Connecticut Code – Chapter 98 Municipal Powers
Excerpts from Code Chapter 98 of Interest to Abutting Property Owners
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Sec. 7-148. Scope of municipal powers. (a) Definitions. Whenever used in this section, “municipality” means any town, city or borough, consolidated town and city or consolidated town and borough.
(b) Ordinances. Powers granted to any municipality under the general statutes or by any charter or special act, unless the charter or special act provides to the contrary, shall be exercised by ordinance when the exercise of such powers has the effect of:
(1) Establishing rules or regulations of general municipal application, the violation of which may result in the imposition of a fine or other penalty including community service for not more than twenty hours; or
(2) Creating a permanent local law of general applicability.
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(3) Property. (A) Take or acquire by gift, purchase, grant, including any grant from the United States or the state, bequest or devise and hold, condemn, lease, sell, manage, transfer, release and convey such real and personal property or interest therein absolutely or in trust as the purposes of the municipality or any public use or purpose, including that of education, art, ornament, health, charity or amusement, cemeteries, parks or gardens, or the erection or maintenance of statues, monuments, buildings or other structures, or the encouragement of private commercial development, require. Any lease of real or personal property or any interest therein, either as lessee or lessor, may be for such term or any extensions thereof and upon such other terms and conditions as have been approved by the municipality, including without limitation the power to bind itself to appropriate funds as necessary to meet rent and other obligations as provided in any such lease;
(B) Provide for the proper administration of gifts, grants, bequests and devises and meet such terms or conditions as are prescribed by the grantor or donor and accepted by the municipality;
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(6) Public works, sewers, highways. (A) Public facilities. (i) Establish, lay out, construct, reconstruct, alter, maintain, repair, control and operate cemeteries, public burial grounds, hospitals, clinics, institutions for children and aged, infirm and chronically ill persons, bus terminals and airports and their accessories, docks, wharves, school houses, libraries, parks, playgrounds, playfields, fieldhouses, baths, bathhouses, swimming pools, gymnasiums, comfort stations, recreation places, public beaches, beach facilities, public gardens, markets, garbage and refuse disposal facilities, parking lots and other off-street parking facilities, and any and all buildings or facilities necessary or convenient for carrying on the government of the municipality;
(ii) Create, provide for, construct, regulate and maintain all things in the nature of public works and improvements;
(iii) Enter into or upon any land for the purpose of making necessary surveys or mapping in connection with any public improvement, and take by eminent domain any lands, rights, easements, privileges, franchises or structures which are necessary for the purpose of establishing, constructing or maintaining any public work, or for any municipal purpose, in the manner prescribed by the general statutes;
(iv) Regulate and protect from injury or defacement all public buildings, public monuments, trees and ornaments in public places and other public property in the municipality;
(v) Provide for the planting, rearing and preserving of shade and ornamental trees on the streets and public grounds;
(vi) Provide for improvement of waterfronts by a board, commission or otherwise;
(B) Sewers, drainage and public utilities. (i) Lay out, construct, reconstruct, repair, maintain, operate, alter, extend and discontinue sewer and drainage systems and sewage disposal plants;
(ii) Enter into or upon any land for the purpose of correcting the flow of surface water through watercourses which prevent, or may tend to prevent, the free discharge of municipal highway surface water through said courses;
(iii) Regulate the laying, location and maintenance of gas pipes, water pipes, drains, sewers, poles, wires, conduits and other structures in the streets and public places of the municipality;
(iv) Prohibit and regulate the discharge of drains from roofs of buildings over or upon the sidewalks, streets or other public places of the municipality or into sanitary sewers;
(C) Highways and sidewalks. (i) Lay out, construct, reconstruct, alter, maintain, repair, control, operate, and assign numbers to streets, alleys, highways, boulevards, bridges, underpasses, sidewalks, curbs, gutters, public walks and parkways;
(ii) Keep open and safe for public use and travel and free from encroachment or obstruction the streets, sidewalks and public places in the municipality;
(iii) Control the excavation of highways and streets;
(iv) Regulate and prohibit the excavation, altering or opening of sidewalks, public places and grounds for public and private purposes and the location of any work or things thereon, whether temporary or permanent, upon or under the surface thereof;
(v) Require owners or occupants of land adjacent to any sidewalk or public work to remove snow, ice, sleet, debris or any other obstruction therefrom, provide penalties upon their failure to do so, and ause such snow, ice, sleet, debris or other obstruction to be removed and make the cost of such removal a lien on such property;
(vi) Grant to abutting property owners a limited property or leasehold interest in abutting streets and sidewalks for the purpose of encouraging and supporting private commercial development;
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See Secs. 7-9 re petitions for action for vote generally.
See Sec. 7-148 re municipal powers.
See Sec. 9-1 for applicable definitions.
Cited. 118 C. 9, 10; 129 C. 109; 146 C. 720; 152 C. 318. Cited. 175 C. 576, 584.
Cited. 46 CA 305.
Cited. 36 CS 74, 78. Cited. 43 CS 297, 299.
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Sec. 7-163a. Municipal liability for ice and snow on public sidewalks. (a) Any town, city, borough, consolidated town and city or consolidated town and borough may, by ordinance, adopt the provisions of this section.
(b) Notwithstanding the provisions of section 13a-149 or any other general statute or special act, such town, city, borough, consolidated town and city or consolidated town and borough shall not be liable to any person injured in person or property caused by the presence of ice or snow on a public sidewalk unless such municipality is the owner or person in possession and control of land abutting such sidewalk, other than land used as a highway or street, provided such municipality shall be liable for its affirmative acts with respect to such sidewalk.
(c) (1) The owner or person in possession and control of land abutting a public sidewalk shall have the same duty of care with respect to the presence of ice or snow on such sidewalk toward the portion of the sidewalk abutting his property as the municipality had prior to the effective date of any ordinance adopted pursuant to the provisions of this section and shall be liable to persons injured in person or property where a breach of said duty is the proximate cause of said injury. (2) No action to recover damages for injury to the person or to property caused by the presence of ice or snow on a public sidewalk against a person who owns or is in possession and control of land abutting a public sidewalk shall be brought but within two years from the date when the injury is first sustained.
(P.A. 81-340.)
Cited. 44 CS 389.
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Relevant Research Reports from Connecticut Office of Legislative Research:
Main St. New Canaan Property Owners 
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