AGO 1991-001.

• Case Date: January 06, 1991
• Court: Connecticut

Connecticut Attorney General Opinions 1991. AGO 1991-001. January 6, 1991Opinion No. 1991-001The Honorable Reginald J. SmithSenate Minority LeaderState CapitolHartford, CT 06106 Dear Senator Smith: In your letter dated June 25, 1990, you requested our opinion on the following questions regarding the meaning of subsection (g) of Section 7-147b of the Connecticut General Statutes:

If the possible creation of a local historic district is being considered by a municipality under Conn. Gen. Stat. §7-147a and 7-147b, and if a municipality owns real property within the proposed local historic district, is the municipality's legislative body entitled to vote, under Conn. Gen. Stat. §7-147b(g), on the proposed establishment of the district?

Under the circumstances described in (1) above, would community members, either those in the municipality as a whole or only those within the proposed historic district, be entitled to cast a vote as collective owners of the municipal property in a vote taken under Conn. Gen. Stat. §7-147b(g)? To answer your first question, in most instances a municipality will not have a vote in an election held under Conn. Gen. Stat. §7-147b(g) regarding possible establishment of a local historic district within the municipality. There is, however, one set of circumstances under which a municipality would have the right to cast a vote in such an election. A municipality will have one vote or a fraction of a vote in such an election if the municipality owns real property within the proposed district, which property appeared at some time on t he municipality's last-completed grand list of real property within the proposed district, which property was assessed at that time at a value for taxing purposes of a least one thousand dollars, and which property was owned at that time by a party (a) who was liable to the municipality for taxes on that assessment, or (b) who would have been so liable were it not for an exemption under subdivision (7), (8), (10), (11), (13), (14), (15), (16), (17), (20), (21), (22), (23), (24), (25), (26), (29) or (49) of Conn. Gen. Stat. §12-81. Under these exceptional circumstances, the municipality would have at most one vote. To answer your second question, members of the community, even under these exceptional circumstances, would have no right to vote in an election under Conn. Gen.. Stat. §7-147b(g), because the municipality's vote must be cast, under that same statutory subsection, by the municipality's chief executive officer or his or her designee. We also call your attention to the fact that, in a sense, a municipality may cast the deciding "vote" in any proceeding to consider establishment of a local historic district within the municipality's confines. Even if a local historic district committee should hold an election under Conn. Gen. Stat. §7-147b(g) and more than two-thirds of those voting should approve of the establishment of such a...