Modeled on the national Mayors’ Institute on City Design, the Connecticut Institute provides a multi-day retreat for six mayors, first selectmen and first selectwomen and a resource team of design and planning professionals. The town chief elected officials (CEOs) present planning and design issues that each community is facing, and then participate in a wide-ranging discussion. While addressing specific concerns raised by the mayors, the resource team members also describe in broader terms how they have approached similar problems. Using examples from other communities, the mayors and resource team members learn from each other.

The Mayors’ Institute offers public officials the rare opportunity to discuss a planning issue facing their community with a group of peers and some of the most respected designers and planners in the country. These Institutes focus particular attention on how better design and development can create healthy, livable communities. Experts in urban design and planning, landscape architecture, real estate development and transportation planning participate in the Institute discussions, providing presentations and analyses of how alternative development patterns impact the health and vitality of communities.

The March 2006 Connecticut Mayors’ Institute, held at Yale University, focused particular attention on how better design can employ smart growth techniques. For those municipalities with downtowns, or village centers, the Institute emphasized the opportunities for redevelopment as well as a more active lifestyle. For those with a more rural atmosphere, the Institute emphasized ways to encourage healthy development practices. Specific strategies were transfer of development rights, tax increment financing, performance-based zoning, build-out analyses, and traffic calming. Walkability and pedestrian plans and community visioning were also discussed at the Institute to enhance the quality of life in the specific community and in Connecticut and to help combat sprawl. The March 2006 Institute was the first Connecticut Institute and brought six Mayors, First Selectmen and First Selectwomen to the table who represented the diverse geographies, citizenries, politics and issues facing towns and cities of Connecticut