The State of Connecticut mandates that municipalities refer specific proposals to amend and/or establish zoning maps and regulations, subdivision plans, and Plans of Conservation and Development to the regional council of governments for advisory review.
Explore the Transportation Guide to the Greater Naugatuck Valley, a comprehensive resource offering valuable information on routes, schedules, and facilities.
The U.S. Forest Service awarded NVCOG a grant to research and catalog priority Open Space parcels across the region. The major deliverable of this project will be a GIS map layer of OS with detailed attributes including ownership, acreage, level of legal protection, public access status, and more.
The U.S. Forest Service awarded NVCOG a grant to assess, map, and characterize tree cover across the region. A robust tree cover mitigates high temperatures, filters air pollution, and can improve property values and quality of life in urban areas.
A common measure of transportation system performance is vehicle miles traveled (VMT), which looks at the total number of miles driven by personal cars across a given area. A reduction in VMT typically yields benefits for congestion, air quality, and can help reduce costs for drivers.
The Naugatuck Valley Active Transportation Plan (NVATP) will aim to coordinate efforts across our 19 municipal members. By compiling best practices and standards, NVCOG aims to encourage increased access to safe, convenient walking/rolling and biking facilities.
Connecticut is one of three states selected to participate in Smart Growth America’s Complete Streets Academy with the Cities of Bristol, Middletown, and Waterbury.
NVCOG staff, along with the cities of Bristol and Waterbury, have been participating in Smart Growth America’s Complete Streets Academy, a program designed to teach “about Complete Street best practices, improve cross-jurisdictional coordination, and plan and implement “quick-build” temporary demonstration projects on state-owned roads.”*
Each city will be installing a temporary project in the coming weeks to collect data and feedback about complete streets installations on key state owned routes near their respective Downtowns. This data will be used to inform future designs and improvements to these and similar streets to enhance safety, comfort, and pedestrian/bicycle access.
*Smart Growth America, https://smartgrowthamerica.org/three-states-selected-for-the-2022-complete-streets-leadership-academies/
The City of Bristol is looking to improve pedestrian safety along West Street (Route 69) adjacent to downtown. This project will reduce roadway width and add visual complexity through alternate side parking, paint, and improved crosswalks near the Boys and Girls Club to better alert drivers to pedestrian activity. Narrowed travel lanes, along with shorter crossing distances, will reduce the amount of time that pedestrians are exposed to traffic, encourage drivers to travel at safe speeds, and bring better visibility to pedestrians s they prepare to cross.
The City of Waterbury will use this program to pilot reduced roadway width on Grand Street (State Route 847) through Downtown. The block adjacent to the post office, home to local businesses, several mid-block crosswalks, and one of the City’s major parking structures, currently is extremely wide, making it difficult for pedestrians to cross and allowing for excessive speeds. The project will shrink the two mid-block crosswalks to reduce the amount of time pedestrians are exposed to traffic, narrow lanes to encourage drivers to travel at safe speeds, and bring better visibility to pedestrians as they prepare to cross.
The Climate Pollution Reduction Grants (CPRG) are a five-billion-dollar federal program to help state and regional governments reduce greenhouse gases. NVCOG towns are split among several planning regions, each of which is conducting its own GHG assessment and planning GHG reduction measures.
Project type: Assessment
Activities: The Regional Brownfield Partnership has awarded 300 Broad Street Properties LLC. $83,000 in petroleum assessment funds to conduct environmental assessment activities inside the combined 175,000 foot facility and surrounding footprint. The site was historically used for a variety of manufacturing and industrial purposes. The century-old manufacturing complex was constructed in 1915 by Wallace Barnes Company and last occupied by Theis Precision Steel until 2019. The now-vacant parcel was acquired by private developers in 2022. A conceptual RAP, supported by Phase II and Phase III reports valued expected remedial costs between $1 million and $3 million. Once complete, the property owners intend to rehabilitate existing interior space to modern manufacturing, industrial, and warehouse facilities. Invested funds are expected to leverage several million dollars in private funding and create dozens of full-time, high-paying jobs.
Project Status: NVCOG has secured an award of $3.7 million from the Department and Economic and Community Development to abate and remediate four existing buildings on the 23-acre site. Preliminary meetings will take place throughout the summer with the property owners, DECD, and NVCOG staff.
The NVCOG, in collaboration with the City of Bristol, conducted a Bristol Downtown Trail Routing Study to explore potential downtown routing options to provide a safe, continuous connection between Rockwell Park in the west to Downtown, continuing east to Route 229.