Welcome to the SCRCOG monthly newsletter where you can find updates on our transportation planning, regional planning, and municipal services programs. 

2023 Housing Working Group Meetings

SCRCOG continues its work building community and educating residents, advocates, and municipal staff into the new year. Our housing consultant David Fink and SCRCOG staff will continue the monthly seminars through June of this year. Throughout 2022, attendance has been fantastic, and we hope to see representatives from each member municipality during the upcoming sessions. The next two sessions in January and February should be excellent as experts discuss Wastewater Management and The Missing Middle. It is crucial that our members that lack traditional wastewater treatment facilities attend January’s meeting. We anticipate experts will provide an update of new and emerging wastewater treatment technologies that support development in areas lacking traditional sewer infrastructure. We welcome all attendees but urge that those in areas with these challenges attend. For further information, please see the descriptions below.
Registration for SCRCOG's 2022-2023 Housing Working Group Meetings Survey (surveymonkey.com)
 

December Workshop
Build Smarter, Not Harder: Placing Affordable Housing at the Intersection of Opportunities to Ensure Connectivity of Developments

December’s meeting featured three town planners from Bethel, Fairfield and West Hartford. Each discussed their successes and challenges faced when facilitating development around their respective transit hubs. Bethel and Fairfield focused on managing development and expectations around their rail hubs while West Hartford offered insight for integrating bus rapid transit into the larger town goals. For those that might have missed last month’s meeting please feel free to follow the link to view the recording of last month’s workshop.
Link to recording - https://public.3.basecamp.com/p/pRnknzhtJXcg2eM6NJGRjFjj

January Workshop
The Nitty Gritty Details of Wastewater Management in New Developments – January 25, 2023 1-2:30pm

This workshop will consist of a discussion on the latest and greatest emerging technology for managing municipal wastewater. This is an important opportunity for the many municipalities in the region to hear how there is increasing opportunity to develop housing in areas that do not have traditional sewer systems. A conversation on emerging technologies and successes in areas traditionally challenged by lacking infrastructure should open the eyes of many to what is possible right now. The meeting will be held in person at the SCRCOG office in North Haven and online via Zoom.
Register Here: Meeting Registration - Zoom

Guest Speakers:

• Matt Pawlik, Dept of Public Health Sanitary Engineer III
• Stephen Tagliatela, Owner, Saybrook Point Inn and Spa
• David Potts, Geomatrix Systems LLC
• Sonia Marino, Director of Health, Town of Guilford
• Jim Perras, CEO, Home Builders and Remodelers of CT

• Melissa Kaplan-Macey, CT Director, Regional Plan Association
• Jocelyn Ayer, Director, Northwest CT Regional Planning Collaborative
• Aicha Woods, Fairfield City Director, CT Center for Housing Opportunity
• Tony DeNorfia, Principal, Denorfia Building and Development LLC

Second Public Meeting
A second virtual public meeting was held on Thursday, January 12. SCRCOG and consultant Jamie Caplan presented on the status of the plan, answering questions and asking for input from the public. A draft is expected to be made available in February. Over 700 responses to the public survey were received and incorporated into the plan. Municipalities will have a chance to review the draft plan, after which the public will have an opportunity to review and submit any comments. This iteration of the Regional Hazard Mitigation plan includes all 15 SCRCOG municipalities.

Information Technology and Cyber Security
SCRCOG is excited to continue the Information Technology/cybersecurity workshop series into the first half of 2023. This year's series will include two workshops focused on understanding, preparing for, and recovering from cyber threats as well as safety best practices. SCRCOG's IT Working Group invites municipal leaders, officials and interested staff to join us at the upcoming Working Group meeting on February 16^th at 10:00am. Novus Insights, Inc., will be conducting these sessions free of charge and both an in person and online option will be available. Review the descriptions below and if you are interested we encourage you to register using their respective links today.

More IT/Cybersecurity Consulting Services
In addition to the workshop series, Novus Insight, Inc., offers several other services through SCRCOG to each municipality in the region.  Briefly, these include:

• KnowBe4 – security awareness training and threat simulation
• Vulnerability assessments – network scans to detect unpatched vulnerabilities and misconfigurations
• Consulting services – project hours for security and compliance activities

Grants Writing Services
SCRCOG continues to offer free grant writing support and education through a partnership with Vita Nuova consultants Renata Bertotti and Juliet Burdelski. SCRCOG will be hosting a final event in the Spring of 2023 and planning is underway for this workshop. We welcome any input and suggestions to ensure our final workshop is tailored to our members’ needs.
SCRCOG is also excited to announce that our Municipal Grants Webpage hosted on SCRCOG.org will be completed soon. This page will offer links to previous grant writing workshops recordings, an ever-evolving grants opportunities spreadsheet, contact for assistance email address and more. The goal is to make the various support documents and information available as well as provide our member municipalities with a primary point of contact for additional support. Our consultant’s services are available to member municipalities free of charge. These services include one on one support for identifying, applying and executing available grant funding.
For further information reach out to our Director of Regional Services, Ben Lovejoy at blovejoy@scrcog.org

CT SEAGRANT Grant Writing Assistance Program
This grant opportunity provides $5,000-$9,950 for grant writing for resiliency related projects.  Funding for this program is from EPA, and certain procurement requirements apply.  Funding will be awarded directly to the applicant’s selected grant writing support contractor on a cost reimbursable basis. Match will not be required.
For interested CT municipalities, applicants can apply on a rolling basis through September 2023 using the link below.  Once an application is selected for funding, CTSG (University of Connecticut) will contract directly with the applicant’s selected (grant writing) contractor. A link will be sent directly to the contractor to start the registration process. All Vendors will be required to confirm they will accept UConn & State of CT terms & conditions, since these will apply to any PO and /or agreement executed. 
https://seagrant.uconn.edu/2022/11/14/long-island-sound-resilience-grant-writing-assistance-program/ https://seagrant.uconn.edu/2022/11/14/long-island-sound-resilience-grant-writing-assistance-program/
 
Connecticut Communities Challenge Grant Round 2 awards
During the month of December, the Governor announced awards of the Round 2. Read the press release here. 
Unfortunately there were no Round 2 awards made to SCRCOG members. Our consultants offer peer reviews of submitted applications as part of its ongoing Technical Assistance task if requested. If interested in applying for this program, feel free to reach out directly to Ben Lovejoy who can help coordinate a meeting.

