Town Plan Update—

P&Z Describes The Future Of Special Zoning Districts 

By Andrew Gorosko

In their ongoing update to the Town Plan of Conservation and Development, Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) members are describing what the coming decade may hold for the town’s several special zoning districts.

In such districts, specialized zoning rules apply in order to foster preferred forms of growth.

Locally, those zoning districts include the Sandy Hook Design District (SHDD), the Hawleyville Center Design District (HCDD), and the South Main Village Design District (SMVDD), and the Fairfield Hills Adaptive Reuse (FHAR) zone.

Also, in the Borough of Newtown, the Borough Zoning Commission oversees a special zoning district known as the Village District.

At a session earlier this month, P&Z members endorsed the text of a town plan chapter on the special zoning districts. That document is being sent to the Board of Selectmen and the Legislative Council for review and comment. P&Z members are seeking to complete their update of the town plan by the end of this year.

The P&Z created the Sandy Hook Design District in Sandy Hook Center in 1995. The zone also extends along the western side of Glen Road, north of Sandy Hook Center.

The zoning rules cover new construction, substantial reconstruction, and the rehabilitation of existing construction.

“The existing urban pattern of Sandy Hook Center includes elements that are characteristic of a compact crossroads hamlet and exhibit an ideal physical form and pattern for urban design,” according to the planning document.

SHDD zoning is designed to encourage the mixed use of properties and buildings. The SHDD zone is intended as a stimulus for the physical improvement and economic revitalization of Sandy Hook Center. SHDD is a form of flexible mixed use zoning that encourages a mixture of commercial and residential land uses, and suitable parking, plus the provision of pedestrian amenities.

The Sandy Hook Center Streetscape Project, which enhanced the appearance of easternmost Church Hill Road in Sandy Hook Center, illustrates the SHDD zoning concept. That project, which was built in 2005 and 2006, provided textured concrete sidewalks, granite curbing, fieldstone walls, a pedestrian plaza, decorative street lighting, and crosswalks, plus landscaping elements, such as ornamental trees.

The Church Hill Road leg of the streetscape project was the first leg of a planned multilegged streetscape project for Sandy Hook Center.

To specify what physical features would implement the goals of SHDD zoning, the P&Z has published a set of “design guidelines” for the area.

Those guidelines are keyed to preserving and enhancing the historic and architectural character of the center, including distinctive buildings and vistas, preserving and enhancing the streetscape, improving vehicular movement, and promoting pedestrian circulation.

“The streetscape project has converted the Sandy Hook Design District into an attractive pedestrian environment with sidewalks, benches, and lampposts where people like to stroll, especially along the Pootatuck River and visit the local shops and businesses,” according to the P&Z.

On the future of SHDD zoning, the P&Z states, “The commission believes that in the future, the boundaries of the Sandy Hook Design District could be expanded.”

Hawleyville

The Hawleyville Center Design District is located along Hawleyville Road, generally north of Interstate 84 and also along the south side of Barnabas Road. An area with HCDD zoning also exists on the west side of Hawleyville Road, between I-84 and Covered Bridge Road.

In 1999, the P&Z created a special set of zoning regulations and an accompanying land use zone for Hawleyville Center known as the Hawleyville Center Design District. In 2004, the P&Z also created a set of design guidelines for that area.

The HCDD regulations seek to foster a cohesive neighborhood business district that includes mixed use activities, physical improvements, and the type of development that is typical of a village center.

For the coming decade, the P&Z would seek to foster development with high design quality that visually blends the pedestrian scale of a village center with the transportation functions of Interstate 84, Route 25, and the railroad.

Development ideas recommended by Hawleyville residents for the HCDD zone include compact parks, streetlighting, sidewalks, crosswalks, and sanitary sewers, according to the P&Z.

 Increasing the development density of Hawleyville would require the extension of sanitary sewers and public water lines along Hawleyville Road northward from Mt Pleasant Road to I-84’s Exit 9 interchange, according to the P&Z.

Such an expanded infrastructure would support future commercial and residential development along the southernmost section of Hawleyville Road and also support the potential construction of corporate office space or a hotel complex on a site that lies generally northeast of the intersection of Hawleyville Road and Mt Pleasant Road.

The P&Z also suggests that the HCDD zone expand its current mixed use rules to include structures that contain residential apartments situated above retail space and office space.

South Main Street

In 2007, the P&Z created the South Main Village Design District zone. The lengthy linear zone extends alongside South Main Street between Borough Lane on the north and the Monroe border on the south,

The SMVDD zoning rules are keyed to encourage the adaptive reuse of existing residential buildings for commercial purposes and to foster the commercial development of vacant land that would not generate high traffic volumes.

The SMVDD rules provide much latitude in the design of commercial projects, provided that the applicant and the P&Z can agree on the specifics of a project.

The intent of SMVDD zoning is to enhance the small-town New England character of South Main Street, including its residential aspect and its natural features. Also, it is intended to provide economic development, while limiting the scale and type of land uses allowed.

Other goals include encouraging historic preservation, limiting new traffic generation, and controlling traffic access to sites by limiting the number of driveways intersecting with South Main Street.

The SMVDD zoning rules include provisions to create “special development districts” within the zone within which development proposals are subject to review by the town’s Design Advisory Board (DAB).

Development proposals for the SHDD and HCDD zones also are subject to review by that board. The DAB makes recommendations on architectural and landscaping aesthetics.

For the coming decade, the P&Z observes, “Proper development, even large-scale development, can complement the overall character of the SMVDD corridor, provided it is designed sensitively and the architecture complements the desired character of the corridor.”

Fairfield Hills

The Fairfield Hills Adaptive Reuse zone covers redevelopment projects at Fairfield Hills.

For $3.9 million in 2004, the town purchased from the state a 186-acre section of Fairfield Hills including its core campus containing many buildings. The state had operated the site as a psychiatric hospital until 1995.

The P&Z notes that the Fairfield Hills Master Plan is implemented by the Fairfield Hills Authority on a day-to-day basis. That plan recommends recreational uses, municipal uses, and limited economic development uses for the core campus.

Uses such as retail, offices, restaurants, banks, sports, cultural activities, and business services would provide for a vibrant multipurpose campus, according to the P&Z.

The P&Z notes that in 2011, the town formed a Fairfield Hills Master Plan Review Committee to propose revisions to the master plan.

The review committee endorsed land uses for Fairfield Hills that include: community culture and arts, community recreation, town and community services, open space land, and businesses. The review panel also suggested themes for the site including: a cultural and arts destination, a recreation destination, and an agricultural activity destination.

The P&Z’s planning report on the several special zoning districts will become a component in the updated town plan.

The decennial town plan is an 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 reasons 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.