Open Space, Development,

And The Family Tree

To the Editor:

Let me deal with the personal first, then get back to the important issue of the future of open space in Newtown.

Charles Tilson suggests I would make better use of my time writing my books instead of responding to letters in The Bee. But because development in Newtown has a powerful effect on the lives of everyone who lives here, neither Mr Tilson nor I should begrudge time spent discussing the use and misuse of open space. Besides, a short break from felling forests – whether to rename them Tilson Woods or to grind them up for paper for my books – can only give the trees a much needed breather.

Mr Tilson reminds me that my family has not lived in Newtown for 200 years. Legend has us in the Second Landing at Jamestown, which I’ve always considered something of an exaggeration. But even if we dropped anchor as late as 1620, there is no denying that what with one thing or another – planting, nation building, fighting wars and making and losing fortunes – it took us another 360 years to get to Newtown. While I don’t enjoy Mr Tilson’s intimacy with Newtown’s past (recent past I must add, as the first Tilsons’ new neighbors were here 140 years ahead of them and had already done the hard work of clearing out the French, the Indians and the British), perhaps my outsider status gives me some perspective. I grew up in a small town on Long Island’s Great South Bay, which 30 years later is relatively untouched by the post-war population explosion only because there were no large tracts of land that would lend themselves to big subdivisions. Nearby towns with open space were virtually destroyed and I invite anyone who wants an object lesson in over-development to take a long, very slow ride on the Sunrise Highway. It is an ugly tale repeated over and over within a hundred-mile circle of New York, be it Long Island, New Jersey, or Westchester, Putnam, and much of Fairfield counties. But it doesn’t have to be repeated here in Newtown.

Mr Tilson still feels the sting of having his family lands condemned by the state and threatened by the town. I should think so! Having lived half my adult lift in my Newtown house and devoted far too much time, money and effort to re-building and planting (and loving every minute of it) I can sympathize very strongly. I know how I feel when I watch a developer’s lawyers ram yet another dense subdivision in the town I’ve come to think of as home. You don’t have to actually own the woods to feel the loss and it is galling to watch destruction of open space simply because a handful of people make their living by taking advantage of Newtown’s zoning regulations.

Mr Tilson invites me to write a book about rural life in Connecticut. I’ve written several mystery novels that fall into that category. They include some of the characters he alludes to and others modeled on people Mr Tilson knows, who happens to be friends of mine. The books are available at the Cyrenius Booth Library. Among the more obvious aspects is usually a fictional Destroyer of Open Space, though as yet, none have actually committed the crime. I’m tempted by Mr Tilson’s offer to inspire me, and might take him up on it someday, but it’s the recent Bee’s letters section I find stirring fictional juices at the moment: There’s this developer, see, who meets this lady who hates horses and then one of them gets involved with the owner of an asphalt plant and…

Back to facts: taxes paid by people who buy a newly built house in Newtown don’t even cover the cost of their children’s education, much less town services. On average, after state money kicks in, we taxpayers spend $7,390 per student per year. Two kids per family costs nearly $15,000, three kids $22,000. Each and every year until they graduate. But the people who buy into Tilson Woods won’t pay anywhere near $15,000 a year in property taxes. Which means that Newtown’s current taxpayers will have to make up the difference, which in turn means that we are subsidizing Mr Tilson’s profits.

Year after year. The same argument holds for town services. Each new house brings in at least two more cars. Who will pay the additional money needed to maintain and police the roads? Current homeowners will pay for the shortfall with increased taxes. Vital ambulance and fire services are currently provided by dedicated volunteers. How many tax increases can they afford before they have to move away, forcing the town to pay salaries for the same protection? So my suggestion that Mr Tilson donate his lands for open space rather than blanket them with new houses makes good business sense for the entire town. (I would remind Mr Tilson that when the old-time landholders donated their acreage for open space it wasn’t only unbuildable land. Back then, developers routinely filled in wetlands, so there were short-term profits to be made, but the land was donated anyway.)

What we are really discussing is when to stop new construction. Sooner rather than later is my vote. The tired old argument that the developers provide jobs doesn’t wash anymore. Renovation and expansion of existing homes will provide just as many jobs. (Based on my experience with my house, home enhancement is an endlessly renewable resource.) And any building will tell you that the new subdivision homes thrown up with chipboard and staples will provide lucrative repair well into the next century.

Lastly, on another personal note, I believe that no one who has read Mr Tilson’s clear, forthright letters would ever assume that he was not an educated man. I certainly don’t, and it sounds like he has as much right to be proud of the academic achievements of his nieces and nephews as I am of mine. Though I wonder whether children that intelligent and motivated really need the profits of selling off open space to make their way in the world, when scholarships and grants exist for such exceptional students. The cost of their well-deserved college education sounds like a justification for breaking up the land, or even an excuse.

That Mr Tilson’s letters are exceptionally well written doesn’t make him right. Nor does it make it right to put profit first and foremost. Nor does it make his opposition to upzoning right. Can anyone really justify championing an individual landowner’s profit over the protection of an aquifer that provides life-sustaining water for thousands of people? Once it is depleted it is done and gone forever, just like a family farm sold for short-term gain.

We are facing what could be our last opportunity to save the pleasures of living in Newtown. Our population growth in the past ten years demonstrates that we have done our part to take on the burdens of an ever-growing metropolitan region. It is time to ask developers, including Mr Tilson, to renounce profit in favor of their friends’ and neighbors’ quality of life. If they won’t, it is time to close ranks and save what we have. As I have written here before, we should welcome our newly arrived neighbors and ask them to join us in gently closing the door.

Justin Scott

Parmalee Hill Road, Newtown                                     August 21, 2001