To the Editor:

I was frustrated and dismayed at the end of the last Borough zoning board meeting when the board voted to approve the Castle Hill cluster home project.

It was very clear after hours and hours of public meetings that the will of the residents of Newtown was to reject this dense development. There were two separate protest petitions which were rejected by the zoning board for VERY questionable reasons. The Chairman delayed the rejection of the first petition for many months such that they decided it was too late to submit a second petition.

One of the obligations of the zoning board is to protect the character of our Borough. Article 1 in the Zoning regulations, “ Designed to lessen congestion in the streets, to prevent overcrowding of land and to avoid undue concentration of population.”

This cluster project will more than double the population of Main Street and the traffic is already a nightmare. The environmental impact on this, the most beautiful piece of property in Newtown, will be immense! Chairman Douglas Nelson and Commissioner Dave Francis had an agenda and they clearly wanted this passed no matter what the feelings of the community were. One could interpret what was discussed by the chairman during the voting was coaxing and coaching his board into voting affirmatively. Again, the only people who benefit from this are the developer George Trudell and the owner Joe Draper.

I think we should think long and hard about who we elect for any Zoning Board in Newtown in the future if we want it to remain the beautiful, historic, bucolic community it is. There will be three openings soon on the Borough board including unfortunately, Claudia Mitchell who was the only one at the meeting who voted against this development. It is imperative that any openings in the future be filled with people who want what is best for the people of Newtown!

Diane Wenick

Newtown