To the Editor:

Mentioning “Main Street in Newtown” to someone often brings a soliloquy listing the charm and hometown New England feel of Main Street, Newtown, USA! Is it a perfect Norman Rockwell-like Main Street? No, but it’s close. The box trucks and eighteen wheelers that rumble past the flagpole disturb the setting. Sure, they can bypass Newtown center by taking the Exit 11 bypass road, but few do. Can more be done to eliminate large truck traffic down our Historic Main Street? Restriction to local truck deliveries only? Hmmm... there’s a thought!

Now we have another tangible threat to our pristine Main Street. The pending apartment/condo project at the old Newtown Inn site, if approved, will go a long way in destroying the aura of Main Street. The charm of Main Street has been preened by many over centuries, not just decades. Money is to be made, and developers are just the ones to make it. Are we selling our charm and unique qualities to the highest bidder? Combine this project with the invasion of pristine Borough lake-front property on Taunton Lake by Toll Brothers condominiums, and the squeeze is on. Our Historic District and our beautiful Borough lake will be altered forever.

The term “slippery slope” applies here. Developers will surely target other Main Street properties, if the Newtown Inn site project advances. As one example, the soon-to-be-ex-police station site is a prime target for multi-family dwellings, as are potentially targeted homes on Main Street, whose owners can profit dramatically from a sale to developers. How? In spite of the site-specific nature of the Newtown Inn site zoning change proposal, if passed there may be litigation to open other sections of Main Street for multi-family development and change in zoning restrictions. After all, money talks. It was only after a decade of litigation that a lawsuit challenging the zoning approval of the Taunton Lake project was dismissed, and the project advanced. If a designated Historic District and a pristine in-Borough lakefront can be opened up to multi-family development, more is sure to follow. It’s just a matter of lawsuits triggered by the money to be made. A slippery slope indeed. Oh, what dread the sewers have wrought!

Sincerely,

Richard English

3 Curry Drive, Newtown December 30, 2019