Legislative Program Review and Investigations Committee
Keypoints
OPEN SPACE ACQUISITION
"Open space" has various meanings and definitions. For purposes of this study, open space is defined according to C.G.S. Sec. 12-107b, and primarily refers to land with specific or unique resources that cannot be developed.
The Department of Environmental Protection administers the state’s main open space acquisition program.
Connecticut is made up of 3.2 million acres of land; approximately 482,000 acres are held as "open space" by different entities such as federal, state, and local governments, nonprofit organizations, and water companies.
The state owns roughly 234,900 acres of open space land, including development rights to 25,600 acres of farmland.
Between FYs 92-97, the state purchased 8,201 acres of open space land for $29.1 million at an average cost of $3,551 per acre.
Two major legislative initiatives dealing with open space plus a statewide task force appointed by the governor, have occurred over the past two years.
The last General Assembly authorized over $20 million in bond funding for open space acquisition programs.
Strategic Planning and Implementation
No formal open space goal existed prior to the passage of P.A. 97-227.
There is no formal planning process in place within DEP to prospectively identify properties for acquisition as open space; priorities are primarily developed in response to properties submitted to the department.
Although an inventory of open space acquisitions exists and fulfills statutory requirements, it is not as comprehensive as it could be; more work also needs to be done identifying high priority properties and taking a proactive approach to acquisition.
Acquisition Process Analysis
DEP takes an average of six months to review, evaluate, and make final decisions on properties submitted as open space. Purchase price negotiations, bond commission approval, and post bond commission requirements average two and a half years to complete.
A disproportionate amount of time is spent initially processing property applications compared to the overall time necessary for review and evaluation.
The department is not complying with its own internal review and approval procedures, yet properties continue to move forward, questioning the need for certain steps in the process.
No standards exist governing processing times for DEP review and evaluation of open space properties.
DEP has begun receiving bi-annual bond funding allotments, which should allow it to better manage acquisition planning and resources, and decrease overall processing time.
No approved list exists for selecting private surveyors without using a competitive bidding procedure each time surveying services are needed.
Purchase offer agreements and deeds required several review cycles by the attorney general’s office before approval.
Internal Operations
The land acquisition division lacks any type of centralized, automated tracking system for its open space acquisition process.
The current management information system is inadequate to support the overall operations of the division.
The division needs to increase monitoring efforts to periodically measure performance of the open space acquisition program.
The newly established open space review board is not required to report to the legislature on the performance of the open space acquisition program administered by DEP.
There is a lack written policies and procedures to guide division staff regarding the open space acquisition process.