Addressing climate change at the local level
When a hard rain falls in Ridgefield, First Selectman Rudy Marconi knows where the runoff will overflow the gutters and flow across the backyards.
“We all show up,’’ he said of the other town leaders who go from torrent to torrent, checking out the storm water rush.
These rainy day meetings will become more frequent. Climate change means more moisture in the atmosphere and heavier, more frequent downpours across the state.
For the immediate future, the best thing towns can do is prepare to mitigate those changes. New state legislation may help them do that.
Gov. Ned Lamont has proposed House Bill 6441 – An Act Concerning Climate Change Adaptation. There will be a public hearing on the bill Monday.
There are no overarching state mandates in the bill. Instead it contains enabling legislation that will allow towns to create their own climate change mitigation plans — and fund them — if they so choose.
“In Connecticut, if you want to do something, you have to have the legislation to allow you to do something,’’ said Robert LaFrance, policy director for Audubon Connecticut.
“It’s a huge step forward,’’ said Amy Blaymore Paterson, executive director of the Connecticut Land Conservation Council.
The proposed bill would, if passed, allow the state’s Green Bank to expand its portfolio to fund climate mitigation projects.
It would allow towns to create stormwater districts to address the issue of stormwater run-off and how it sends pollution into the state’s waterways and eventually, Long Island Sound. It would allow existing flood and erosion control
“In Connecticut, if you want to do something, you have to have the legislation to allow you to do something.”
Robert LaFrance, policy director for Audubon Connecticut
boards to address the effects of climate change.
Most importantly, it would allow towns to charge a conveyance fee for real estate transactions. The towns would then set up a separate account for the fees they collect and designate a town commission or organization responsible for allocating the money.
This money could only be used to buy open space if the town meets the state’s housing standards of having at least 10 percent of its housing stock deemed affordable. According to a 2019 state report only six municipalities in Fairfield and Litchfield counties meet that standard - Bridgeport, Danbury, North Canaan, Norwalk, Torrington and Winchester.
Bethel First Selectman said he objects to towns being penalized for not meeting the affordable housing standards.
“But aside from that, that, I like it,’’ he said of the bill. “It’s a shame we don’t have stronger action from the federal government on climate change – maybe with the new administration, we will. But for now, the state has to do what it can.’’
Toward that end, LaFrance said the legislation does give towns latitude on spending the money they collect.
Work could include tree planting; urban forestry; wetland restoration; mitigation efforts to control flooding, including construction of swales and other landscaping designs.
“Let’s say you had a town park that gets flooded regularly,’’ LaFrance said. “The town could use the money to mitigate that flooding.’’
It could also provide a town with matching funds to apply for grants that address climate change or to fund long-term resiliency planning.
“It’s pretty broad.’’ said Catherine Rawson, executive director of the Northwest Connecticut Land Conservancy — the state’s largest land trust
The legislation addresses this simple fact. Climate change is happening and people have to learn to address it.
“I think that’s happening.’’ LaFrance said. “A lot of town are now studying resiliency.’’
Paterson, of the Land Conservation Council, said the state’s 130 land trusts, like towns, are increasingly concerned with not just acquiring open space but in considering climate change in the stewardship of that land.
“They’re considering issues like wildlife protection preserving grasslands, forest preservation,’ she said.
Ann Astarita, executive director of the Roxbury Land Trust, said all land trusts are now thinking in these terms. She points to six acres of grassland the Roxbury trust is now using to provide wildlife habitat and to promote pollinators.
“I think it’s a mission of land trusts in general,’’ she said.
In Washington, Rory Larson, conservation science manager of the Steep Rock Association, said the association is now paying added attention to preserving intact forests and wildlife corridors within those forests.
“We’re doing a lot of work with invasive species,’’ he said.
In Ridgefield, Marconi said the town is now studying issues like the impact of road salt on wetlands.
“We need to take better care of our environment,’’ he said. “We’ve got a lot of work to do.’’