Upzoning Targets Homeowners

To the Editor:

The Newtown Planning and Zoning Commission’s (P&Z) proposed upzoning of 2,315 properties is scheduled to be voted on in the near future. The regular members of the P&Z have all announced that they will vote this new regulation into law. Unfortunately, this action is only the beginning of an assault on many additional Newtown properties.

At the July 20 P&Z meeting where First Selectman Herb Rosenthal presented many of the Newtown Property Owners Association (NPOA) questions about upzoning, Chairman Fogliano made the alarming announcement that the P&Z has targeted many other residential areas of Newtown for upzoning because they don’t have sewers and public water under the P&Z policy of sewer avoidance.

Since the P&Z will have eliminated all half-acre zoning when they pass the current proposed regulation, their next target has to logically be one acre zoned properties. By the time the P&Z is finished making many one acre residences non-conforming to zoning as they are doing to all of the half-acre properties, close to 50 percent of Newtown’s residents and properties will fall into this classification.

The primary purpose of the P&Z for making Newtown properties non-conforming was to protect the aquifer and ground water. Now their stated purpose at the July 20 meeting has shifted to prevent homeowners from expanding the living space or making improvements to their properties. The only conclusion that can be drawn from this is that the P&Z’s objective is reduce our population growth to keep the tax rate down at the expense of our property rights.

NOPA’s belief is that this radical approach by the P&Z to Newtown’s fictitious sanitary issues is unfounded, baseless, and unwarranted. Their actions are arbitrary and capricious.

All of this seems hard to believe but it is true. Brief newspaper articles and P&Z staff interpretations are not sufficient to bring the truth to light. NPOA recommends that any concerned resident should call NPOA at 426-4901 to obtain a copy of the tape of the July 20 P&Z meeting. Will the P&Z committee members deny their own statements?

Barry J. Piesner, Director, NPOA

38 Underhill Road, Newtown                                       August 16, 2000