Newtown Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) reviewed a referral from the Conservation Commission during its February 16 meeting.

Land Use Agency Deputy Director of Planning Rob Sibley, who has since been officially promoted to Land Use Director, prefaced the conversation by saying, “Anytime the Town disposes, acquires, [or] changes any land acquisition or disposition it has to go through Planning and Zoning by state statute to see if it matches up with the Plan of Conservation and Development.”

The ones brought to them that night were for open space (OS) parcels.

“This is our open space program where properties can be donated in lieu of back taxes,” Sibley said.

For some background, Sibley said that he helped develop the OS program around 2005 and coordinated the purchase of roughly a thousand acres for the town.

The agenda listed the discussion item as “C.G.S. § 8-24 Referral from the Conservation Commission for the approval of OS Applications 22.01, 22.02, 22.03, and 23.01.”

“Most of these are going to be in the Laurel Hill neck of the woods,” he said about the properties. The Conservation Commission and Sibley, on behalf of the Town of Newtown, endorse the approval of accepting these open space properties.

“I think it’s great,” Commissioner Corinne Cox said, and chair Dennis Bloom agreed. P&Z voted to approve the referral and it passed unanimously.

Commissioner Roy Meadows asked, “What’s the next step, Rob, with this?”

Sibley replied that since he has already created the financial impact statement for each parcel (the parcels are all under $20,000), the next step for him will be to present it to the Board of Selectmen, hopefully in March.

Once it is approved by the Board of Selectmen, Sibley will contact the owners of each parcel, secure the legal paperwork, then record each of the properties.

Text Modifications

The next item on the P&Z agenda for the evening was to review and discuss potential text language modifications for the Newtown zoning regulations.

Sibley stated, “On the short list I have about six things that have been hovering over the commission and Land Use Agency. They run the gamut all over.”

Topics included rental terms for properties pertaining to Airbnb, better use of agro-tourism designations for farms, electric vehicle charging regulations, renewable wind and solar, underground electrical installation for development, and temporary use permits for Fairfield Hills, which currently has a standalone system.

Sibley added, “One of the others that had been brought up multiple times is food truck/trailers and the definitions that are now being used by Public Health. They don’t call them that anymore, they call them ‘itinerant public food establishments.’”

Another text language modification was to make changes to match state statutes associated with the words “modify,” “shall,” and “may.”

“There are about six places where they need to be changed for the state statutes,” Sibley said. He encouraged commissioners to lend their feedback for any of these text modifications he mentioned.

“There’s no time restraint,” Sibley said.

He noted that most modifications will only be a paragraph or two, but that the farming agro-tourism updates will likely be a few pages.

Lastly, Sibley also incorporated his input to the warehouse/distribution center definition draft for the regulations. It is a document that P&Z’s subcommittee crafted with the help of former Land Use Agency Director of Planning George Benson.

Sibley said that he separated the two terms “warehouse” and “distribution center” because there are very few definitions in Newtown’s regulations that cover two subject matters in one.

“All I did in this instance was give you, as a discussion point in the definitions, a difference between a warehouse and a distribution center,” Sibley said. “A warehouse being mostly used for placing something in and then eventually using it somewhere. A warehouse exists at Curtis Packaging … more of a distribution center exists at Clancy, which is right off Edmund Road. They are bringing materials in, doing manipulation with them, and then sending them out.”

Commissioners discussed if they wanted to keep it as one term or two terms but did not come to a consensus that night. They also talked about the other text modifications Sibley brought up.

“It’s a fluid document, folks. It’s always changing,” Sibley said about the Town of Newtown’s zoning regulations.

Sibley voiced that he envisions the P&Z putting the text modification topic on future agendas, so they will have the ability to review revisions. It would be considered working documents that the P&Z could move forward when ready.

The next P&Z meeting is Thursday, March 2, at 7 pm, at Newtown Municipal Center.

Reporter Alissa Silber can be reached at alissa@thebee.com.