municipal officers or employees, provided the regulations and ordinances have been designated specifically by the municipality for enforcement by citation in the same manner in which they were adopted and the designated municipal officers or employees issue a written warning providing notice of the specific violation before issuing the citation, except that no such written warning shall be required for violations of a municipal ordinance regulating the operation or use of a dirt bike, all-terrain vehicle or mini-motorcycle;

(B) Adopt a code of ethical conduct;

(C) Establish and maintain free legal aid bureaus;

(D) Perform data processing and related administrative computer services for a fee for another municipality;

(E) Adopt the model ordinance concerning a municipal freedom of information advisory board created under subsection (f) of section 1-205 and establish a municipal freedom of information advisory board as provided by said ordinance and said section;

(F) Protect the historic or architectural character of properties or districts that are listed on, or under consideration for listing on, the National Register of Historic Places, 16a USC 470, or the state register of historic places, as defined in section 10-410.

(G) Adopt regulations and ordinances regarding the erection of fences and the planting of hedges and trees on one parcel of property that obstruct water views on another parcel of property.

This act shall take effect as follows and shall amend the following sections:
Section 1	January 1, 2019	7-148(c)

Statement of Purpose:

To allow municipalities to adopt ordinances regulating fences, hedges and trees that obstruct water views.

[Proposed deletions are enclosed in brackets. Proposed additions are indicated by underline, except that when the entire text of a bill or resolution or a section of a bill or resolution is new, it is not underlined.]