Administrative Divisions of Connecticut - Town

Town

The 169 towns of Connecticut are the principal units of local government in the state and have full municipal powers including:

  • Corporate powers
  • Eminent domain
  • Ability to levy taxes
  • Public services (low cost housing, waste disposal, fire, police, ambulance, street lighting)
  • Public works (highways, sewers, cemeteries, parking lots, etc.)
  • Regulatory powers (building codes, traffic, animals, crime, public health)
  • Environmental protection
  • Economic development

Towns traditionally had the town meeting form of government, which is still used by some of the 169 towns. Under Connecticut's Home Rule Act, any town is permitted to adopt its own local charter and choose its own structure of government. The three basic structures of municipal government used in the state, with variations from place to place, are the selectman–town meeting, mayor–council, and manager–council.

Nineteen towns are also incorporated as cities, while one town (Naugatuck) is also incorporated as a borough.

The 20 consolidated borough-town and city-towns are classified by the Census Bureau as both minor civil divisions and incorporated places, while the other 149 towns are classified only as minor civil divisions. Some of the larger, urban towns are also classified in their entirety as Census designated places.

See also: List of towns in Connecticut

Read more about this topic:  Administrative Divisions Of Connecticut

Famous quotes containing the word town:

    “The city is recruited from the country. In the year 1805, it is said, every legitimate monarch in Europe was imbecile. The city would have died out, rotted, and exploded, long ago, but that it was reinforced from the fields. It is only country which came to town day before yesterday, that is city and court today.”
    —Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    “A blessing through the ages thus
    Shield all thy roofs and towers!
    God with the fathers, so with us,
    Thou darling town of ours!”
    —Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    “From whatever you wish to know and measure you must take your leave, at least for a time. Only when you have left the town can you see how high its towers rise above the houses.”
    —Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)