P&Z Continues Its Work On Town Plan Update

By Andrew Gorosko

Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) Chairman Lilla Dean said this week that the agency’s ongoing review of the Town Plan of Conservation and Development is nearly one-third complete, as the group continues toward its goal of updating the town plan by December 2012.

In view of local interest in having a revised town plan available sooner than state law requires, the P&Z has expedited its town plan revision schedule in seeking to complete the document two years earlier than is required.

The P&Z, which approved the current town plan in April 2004, would normally be required to produce a revised document by the end of 2014.

Ms Dean said that the P&Z will hold a special meeting at 7:30 pm on Thursday, March 31, at the Botsford Firehouse at 315 South Main Street to solicit the views of people affected by the South Main Village Design District (SMVDD) zone, which is a component of the town plan.

That SMVDD overlay zone, which is more than four miles long, runs alongside South Main Street between its intersections with Borough Lane and the Monroe town line.

In July 2007, the P&Z created the SMVDD regulations as a mechanism to respectively preserve and promote the New England appearance of existing and proposed commercial development and redevelopment projects along South Main Street. SMVDD zoning provides applicants with latitude in designing commercial projects, provided that the P&Z and the applicant can agree on the specifics of a given plan.

During the past several months, the P&Z’s town plan review sessions have focused on the Hawleyville Center Design District (HCDD) and the Sandy Hook Design District (SHDD). They are two special overlay zones created for commercial areas.    

The HCDD regulations seek to foster a neighborhood business district at Hawleyville Center that includes mixed-use activities, physical improvements, and the type of development that is typical of a village center. HCDD zoning was created in 1999.

SHDD zoning 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 P&Z approved SHDD zoning for Sandy Hook Center in 1995.

The P&Z held community meetings last October and December at the firehouses in Hawleyville and Sandy Hook, respectively, to solicit the views of residents and business owners on worthwhile planning goals for their areas for inclusion in the town plan.

Ms Dean said the P&Z intends to keep the format of the town plan similar to the format of the 2004 town plan.

The P&Z had a planning consulting firm help formulate the 2004 town plan, but due to budget constraints, the agency is updating the town plan with its own staff.

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 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