Town Plan Update Focuses On Sandy Hook Center

By Andrew Gorosko

Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) members have scheduled a session for next week to field public comments on updating the 2004 Town Plan of Conservation and Development, as it affects Sandy Hook Center.

The P&Z meeting is slated for 7 pm on Tuesday, December 14, at the Sandy Hook Volunteer Fire & Rescue Company’s main firehouse at 18 Riverside Road.

The discussion would focus on the provisions of the Sandy Hook Design District (SHDD), a special land use zone located in Sandy Hook Center. The P&Z created the SHDD zoning regulations in 1995 as a stimulus for the physical improvement and economic revitalization of that compact business district.

SHDD is a form of mixed-use zoning. It encourages a mixture of commercial and residential land uses, and suitable parking, plus the provision of pedestrian amenities.

The Sandy Hook Center Streetscape Project, which enhanced the appearance of Church Hill Road in Sandy Hook Center, is an example of SHDD zoning. That project, which was built in 2005 and 2006, provided textured-concrete sidewalks, granite curbing, fieldstone walls, a pedestrian plaza, decorative street lighting, and crosswalks, plus landscaping elements, such as ornamental trees.

P&Z members are seeking to learn about residents’ ideas for the future of Sandy Hook Center, as they would be expressed in the updated town plan.

The town plan is a decennial advisory document that provides the P&Z with general guidance in its decisionmaking. P&Z approvals or rejections of land use applications typically state whether a given application respectively adheres to or diverges from the tenets of the town plan when P&Z members’ state their rationale for a decision.

In late October, P&Z members conducted a session with about 25 Hawleyville residents at the Hawleyville Volunteer Fire Company firehouse to learn what the residents want to occur in Hawleyville in the coming decade. Those ideas would be incorporated into the updated town plan. Salient ideas included the creation of a park in Hawleyville, plus the installation of sidewalks and streetlamps.

In 1999, the P&Z created a special set of zoning regulations and an accompanying land use zone for Hawleyville Center known as the Hawleyville Center Design District (HCDD). In 2004, the P&Z also fashioned a set of design guidelines for new construction and for renovated construction in that area.

The HCDD regulations seek to foster a neighborhood business district that includes mixed-use activities, physical improvements, and the type of development which is typical of a village center.

Early next year, P&Z members plan to hold another session on updating the town plan intended for people affected by the South Main Village Design District (SMVDD).

The SMVDD, which includes a variety of commercial and residential properties, covers the 4.2-mile-long section of South Main Street lying between its intersection with Borough Lane and the Monroe town line. The P&Z approved the SMVDD zone in 2007.

The current comprehensive town plan, which the P&Z approved in March 2004, addresses a broad range of issues facing the town, including: community character, conservation, natural resources, open space, housing, economic development, community facilities, and transportation. The document lists a broad range of planning goals for the town.

The 2004 Town Plan of Conservation and Development is available for review at the town’s website, www.newtown-ct.gov/Public_Documents/NewtownCT_POCD/toc.