Considering The Future Of Hawleyville

One of the silver linings of the current economic downturn is that it has given towns and cities a break from the nonstop, high-pressure development that characterized the 1990s and the early 2000s. The pause has allowed them to assess where they are and where they would like to go from here. To that end, Newtown’s Planning and Zoning Commission is in the process of updating the town’s Plan of Conservation and Development. As part of that, the commissioners are considering the future of Hawleyville. Late last month, P&Z hosted a session at the Hawleyville Firehouse, inviting the residents in the area to share their vision for this historic hamlet on the west side of town.

Hawleyville has an impressive past as a major railway hub and industrial center, but the 20th Century saw much of the economic activity flow out of the area to Danbury, Stony Hill, and Newtown proper. The rail lines remain, but they now haul in solid waste and environmental challenges rather than the vitality and prosperity of passengers with money in their pockets.

Based on the public comments made to the Planning and Zoning Commission last month, the people of Hawleyville are very interested and motivated to reclaim the spirit of Hawleyville’s past by establishing it as a place where people will one again want to gather. Among their suggestions: sidewalks, street lamps, and perhaps a “pocket park” — all amenities that would take some of the rough edges off the industrial look of Hawleyville in the area of the railroad crossing. These suggestions fit in with the objectives of the Hawleyville Center Design District created in 1999 to foster mixed-use activities typical of a village center.

The design district “overlay” zoning strategy employed by local planners over the past two decades has yielded good results in Sandy Hook Center, which looks better now than it has in the past 50 years. In addition to Hawleyville, South Main Street also operates under the guidelines of a design district, and the progress there, though less obvious, should be slow and steady.

 The key to success is to get developers and residents involved and working together on a common vision. The public and private interests of Hawleyville already have a cohesion forged in the successful campaign to persuade the US Postal Service not to abandon its service to the area. The newly minted Hawleyville Post Office now sits in the company of two new restaurants and a package store, which are in turn drawing people to the area — not just to come and go, but to sit and enjoy a meal and the company of each other.

This core group of activists was also tested by plans by the Housatonic Railroad to greatly expand its solid waste handling operations in the area. They rallied to engage elected officials and governmental agencies to slow, or perhaps to completely stop, the impending environmental threats of the plan.

We hope, with the help of the Planning and Zoning Commission, the Economic Development Commission, and elected leaders on the local, state, and federal level, that Hawleyville can build on these first promising steps in a measured and planned way that preserves the best of its past without compromising its future.