P&Z Reviews Sandy Hook Center With The Economy In Mind

By Andrew Gorosko

Based on comments made by Sandy Hook Center business people this week, Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) members are considering making some revisions to the Sandy Hook Design District (SHDD) zoning regulations in conjunction with the land use agency’s ongoing update of the 2004 Town Plan of Conservation and Development.

P&Z members met on December 14 with about a dozen Sandy Hook Center business people in the Sandy Hook Volunteer Fire & Rescue Company firehouse on Riverside Road to learn how the provisions of the SHDD zone could be modified to more suitably promote economic vitality in the compact business district near the intersection of Church Hill Road, Glen Road, Riverside Road, and Washington Avenue.

The design district is a special land use zone that the P&Z created in 1995 as a stimulus for the physical improvement and economic revitalization of that business district. SHDD is a form of flexible mixed-use zoning that 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 illustrates the SHDD zoning concept. 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. The Church Hill Road leg of the streetscape project was the first leg of a planned multilegged project.

In a December 12 letter, builder/developer Michael Burton, writing on behalf of the Sandy Hook Organization for Prosperity (SHOP), explained to land use officials the business group’s views on how the SHDD zoning regulations affect Sandy Hook Center.

“The continuing revitalization of the district has been happening largely due to the partnership between the town and SHOP...Phase I of the streetscape [project] has brought a sense of community to the area. Phase II will help to further that, as well as bring in more economic growth…Using the [town plan] to define our needs and goals will help the town continue to improve the district, which in turn will become a model for other areas of Newtown,” Mr Burton wrote.

“The current Sandy Hook Design District regulations have been largely effective in promoting the economic growth of the district. Continued flexibility in these regulations will be needed to allow the area to grow in an ever-changing economy,” Mr Burton adds.

SHOP makes a series of recommendations on improving the SHDD zoning regulations.

*The group recommends that the concept of “shared parking” in the SHDD rules be better defined to clarify its implications. “Uncertainty has caused hesitation for abutting property owners to share their parking, which is a precious commodity. Incentives could be considered to encourage the granting of shared parking,” according to SHOP.

*The P&Z should continue emphasizing the value of pedestrian interconnections that link properties, according to the business group. The organization suggests offering some incentive to property owners to permit pedestrian access through their properties.

*“Careful consideration should be given to requests for any large-scale expansion of the district, so as not to take the ‘center’ out of Sandy Hook Center,” according to SHOP.

*Also, the business group urges that commercial sign regulations be made more flexible in the SHDD zone. “The need to regulate signs in town is certainly understandable. The uniqueness of the district, however, brings about the need for some uniqueness in the sign regulations,” SHOP adds.

The group calls for a liberalization of certain rules regulating the use of “sandwich board” style signs in the SHDD zone. Such folding signs, also known as A-frame signs, typically are positioned on sidewalks to advertise adjacent businesses.

Commenting on certain regulatory restrictions that the P&Z places on such signs’ use, SHOP observes, “The most visible way for a merchant to advertise products or specials in a pedestrian environment is through the use of tasteful sandwich-board type sign.”

At the December 14 session, George Benson, town director of planning and land use, said land use officials want public comment on the SHDD zoning rules for consideration in updating the town plan.

The town has considered the practicality of expanding the SHDD zone to open up a larger area for the economic development that would be allowed by such zoning rules, he said.

Under such an expansion, the tax status of a given house within an expanded SHDD zone would remain as is, until the use of that house would be converted from a residential use to a commercial use, he explained.

While expansion of the SHDD zone could be economically beneficial, it also could change the concept of the “smallness” of Sandy Hook Center, Mr Benson observed.

The parking provisions of the SHDD regulations have generally worked well in Sandy Hook Center, but the those rules will be reviewed in conjunction with the town plan update, he said.

Mr Benson asked for public comments on the value of the P&Z’s “design guidelines” for architecture in the SHDD zone, as well as the thoroughness of the list of permitted land uses which are allowed in that zone.

Mr Benson noted that the town is seeking to make the four-way intersection in Sandy Hook Center, which is controlled by a traffic signal, more “pedestrian friendly.” A planned project to commercially redevelop land on the corner of Washington Avenue and Riverside Road should improve pedestrian access in that area, he said.

P&Z member Dennis Bloom, who served as chairman at the December 14 P&Z session, complimented property owners for their efforts to improve Sandy Hook Center.

“You people have done a phenomenal job,” he said.

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.

The current 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 multitude 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.