Date: Fri 20-Sep-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDYG

Quick Words:

P&Z-Adams-resignation

Full Text:

P&Z Chairman Will Step Down

B Y A NDREW G OROSKO

Stephen Adams, chairman of the embattled Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z),

said Tuesday he is resigning from the land use agency effective Friday.

Mr Adams of Sandy Hook has served as P&Z chairman since early this year, when

he took over the post from P&Z member John Deegan of Dodgingtown. Mr Deegan

recently resigned as the P&Z's vice chairman, but he remains a regular member

of the panel.

Five P&Z regular members and three alternate members unanimously elected Mr

Adams to a one-year term as chairman last January.

"It's a time issue. It's become a real time issue," Mr Adams said of the

amount of time he has spent on P&Z activities in recent months.

Mr Adams said he wants to spend more time with his family and working at his

Fairfield law practice.

Mr Adams has served as P&Z chairman during one of the most turbulent periods

the elected agency has faced in recent years.

During the past six months, the P&Z often has found itself within a maelstrom

of controversy as various neighborhood groups have mounted vocal campaigns in

efforts to defeat residential development proposals for their areas.

The P&Z's September 5 meeting, at which three public hearings were conducted

and three other development projects were approved, was one of the most heated

P&Z sessions in recent memory, with neighborhood group after neighborhood

group verbally sparring with commission members in the Newtown Middle School

auditorium.

The neighborhood groups pressed to make additional public comments on

development proposals, while P&Z members sought to limit those comments.

About 150 people attended. Attendance at P&Z public hearings has grown so

much, the hearings no longer can be held in the conference room at Town Hall

South.

P&Z members often have found themselves in verbal crossfires at recent

meetings with developers' representatives maintaining that their subdivisions

should be approved and neighborhood groups maintaining that they should be

protected from added development in their areas.

"It's a tough time for the commission," Mr Adams said of the ongoing

controversies.

In recent months, P&Z meetings have become protracted affairs with extended

public discussion on controversial proposals. The sessions often last well

past midnight.

The P&Z was scheduled to conduct a "working session" Thursday night, after the

deadline for this edition of The Bee, to establish the procedures it will

follow in fielding comments at future public hearings.

Mr Adams said he will volunteer to work with whomever the P&Z chooses as its

new chairman. In that capacity, Mr Adams said he will help refine proposed new

regulations on underground water storage tanks for firefighting, and will also

help develop a land use management plan for the state's Fairfield Hills

property.

Before moving to Newtown several years ago, Mr Adams was involved in local

government in Fairfield, serving as an elected and appointed official.

After moving here, he became Republican Town Chairman, a P&Z alternate member,

and then a P&Z regular member, before becoming its chairman.

Jack McGarvey, an outspoken critic of continuing local growth and a member of

the Newtown Neighborhoods Coalition, said of the P&Z chairmanship "I think

it's a tough job. I give (Adams) credit for opening the hearings to more

public comment, which can be kind of overwhelming. I have to give him credit."

In response to Mr Adams' planned resignation, First Selectman Robert Cascella

said "Now I have a seat to fill on P&Z. I've asked coalition members in the

past (to serve). They've turned me down. Maybe now one will accept. It's a

great opportunity for them to become involved in how the town plans its

future."