• From the establishment of the Plan of Conservation and Development Implementation Committee in September 2018, the Committee has been having face-to-face meeting with key leaders and partners. Since the pandemic necessitated new ways of obtaining information, the Development Planner sent letters on behalf of the Committee requesting updates to all groups with identified POCD responsibilities between June and October 2021 as part of a 5-year benchmarking. Responses were presented and discussed by the POCD Implementation Committee as they were returned during the fall of 2021. 

1

Make implementation of the Plan an ongoing priority.

• •BOS Resolution created the Plan of Conservation and Development Implementation Committee in August 2017. The first meeting was held on September 13, 2018. The Committee has had a regular meeting schedule since. 

• April 2022 - Ongoing updates to the POCD website are underway.

• POCD Implementation Committee voted to create a Town website to manage the progress and provide for public interaction with the POCD in April 2019. 

• A first demo of the website was presented at the October 24, 2019 special meeting. Loading of documents began in December 2019. 

1

Establish a Plan Implementation Committee to help implement the POCD.

• Lower Connecticut River Valley Regional Housing Plan: RiverCOG is developing a Regional Housing Plan in two parts. The first part is a region-wide housing analysis which will provide an overview of housing conditions in the region  (including Portland) and make recommendations on how and where the regional housing supply should change.

• The Regional Housing Plan will consider the linkage between demographics, employment, and current housing supply and demand and will make recommendations for new and comprehensive approaches to meeting current and future housing needs. This effort will build on and help further the goals of the Regional Plan of Conservation and Development with application to Policy and Action Items in our own POCD. 

• Lower Connecticut River Valley Natural Hazard Mitigation Plan: The 2021 Lower Connecticut River Valley Hazard Mitigation Plan began in December 2019 a with a visit to each town to review existing plans with municipal staff, regional public meetings with presentations, a web-based survey, and opportunities to comment on the draft plan into the winter of 2020 followed. The regional plan was approved by the Connecticut Department of Emergency Management and Homeland Security (DEM HS) and FEMA and was adopted in the summer of 2021. The document can be accessed here: http://www.rivercog.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/RiverCOG _ 2021 _ HMP _ Final_ FEMA-Approval-Letter-

• 9 .10.21-mb.pdf. The chapter with specific infmmation and data for Portland begins on page 55. 

• Portland received a $306,800 Homelessness Shelter Diversion Grant, part of the Connecticut Small Cities Community Development Block Grant Program. In August 2021, the BOS approved a Resolution to utilize the money to pay for programs and resources focused on shelter diversion and housing placement and stabilization. The town will be working closely with the Coalition on Housing and Homelessness in Middletown, the First Congregational Church in Portland, Mercy Housing and Shelter Corporation, and other local organizations to create homelessness prevention measures in Middlesex County.

1

Continue to work with other towns in the region, the Council of Governments, the State of Connecticut, and other agencies to explore opportunities where common interests coincide.

• A comprehensive update of the Town of Portland Subdivision Regulations was completed and adopted by the Planning and Zoning Commission (PZC) with an effective date of May 1, 2017. 

• In 2021, the PZC established a Regulations Work Group in 2021 to review and adopt text amendments to address changes in business use, consistent areas of conflict, Scrivener's Errors, and clarifications. The group accepted recommendations from the ZBA to modify the regulations to eliminate the need for a variance and make the process of receiving a Zoning approval easier for residents. An application for Text Amendment from the PZC is anticipated in spring 2022. 

3

Undertake a comprehensive review of the subdivision regulations.