Officials Gauge Progress In Achieving Newtown’s Planning Goals

By Andrew Gorosko

With the 2004 Town Plan of Conservation and Development having been in force for more than a year, Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) members last week convened an informal session with members of other town and borough agencies in seeking to expedite progress toward achieving the many municipal planning objectives that the town plan lists for the decade leading to 2014.

Following more than two years’ of work, the P&Z in March 2004 adopted the town plan, a decennial advisory document designed to guide local growth and land conservation as the town approaches 2014. The town plan lists a long series of planning objectives for a range of municipal agencies. Individual town agencies are expected to annually update the P&Z about progress in accomplishing the document’s 180 basic objectives.

P&Z Chairman William O’Neil convened the March 10 session at the town offices at Peck’s Lane.

Among those present were members of the Commission on Aging, Newtown Youth Services, Parks and Recreation Commission, Police Commission, Building Department, Conservation Commission, Open Space Committee, and Planning and Zoning Commission, Mr O’Neil said. More than a dozen people attended.

The town plan holds that a prime local goal is the protection and enhancement of the town’s picturesque, rural, historic New England setting and attributes. The architecture and landscaping of all local properties should be designed to protect the town’s image as a rural and historic town, it adds.

During the coming decade, town agencies will work together to maintain a suitable variety of housing, taking into account residents’ varying lifestyles and economic circumstances, while providing and developing equal recreational activities and facilities for all residents, according to the town plan.

The town plan adds that the town will protect open space areas, farmland, trails, aquifers, wetlands, and other environmentally sensitive areas. The plan holds that local public education will continue to excel in quality and efficiency. It also maintains that the town should pursue economic development, while seeking to minimize local traffic congestion.

While the March 10 session had been convened with the intent of having the town plan serve as the “foundation” for discussion, as the meeting evolved, the town plan became more of a “background” element amid government agency members’ conversations on how to improve the local government’s internal communications, coordination, and efficiency, Mr O’Neil said. The meeting allowed town officials, who might not otherwise interact, to meet and to consider ways to improve governmental effectiveness, he explained.

Of the many planning objectives listed in the town plan, Mr O’Neil said, “We’re at a point where people are addressing them…on an individual basis, at a reasonable pace.”

Besides its municipal role of formulating a town plan, the P&Z serves as an agency that facilitates other town agencies pursuit and achievement the plan’s objectives, he added.

People attending the March 10 session agreed that instead of waiting a full year to reconvene and again assess progress toward achieving the planning goals, they will meet again in June, according to Mr O’Neil.

The P&Z chairman said there was a consensus among those present of the value of maintaining the town’s “rural” aspect and preserving undeveloped open space areas. “People want to keep this a nice rural, historic-looking town,” he said.

But people also acknowledge the need for economic development to broaden the property tax base, he added. Prime concerns include the adverse effects of continuing local growth, an increasingly congested local road network, and a climbing municipal property tax rate, he said.

Fairfield Hills has become a focal point for the town’s future, Mr O’Neil said.

The town bought the 189-acre core campus and many large buildings at the former state psychiatric hospital from the state last August for $3.9 million. For the past several years, residents have discussed how the town can best use Fairfield Hills, which lies in the town’s geographic center.

At opposite ends of the land-use spectrum are those who would reserve Fairfield Hills as a open space preserve and also those who would have the property used in ways to generate appreciable property tax revenue for the town, he said.

Public Planning

Municipalities decennially revise their town plans to address changing conditions in planning for the coming decade’s growth and land conservation. A town plan serves as a conceptual framework to guide the P&Z in its decisionmaking on land use applications. P&Z members often cite whether a particular land use application conforms to or diverges from the tenets of the town plan when approving or rejecting that application.

The town plan includes a future land use plan, which is used by the P&Z as a public policy tool in  managing local growth and conservation. The future land use plan describes the most appropriate locations for residential development, commercial growth, business districts, industrial growth, municipal facilities, conservation and open space areas, civic uses, institutional uses, and specialized zoning districts.

To support and protect the local quality of life, striking a balance among development, the conservation of open space and natural resources, and the preservation of the town’s historic and natural resources is necessary, according to the plan.

While environmental protection and open space conservation are key components of the town plan, the document acknowledges that investment and economic development are necessary to improve the local property tax base, as well as maintain the economic well-being of the town and its residents.