A Victory Of Process Over Pressure

While everyone else was focused on the other important vote this week, Newtown’s Planning and Zoning Commission quietly voted unanimously August 3 to reject a proposed new zone that would allow a controversial 23-unit condominium complex to be built in the center of Sandy Hook. The proposal was a direct challenge to this community’s long-held wish, as articulated in its Plan of Conservation and Development, “to protect and enhance its picturesque, rural, historic New England setting and attributes.”

The P&Z vote was a victory of process over pressure. The proposed creation of a Mixed Income Housing District (MIHD) that would govern the use of a 4.04-acre parcel in Sandy Hook Center, represented the third unsuccessful attempt by a developer to squeeze a multifamily housing complex onto a lot that should accommodate just two residential homes, under the current regulations. The plan was, on the face of it, patently inappropriate both for the parcel and for the village of Sandy Hook, yet the Planning and Zoning Commission (an several other local agencies) gave the proposal a full hearing, according the developer and his agents every opportunity to make their case, which they clearly failed to do.

The proposal for the condominiums, known as Edona Commons, drew opposition from the Police Commission, the fire marshal, and the Water and Sewer Authority. While the developer’s plan would have compounded traffic and public safety hazards and placed an unexpected draw on the town’s sewage treatment capacity, its real threat to this community character lay not so much in this specific condo proposal but in the proposed MIHD zone, designed to pave the way for those condos. The town already has an Affordable Housing Development zone that accommodates such development, but the developer’s proposed MIDH zone would have doubled the maximum allowable housing density, while simultaneously limiting requirements for visual buffering. It would have allowed taller buildings packed more closely together. And the P&Z found that not just Sandy Hook Center, but 35 sites throughout the community would be eligible for such development under the proposed rule changes. The approval of this zone had the potential to do more to change the character of Newtown for the worse than any other single decision we can think of by a local governmental agency.

Developers these days usually don’t take “No” for an answer, so we expect this issue may soon move into the courtroom. The Planning and Zoning Commission can defend itself, however, knowing that it conducted a fair and thorough evaluation of a set of proposals that most reasonable people would have rejected out of hand months ago. It favored process over pressure, which is something the court should understand and ultimately endorse.