P&Z Reviews Council’s Comments On Town Plan Update

By Andrew Gorosko

Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) members are reviewing a series of suggestions from town and borough agencies for possible inclusion in the P&Z’s ongoing update of the Town Plan of Conservation and Development.

Among those comments are a series of detailed suggestions submitted by the Legislative Council following its members’ review of the current town plan.

The P&Z approved the current town plan in April 2004. In view of local officials’ desire to have a newly revised town plan on hand relatively soon, P&Z members are working to update the document by the end of 2012, although the agency would normally have until the end of 2014 to do so.

In terms of financial matters, the Legislative Council members recommend that the town plan be linked to town spending in terms of the annual budget and the capital improvement plan.

In a letter to the P&Z, Council Chairman Jeffrey Capeci recommends that the various spending proposals in the annual budget, which are submitted to the council by agencies for review, should explain how public funding for those proposals would achieve the vision and strategies described in the town plan.

Similarly, the spending proposals suggested for inclusion in the town’s capital improvement plan should explain how those proposals would achieve the vision and strategies listed in the town plan, Mr Capeci adds.

In discussing the council’s comments on the town plan at a March 17 P&Z session, P&Z Chairman Lilla Dean acknowledged the many suggestions made by council members for inclusion in the updated town plan.

Ms Dean, however, explained that the town plan legally cannot be linked to government spending proposals, such as those listed in annual budgets and in the capital improvement plan.

In his letter to the P&Z, Mr Capeci writes, in part, “The council finds the [town plan] to be a tremendous resource. The document has much information about Newtown that makes it an easy first point of reference, and it is well developed.”

The council lists a number of suggestions that it considers would make the town plan a more effective planning tool for the town.

The council urges that the P&Z reformat its “vision statement” for the town plan to provide extra impact for that statement.

Council members suggest that the P&Z more prominently list the vision statement in the town plan and also employ that vision statement, as needed, throughout the text of the town plan to reinforce the importance of the statement.

The council members also suggest that the various strategies that the P&Z could employ to achieve its planning goals be included in an easy-to-use appendix to make it easier for readers to grasp the depth and breadth of what needs to be accomplished to achieve the stated planning goals.

“”When the [town plan] revision is completed, every town [employee] and school district employee should understand how their actions fit into implementation of this long-range planning document for the community,” Mr Capeci wrote.

Integrating the town plan’s strategies into town employees’ and school employees’ annual performance goals and objectives should be considered, he added.

Mr Capeci recommends that an annual review of the town’s progress toward achieving the goals stated in the town plan be conducted by the P&Z at which members of the public would meet with government officials to discuss such progress. Also, an annual written update on the matter should be posted on the town’s website, he adds.

The council commends the P&Z for its efforts in updating the town plan. It asks that the P&Z post a detailed schedule of its meetings on updating the plan on the town website to provide members of the public with an awareness of their opportunities for comment.

The town plan is a decennial advisory document that provides the P&Z with general guidance in its decisionmaking. P&Z approvals or rejections of land use applications typically state whether a given application respectively adheres to or diverges from the tenets of the town plan when P&Z members state their rationale for a decision.

The current town plan addresses a broad range of issues facing the town, including: community character, conservation, natural resources, open space, housing, economic development, community facilities, and transportation. The document lists a multitude of planning goals for the town.

The 2004 Town Plan of Conservation and Development is available for review at the town’s website, www.newtown-ct.gov.

The next P&Z public session on updating the town plan is slated for 7:30 pm on Thursday, March 31, at the Botsford Firehouse at 315 South Main Street,

At that meeting, the P&Z will solicit the views of people about the South Main Village Design District (SMVDD) zone, which is a component of the town plan.

That SMVDD overlay zone runs alongside South Main Street in the area extending from Borough Lane southward to Botsford.

In July 2007, the P&Z created the SMVDD regulations as a mechanism to respectively preserve and promote the New England appearance of existing and proposed commercial development and redevelopment projects along South Main Street. SMVDD zoning provides applicants with latitude in designing commercial projects, provided that the P&Z and the applicant can agree on the specifics of a given plan.