Preserving Historic Connecticut

When the state legislature adjourned its 2008 session last week, much of the postgavel discussion focused on what had not been accomplished. Lawmakers could not decide what to do about the looming deficit in the $18.4 billion state budget approved last year for the fiscal year that begins on July 1, so they agreed to leave it up to Governor M. Jodi Rell to balance the budget. The legislators did managed to enact a variety of other laws on issues ranging from the minimum wage and teen driving to criminal justice reforms and global warming. Tucked almost unnoticed in this sheaf of new legislation was an initiative that has the potential to affect the quality of life in Connecticut as much or more than any of the other high profile issues tackled by the legislature this year.

In response to an executive order by Gov Rell, creating an Office of Responsible Growth within the existing state Office of Policy and Management, lawmakers created a steering committee charged with preserving the character of Connecticut over the next decade through open space acquisition and restoration of the state’s historic buildings. The new Office of Responsible Growth will chair this new committee, which in turn will coordinate the preservation efforts through the agencies of other committee members from the Department of Economic and Community Development, the Department of Environmental Protection, the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Transportation, and the Department of Public Health, along with the executive directors of the Connecticut Housing Finance Authority, and the Connecticut Development Authority.

Advocates of this initiative hope to establish a fund dedicating $100 million annually over the next decade for preservation efforts. The funding would come from existing grants now administered independently through the Department of Environmental Protection, the Department of Agriculture, and other state tourism and historic preservation groups, plus hoped-for new appropriations to fill in the gaps of existing grant programs. The money would, for the first time, provide “rapid response funds” through grants and low interest loans to municipalities and nonprofit groups to purchase endangered open space, farmland, and historic buildings that would otherwise be lost forever through delay and the more cumbersome bureaucratic deliberations that characterize existing grant programs.

There is no guarantee that the distinctive landscapes and historic towns and villages of Connecticut will still exist in 25 or 50 years unless steps are taken now to facilitate and finance serious preservation efforts. The effects of laissez-faire development policies can be seen in the exurban sprawl that has covered over many of the distinctive landscapes up and down the East and West Coasts of America. We have already seen that places like Newtown’s Main Street and Sandy Hook’s Center are not immune from development pressures. We are encouraged to see this recognition by the state that preservation of Connecticut’s historic landscapes and buildings is in the public interest and inextricably linked to the quality of our lives.