Simply...
Published: Sep 28, 2023 4:10 pm
The following note has been received for publication in The Newtown Bee.
To the Editor:
I just wanted to say thank you to my special neighbors — Doris, Chuck, and Chris.
Gale Whitford
Newtown
You are correct, Bruce. I know how hard these plans are to put together, but I still believe that we can have more definitive and measurable goals. I know there are a number of units coming online, and the community truly needs them. If only we can move the development of affordable housing to more of a partnership between the community and the developers than the adversarial tug-of-war it seems to be now, that would be good progress.
Here is the plan Newtown signed on to. https://westcog.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Final-Newtown-Affordable-Housing-Annex_2022.pdf
I agree, but we need to make sure they are pedestrian activated. The ones on Glover were supposed to be by order of the Police Commission, but the ones installed by Public Works were the cheaper flashing light. A couple of extra dollars are worth the lives it can save.
We have been doing the planning work. The State of Connecticut mandates every municipality to develop an affordable housing plan under C.G.S. §8-30j by June 1, 2022, to specify how they “intend to increase the number of affordable housing developments in the municipality.”
In lieu of all eighteen municipalities in the Western Connecticut Region duplicating efforts to research, document and analyze affordable housing, the Council of Governments decided to work collectively by splitting the work into two parts:
Regional Toolbox
Specific, Policy Driven Municipal Annexes.