December Grant Writing Workshop Recap
On December 13^th SCRCOG and REX development hosted Preparing for Upcoming Grant Opportunities: Hazard Mitigation, Resiliency and Capital Projects, as part of an ongoing effort to educate members about available grant funding. The event saw presentations from DEEP’s Division Director for the Bureau of Water Protection and Land Reuse, Brian Thompson and DECD’s Director of Community Investment Fund, Matthew J. Pugliese. The workshop was well attended and offered insight on how to draft an effective application for grants available through these two agencies.
A recording of the event can be downloaded or viewed here: https://public.3.basecamp.com/p/KWkuvaTMQdwo3jp4VnXtUZZk

New Partners for Places Grant Opportunities
The Funders Network (TFN), in partnership with the Urban Sustainability Directors Network (USDN), has announced the opening of the latest round of the Partners for Places grant program. The Partners for Places matching grant program improves communities by supporting equitable sustainability projects that build partnerships between local government leaders, frontline community groups and place-based funders in the U.S. and Canada. The deadline to submit proposals is February 27. Click here for more information https://www.fundersnetwork.org/partners-for-places/#opportunities
 

National Culvert Removal, Replacement, and Restoration Grants

The primary goal of the Culvert AOP Program is to improve or restore anadromous fish passage through the replacement, removal, repair, or improvement of culverts or weirs. The grant program prioritizes projects that would improve fish passage for: (A) anadromous fish stocks listed as an endangered or threatened species under section 4 of the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (16 U.S.C. § 1533); (B) anadromous fish stocks identified by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) or the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) that could reasonably become listed as an endangered species or a threatened species under that section; (C) anadromous fish stocks identified by the NMFS or the USFWS as prey for endangered species, threatened species, or protected species, including Southern resident orcas (Orcinus orca); or (D) anadromous fish stocks identified by the NMFS or the USFWS as climate resilient stocks (49 U.S.C. § 6703(e)(1)). The program also prioritizes projects that would open up more than 200 meters of upstream (anadromous) habitat before the end of the natural habitat (49 U.S.C. § 6703(e)(2)).

To view the Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO), click here.

The Next Sustainable CT Coffee Hour: Using the Mini Liquor Bottle Fund to Reduce Waste in your Community
This Coffee Hour will include: an overview of the law and the funds that have flowed to towns in 2022, examples shared by communities that have used the funds to impact waste reduction, and, as always, a lively discussion.

Sustainable CT hosts virtual informal discussions most third Fridays of each month at 10:00 am. They share program updates and resources, explore your questions, and strengthen the network of Sustainable CT champions. These sessions are free and open to all. The next one is on the 20th of January 2023 at 10:00 am.

To register, click here.

• Staff have been working over the past few months to draft an updated Metropolitan Transportation Plan. The plan outlines multi-modal transportation goals and priorities for the region over the next 50 years.
• SCRCOG will be hosting two public meetings to discuss the future of transportation in the Greater New Haven area. A virtual meeting will be held on Thursday, February 2 at 6pm via Zoom. An in-person meeting will be held at 12:30pm on Wednesday, February 8 in the SCRCOG Conference Room, 127 Washington Ave, 4^th Floor West, North Haven, CT 06473. A survey is available to collect additional public comments. For more information on the public meetings and survey, visit https://scrcog.org under “Announcements.” Contact Laura Francis at (203) 466-8624 or LFrancis@scrcog.org with any questions.

• Kick-Off Meetings: Over the past month, SCRCOG kicked off UPWP studies: New Haven’s One-Way Two-Way Conversion Study and Madison’s Bike Ped Plan. These studies will continue through the remainder of the fiscal year.
• Regional Safety Plan Update: SCRCOG is preparing to solicit quotes to update the Regional Safety Plan. The goal is to make the plan compliant with the requirements outlined in the Safe Streets for All (SS4A) Grant program. A region-wide SS4A Implementation application will be prepared for the next funding cycle.
• West Haven Bike Ped Plan – A final draft of the West Haven Bicycle Pedestrian plan is currently being reviewed by SCRCOG and West Haven staff.
• Public Participation Guidelines update: SCRCOG is awaiting responses to an RFP to update the region’s Public Participation Guidelines.

• SCRCOG received 2 new LOTCIP applications in December: West Haven Front Ave Culverts and Milford Welches Rd. The applications were reviewed by our consultant and the comments were submitted to the applicants. Once the comments are addressed and packets are updated they will be sent to CTDOT.
• Two final design submissions were reviewed by the consultant as well. These include Guilford Nut Plains Rd Reconstruction and East Haven Sidewalk Construction Phase 5. Once the design packets are updated they will be sent to CTDOT for their review.
• Two bridge reconstruction projects in Wallingford and Meriden had their bid openings and are now waiting for the department to issue the permission to award. Both projects expect to start construction in the spring.

• SCRCOG has been meeting with municipal staff, police and fire departments, and the CT Department of Transportation to discuss highway diversion plans in the event of a highway closure on I-95. These plans were last updated in 1998.