By Lisa Peterson

It’s time for me to get on my high horse.

Let’s face it. The landscape of Newtown is changing. More houses – fewer horses. The bucolic nature of Fairfield County’s largest town is dwindling. Large tracts of land from dairy farms and open space to horse properties are being subdivided for residential development. Trails that once traversed the town are now segmented and lead to nowhere. The character of Newtown stands in the balance and a large part of that character depends on keeping the horses in Newtown.

On June 21, the Planning and Zoning Commission will continue a public hearing regarding the commercial use of land for horse farms. It is a very narrow amendment addressing a sliver of the horse population – those running full service boarding and training facilities with over 20 acres of land who had such operations prior to 1986.

While I applaud P&Z for making the effort to address horse farms from a zoning perspective, I believe the effort should be more sweeping to address all the horse properties that currently exist in addition to future horses coming to town. As I see it Newtown has several layers of horse properties. On the top are a handful of the most visible large commercial barns which board, trade and train horses and their riders. These are big business ventures with many aspects that need to be controlled such as manure removal, noise limits, truck and trailer traffic, and lighting among other things.

On the bottom layer there are the privately-owned horses kept on homeowners land. No boarding or lessons, just personal use. They range from the person with one acre and one horse in their backyard to someone with 20 or more acres owning numerous horses.

Then you have the thick middle layer. For example someone with six acres and a four-horse barn who owns two horses – in addition they board two additional horses. There is no large-scale commercial intent at these “backyard barns.”

Since there are no current zoning limits as to how many horses you can keep on your property, someone with a mere two-acre plot could house 10 horses if they want to. This is an unfair situation to the horses, the neighbors and the land itself.

P&Z needs to address all these scenarios in one broad-based review. Currently, zoning regulations for horse properties are lumped in with nurseries and truck farming. And no zoning exists for the dairy industry and how many cows they can have. The time is now to pull out the horse regulations and revamp them for the 21st century.

Perhaps a committee – made up of commercial and private horse-owners, non-horse owners and land use officials – should study the problem at hand. Look at neighboring towns in Fairfield County to see how they have dealt with an influx of development in order to save their rural character and country setting. Be fair to the horse people who have been here for years previously given permission by town agencies to build barns and expand their commercial facilities. Be fair to those that have an appropriate amount of horses for their land, who practice decent manure management, and sound horsemanship for the care of their animals. Encourage those who rejuvenate paddocks on their property and keep the land looking beautiful for all to view and enjoy.

Address the issue of taxing horses as personal property. If the town feels it does not have all the horses on the books, then provide adequate enforcement. Or if someone wants to board a few extra horses on their land to help cover the cost or simply to have someone else to ride with – let them – and perhaps charge a fee to be paid to the town. Personal property taxes on horses and a “limited boarding only permit” fee could be put into a fund to purchase open space. That way horses will be contributing to the character of the town in a financially beneficial way and creating or preserving places to ride theses horses.

Newtown’s horses have flourished here for hundreds of years and the time has come to protect them and the added value they give to this town. Horses are the catalyst to preserve open space and maintain trails, so that all people can use them, not just horses.

Horses can also be easy targets in zoning disputes, so regulations must be written to protect them as well and to keep the non-horse neighbor happy. Nursery and dairy farm owners may want to seek similar protection under zoning. We all have the same vision for Newtown if we can work together and compromise it will be a better and more beautiful place for all of us to live.

Lisa Peterson is the owner of Peterson Pet Sittings, LLC. You can reach her at 270-1732 or petersonpets@usa.net.