To the Editor:

With the upcoming ten-year Plan of Conservation and Development, there’s an opportunity to consider what Newtown will be, not just in its ten year horizon, but in the future-future when our great grandchildren are here. While PoCDs are state-mandated to cover ten years, we are not so limited. Ten years is no time at all in which to position Newtown among the other 169 Connecticut towns.

So what will Newtown be? With our last 50 years of development, our increasing density and the State’s long-standing push for more housing and housing choices, it’s likely that our future lies in residential development. If so, and if, as seems evident, Newtown can’t control the traffic on our State roads, we have to do something else. So what can we do now to make our future lives easier?

Mixed-use zoning may well provide at least a partial answer. The town has experimented with it for individual developments and buildings, in the “Hamlet” concept in our current PoCD and in the current Fairfield Hills plan, but not in our neighborhoods. The zoning commission might, for instance, create a mixed-use floating zone by which small residentially-oriented businesses could, in appropriate places, set up close to their customers within walkable distances, relieving nearby residents from having to take to their cars for many personal shopping needs and reducing local traffic — a win for everyone. And while our residential density isn’t sufficient to support neighborhood shops now, it will be. Planning for it now will inform future zoning decisions and help avoid the mistakes that are occasioned by short-sighted decisions.

Those concerned, as I am, about Newtown’s future-future might consider supporting my bid for the Zoning Board of Appeals on November 7th — along with our other Democratic candidates on Line A.

Don Mitchell

Newtown