Land Use Officials Looking To Put Some Bite Into Enforcing Ordinances

By John Voket

The Legislative Council’s Ordinance Subcommittee met May 20 to plan a public hearing on several measures: an administrative change to the town’s GIS or satellite mapping ordinance, and separate initiatives that would modify the Parks & Recreation ordinance and help land use officials put some financial bite behind enforcement of rules being broken by the most chronic or severe violators.

According to land use official George Benson, state statutes enable towns to use a citation procedure to levy fines, but to use them, the town must enact local ordinances to apply those permitted fines.

“We don’t enforce state regulations,” Mr Benson told The Newtown Bee, “but we have to create local powers to enforce them and fine violators.”

Mr Benson said in his experience working in neighboring Brookfield, which has such ordinances, he did not use the citation and fines often. And when he did, it was usually for repeat offenders who do not respond to requests to comply with regulations.

“It was really only enforced with chronic violators,” he said. “When I worked in Brookfield I [assigned citations] twice in two years. It’s not for everybody — in most cases violations were settled without fine or hearing.

“We give people plenty of time, and we try to be reasonable,” he added. “But the only alternative we had in the past was to bring the violators to court — but we won’t go to that expense for something like a sign violation.”

The land use director said ultimately, the move could save Newtown “a lot of money [by avoiding] bringing someone to court for a minor violation.”

Mr Benson illustrated that a sign violation could eventually result in a fine of $20 per day, but only after his agency “goes through a multi-tiered notification process which begins with a verbal notice, followed by a written request, then a written violation, a cease and desist order, then the citation violation. Even then, the action can be appealed through Zoning Board of Appeals.

Wetlands violations, on the other hand, could hit $1,000 for each offense.

“A lot of times it’s over tree cutting,” Mr Benson said. “So those who keep cutting, refusing to comply, could face charges every day one continues the activity after the first violation is issued.”

Parks & Recreation Commissioner Pat Barczak also appeared before the council committee, reviewing proposed amendments to the current ordinance including bringing the measure in conformity with a recent Charter revision increasing the former six member panel to seven members. Other administrative changes include making the town finance director the administrator in charge of receiving funds for specific park purposes, and making that official along with the Parks and Recreation Commission chair and one other commissioner the signatory on disbursement checks.

Mr Barczak also discussed with the committee a possible change to language that would make all commission rules final, and not subject to appeal. But it was determined that other provisions in the regulation implicitly permitted appeals, when brought in relation to the enforcement of Parks and Recreation rules.

The final administrative change to the parks ordinance would be to require the commission to designate a chairman, vice chairman or co-chairmen to lead the group.

Ordinance Committee Chair Francis Pennarola said he hoped to bring all three issues to a single public hearing soon, and that he would likely seek to hold that hearing before one of the next two council meetings.