Following review at a March 21 Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) meeting, P&Z members unanimously endorsed a range of referrals from the Board of Selectmen on planned municipal capital improvement projects.

Rob Sibley, town deputy planning director, told P&Z members that voting to endorse a referral does not constitute an approval of construction plans for a given project. Some of the capital projects, which involve construction work outdoors, will later be submitted to the P&Z as development applications for the P&Z’s technical review and action.

Mr Sibley said the P&Z’s referral review process focuses on whether individual capital projects are consistent with the 2014 Town Plan of Conservation and Development.

P&Z members endorsed six capital improvement projects — a boiler and lighting replacement project at Hawley School: a main boiler replacement and LED lighting project at Newtown High School, a renovation project at Booth Library, the construction of pickleball courts at Fairfield Hills, improvement for certain local roadways, and the Sandy Hook Permanent Memorial project.

Voting to endorse the referrals were P&Z members Jim Swift, Barbara Manville, Corinne Cox, Roy Meadows, and David Rosen.

In another matter at the March 21 P&Z session, P&Z members decided that a set of proposed changes to the Borough Zoning Commission’s (BZC) zoning regulations are of “minimal significance” to the town government.

The proposed changes to the borough’s zoning regulations are intended to clarify the intent of certain zoning rules as well as allow certain actions that are not currently permitted under the zoning rules. Those rule changes would affect a proposal to increase the size of the enclosed dining area at Dere Street Restaurant at 33 Main Street and also to expand an office building at 11 Church Hill Road for the creation of new offices and apartments.

Mr Meadows asked how he could submit his personal comments on the proposed rule changes to the BZC, to which Mr Sibley suggested that Mr Meadows attend an upcoming BZC public hearing on the matter. That BZC hearing is tentatively scheduled for 7 pm on Wednesday, April 10, at Edmond Town Hall, 45 Main Street.

The BZC makes such referrals on proposed new borough zoning regulations to the P&Z because the P&Z serves as the borough's planning agency.