Substitute House Bill No. 5528
          Substitute House Bill No. 5528

              PUBLIC ACT NO. 98-105


AN  ACT  CONCERNING   A   MODEL  RIVER  PROTECTION
ORDINANCE AND PROTECTION OF RIDGELINES.


    Be it enacted  by  the  Senate  and  House  of
Representatives in General Assembly convened:
    Section   1.   (NEW)   The   Commissioner   of
Environmental Protection, in consultation with the
Rivers Advisory Committee,  shall  prepare a model
river protection ordinance  which  may  be used by
any  municipality  in   this   state  in  adopting
ordinances or regulations  for  the  protection of
rivers. Such model ordinance may include, but need
not  be  limited   to,   recommendations  for  the
modification of municipal plans of development and
zoning,  subdivision,  site   plan   and  wetlands
regulations as necessary  to  allow implementation
of a river  protection  ordinance  or  regulation.
Such   recommendations   may    concern   tourism,
navigation,     utility     and     transportation
rights-of-way  and  water-dependent  recreational,
industrial,  commercial,  agricultural  and  other
uses, as well  as  proposals for specific setbacks
from  the  river,   dimensions  of  new  lots  and
buildings, restrictions on  cutting of vegetation,
restrictions on earth-moving  for  mining or other
purposes, prohibited activities  and regulation of
paving and other forms of impervious ground cover.
Such plan may  also  include  recommendations  for
incentives for property  owners  to  protect lands
within the river  corridor  and  to  develop  such
lands in a manner that is compatible with resource
protection.  Such  incentives   may   include  tax
credits for donation  to  appropriate  parties  of
open space easements  or  land  development rights
and incentives for cluster development.
    Sec. 2. Section  8-1aa of the general statutes
is repealed and  the  following  is substituted in
lieu thereof:
    As used in section [8-2i] 8-2:
    (1)  "Traprock  ridge"   means   Beacon  Hill,
Saltonstall Mountain, Totoket  Mountain, Pistapaug
Mountain, Fowler Mountain,  Beseck Mountain, Higby
Mountain,  Chauncey  Peak,  Lamentation  Mountain,
Cathole Mountain, South  Mountain, East Peak, West
Peak,  Short Mountain,  Ragged  Mountain,  Bradley
Mountain,  Pinnacle  Rock,  Rattlesnake  Mountain,
Talcott Mountain, Hatchett  Hill,  Peak  Mountain,
West Suffield Mountain, Cedar Mountain, East Rock,
Mount Sanford, Prospect Ridge, Peck Mountain, West
Rock,  Sleeping  Giant,  Pond  Ledge  Hill,  Onion
Mountain,  The  Sugarloaf,   The   Hedgehog,  West
Mountains, The Knolls, Barndoor Hills, Stony Hill,
Manitook Mountain, Rattlesnake  Hill, Durkee Hill,
East Hill, Rag Land, Bear Hill, Orenaug Hills;
    (2)  "AMPHIBOLITE  RIDGE"   MEANS  HUCKLEBERRY
HILL,  EAST  HILL,   RAYTHUM   HILL,   HOAR  HILL,
SWEETHEART HILL AND ONION HILL IN CANTON;
    [(2)] (3) ["Traprock  ridgeline"]  "RIDGELINE"
means the line  on a traprock OR AMPHIBOLITE ridge
created by all  points  at  the top of a fifty per
cent slope, which  is maintained for a distance of
fifty horizontal feet  perpendicular  to the slope
and which consists  of  surficial  basalt geology,
identified on the  map  prepared  by Stone et al.,
United   States   Geological    Survey,   entitled
"Surficial Materials Map of Connecticut";
    [(3)] (4) "Ridgeline  setback  area" means the
area bounded by  (A)  a  line  that  parallels the
ridgeline at a  distance of one hundred fifty feet
on the more  wooded side of the ridge, and (B) the
contour line where  a ridge of less than fifty per
cent is maintained  for  fifty feet or more on the
rockier side of  the  slope,  mapped  pursuant  to
section 8-2;
    [(4)]    (5)    "Development"     means    the
construction,   reconstruction,   alteration,   or
expansion of a building; and
    [(5)] (6) "Building" means any structure other
than (A) a  facility  as defined in section 16-50i
or (B) structures  of  a relatively slender nature
compared  to  the  buildings  to  which  they  are
associated, including but not limited to chimneys,
flagpoles, antennas, utility poles and steeples.
    Sec. 3. Subsection  (c)  of section 8-2 of the
general statutes is  repealed and the following is
substituted in lieu thereof:
    (c)  In  any  municipality  where  a  traprock
ridge,  as  defined   in   section  8-1aa,  OR  AN
AMPHIBOLITE RIDGE AS  DEFINED IN SECTION 8-1aa, is
located   the   regulations    may   provide   for
development  restrictions  in   ridgeline  setback
areas, as defined in said section. The regulations
may restrict quarrying  and  clear cutting, except
that the following  operations  and  uses shall be
permitted in ridgeline setback areas, as of right:
(1) Emergency work  necessary  to protect life and
property; (2) any  nonconforming uses that were in
existence and that  were approved on or before the
effective date of  regulations  adopted under this
section; and (3)  selective  timbering, grazing of
domesticated animals and passive recreation.

Approved May 22, 1998