Sandy Hook: Not Just Another Place

There is something about Sandy Hook Center that sets it apart from other areas of town, sitting as it does in the open palm where the Pootatuck River and Riverside, Church Hill, Berkshire, and Glen roads beckon people from all parts of town. It never had the high purpose of the overly broad Main Street with its civic buildings and stately homes, or the residential serenity of the country roads of Hattertown, Hawleyville, Dodgingtown, and Botsford. Sandy Hook has always had the vitality and, yes, the grit of a river village. It has always had character.

So as Sandy Hook works to improve itself with new sidewalks, streetlights, renovated businesses and homes, and its very own zoning district, it makes perfect sense for its fans and advocates to back the creation of a historic district there to help it hang on to that distinctive character. Sure, we could make Sandy Hook resemble almost any other place with generic development, but frankly we don’t want it to be like any other place. We want it to be, and to remain, Sandy Hook.

As we have seen in Newtown’s two other historic districts — in Hattertown and in part of the Borough — a historic district does not prohibit change, development, or progress. It simple requires the changes or transitions that do transpire to respect and coexist aesthetically with what has gone before. Throughout most of our history, this has been done through common understandings about what is appropriate and proportionate for the various neighborhoods and hamlets in our sprawling town. But as we have seen recently in the public struggle over development proposals in Sandy Hook and elsewhere, common understanding can be in short supply. An additional review of development in Sandy Hook Center from a historical perspective now seems prudent and necessary.

So we wish Sandy Hook’s historic district advocates well as they prepare the required study of the area and as they present the concept to the property owners in the proposed district. Their success will help guarantee that Sandy Hook will never be just another place.