Bristol, CT Environmental Rules: Stormwater Management (2026)

Under Sec. 22-126, whenever the City Council determines that a property or area presents a long-term storm water control need, the owners of that land must submit a control and management plan along with an endowment plan covering future care costs. Sec. 22-127 extends the same duty to any developer whose project requires a storm water management facility such as a detention pond, retention pond, dam, drainage ditch or storm drain: the responsible party must file a plan with the City Council and the land-use board or commission with jurisdiction, containing an engineering operation-and-maintenance plan, an inspection schedule, an analysis of annual operating expense, a fiduciary calculation of the lump-sum endowment needed, and a determination of who will own and who will maintain the facility long-term.

That ownership and maintenance question can be resolved through a private trust, a homeowner's association, city acceptance through the Bristol Storm Water Control Trust, or another method the City Council approves. Sec. 22-128 requires anyone proposing to hand a facility to the city to fund the trust with a cash endowment sufficient for perpetual care, and bars the Council from accepting the plan until a formal hearing produces a specific finding that the plan is both engineeringly adequate and actuarially sound. The Trust, created by Sec.

22-136, is run by a five-member board: the city comptroller, the director of public works, and three electors experienced in banking, trust law or public-fund management, nominated by the mayor and confirmed by the City Council for staggered three-year terms. Day-to-day maintenance is the Board of Public Works' obligation, paid from trust income or, if that falls short, the city's general fund without reimbursement (Sec. 22-137). The Trust continues in perpetuity unless two-thirds of the city's electors vote statewide to end it (Sec. 22-138).