P&Z Approves Revised Town Zoning Map

By Andrew Gorosko

Following discussion at a March 17 session, Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) members approved a revised town zoning map designed to more clearly delineate the locations of local land use zones than shown on earlier zoning maps.

Before approving the zoning map, P&Z members gathered around a copy of the multicolored document in reviewing the specifics of the many land use zones drawn on the paper map, which measures 42 inches by 72 inches.

P&Z member Robert Mulholland urged that the state’s extensive land holdings in Newtown, such as the Upper Paugussett and the Lower Paugussett state forests, be clearly described as state forestland on the zoning map. The upper and lower forests are located along the shorelines of Lake Lillinonah and Lake Zoar, respectively. 

P&Z Chairman Lilla Dean said she would seek to have Mr Mulholland’s recommendations incorporated into the mapping.    

In approving the revised zoning map, P&Z members decided that the document is consistent with the provisions of the 2004 Town Plan of Conservation and Development. The new map is effective on March 28.

No members of the public attended the March 17 meeting, and thus there were no public comments on the zoning map revision. 

Scott Sharlow, town technology and geographic information systems director, had presented the revised version of the zoning map to P&Z members at a February session. The new mapping compiles the various zoning designation changes and the zoning boundary changes which the P&Z has made during the past decade.

The document may be studied as a paper map or viewed while displayed by a digital projector.

The revised map is designed to better illustrate the relative positions of local land use zones than previously shown on zoning maps. The map is intended to specify the boundary lines of adjacent ones.

The document is one component of the town’s broader geographic information systems (GIS) electronic mapping database.

The Borough Zoning Commission has approved a revised zoning map that depicts the land use zones in the Borough of Newtown, a 2.3-square-mile tax district in central Newtown.