Date: Fri 05-Jun-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDYG

Quick Words:

Stephen-Driver-land-use

Full Text:

Conservation Official Urges Town Officials To Take A Broad View Of Development

(with photo)

BY ANDREW GOROSKO

Town land-use regulators would be well advised to paint the broad canvas upon

which future local development occurs, and then allow town technical staff

members to take care of the regulatory details, according to C. Stephen

Driver, the town's conservation official.

"Newtown needs to institute a committee to plan for the year 2005, and it

should start today," Mr Driver said this week in an interview on the grounds

of Fairfield Hills, where some town offices have been temporarily placed.

Mr Driver draws an analogy between Newtown and his former second residence in

Vermont. About 20 years ago, he owned a condominium on the slopes of Okemo

Mountain, near Ludlow. The average cost of a condo unit there was then about

$30,000. Most people who had condos there were from New Haven or Fairfield

counties in Connecticut. Central Vermont provided a very high quality of life.

Today, those condos sell for between $90,000 and $120,000, and many of the

people who use them as second homes are from New York State, Long Island, and

New Jersey.

The condos formerly were owned by Nutmeggers willing to drive three to four

hours to get to their second homes in Vermont.

Now, they're owned by people willing to make a five- or six-hour drive to

Vermont, Mr Driver noted.

Mr Driver suspects that the demographics of Newtown will evolve as they have

evolved around Okemo Mountain in Vermont. In the future, more and more

Newtowners will be willing to commute to work in New York City, he said.

And housing prices seem likely to climb here, as long as the town is viewed as

a desirable place to live.

"Newtown is way ahead of the curve," Mr Driver said of the town's sustained

new home construction and population growth during the past few years.

The town's location is a central reason for its "success" in expanding its

housing stock and population, he adds.

Its location provides a relatively simple commute to New Haven, Stamford,

Hartford, Poughkeepsie and White Plains, providing access to those points and

nearer ones that lie within an hour's drive, he said.

In that geographical area, there's an estimated 200,000 positions for

middle-level managers, or supervisors earning between $70,000 and $125,000

annually, he adds. He terms it "one of the largest areas in the nation for

middle-management opportunities."

And the sphere of New York City continues to expand, Mr Driver notes, pointing

out that Redding, his hometown for the past 31 years, once was considered out

of the orbit of Manhattan, while today New York's sphere of influence extends

northward to Kent.

Also driving the town's desirability as a good place to live is its

well-regarded public school system, recreational choices, reasonable property

taxes and availability of buildable land, Mr Driver said.

"It has all the right components," he said.

"Newtown is still one of the most attractive communities," he said.

The town has a stable government and is a good place to raise children, he

added.

Even when middle managers change their jobs, they're able to continue living

in Newtown due to its proximity to major job markets, he said.

The Downside

But, Mr Driver cautions, growth has a negative aspect.

"If we continue to get the kind of growth we're getting, the taxes will go out

of sight," he said. Currently, it costs roughly $22,000 annually to educate

the two children from the average household in the town's public school

system, he notes.

There are two general ways to approach land-use planning, he said.

One way involves doing nothing in particular and letting the world outside

determine the future of a given place. Such an approach, or more properly

"non-approach," is known as non-planning, he said.

Current growth rates might continue for the next three to four years, possibly

making the cost of living here so high that current residents will start

moving out of town to less expensive places, he said.

The other planning approach is "smart growth" in which land-use regulators

decide what they want the future to look like and then allow town technical

staff members to implement that projected future. Such an approach involves

attracting non-residential taxpayers to town, such as commerce and industry.

Now is the time for land-use officials to establish their planning goals and

not let the "outside world" decide the future, he said.

Town land-use agencies are awash with development applications, Mr Driver

noted, explaining that the agencies' actions largely are reactions to specific

construction proposals, rather than "pro-action" or broad-based strategies to

address the problems posed by continuing growth.

The planned 2003 Town Plan of Conservation and Development is a main component

of a continuing municipal planning process that keeps realigning land

conservation and development goals, as such realignment is needed.

Developers are not generally opposed to cooperating with the neighbors of

proposed new residential developments, provided that the developers understand

the dynamics and advantages of such cooperation, Mr Driver said.

If the town doesn't foster and expand its assets such as the local horse trail

network, then residential subdivisions will proliferate, Mr Driver said. If 10

to 15 percent of the town's land area can be retained in 10-acre to 40-acre

parcels, the local horse industry can be sustained, he said.

Mr Driver suggests that the town consider seeking state funding for a state

program in which municipalities buy large parcels to prevent their

development. A list should be formulated containing the land parcels

considered worth buying for such a purpose, he said.

Also, the town should protect its symbolic image -- the view from Castle Hill

overlooking the Main Street flagpole, the Newtown Congregational Church, The

Meeting House, and Trinity Episcopal Church, he said.

The developers of Cornfield Ridge, a proposed 18-lot residential development

along the crest of Castle Hill, are seeking to build homes on a five-acre

cornfield lying west of Old Castle Drive, just across that street from the

20-acre-plus parcel owned by the Newtown Forest Association that affords the

sweeping view of the town center and the Housatonic Valley.

Mr Driver said the developers shouldn't build houses on that cornfield, but

instead should donate it to the town or a land trust as open space land. The

developers have proposed donating much less desirable land as open space, Mr

Driver said.

The developers have reacted negatively to that suggestion, in light of the

cornfield's prime ridgetop location for home building.

The cornfield, which lies in the Borough of Newtown, is essential to the town

maintaining its self-image, Mr Driver said.

"The town has got to make decisions for itself. I can only suggest," he said.

Mr Driver, who has been involved with the King's Mark Resource Conservation

and Development Environmental Review Team for 25 years, recently received a

New England and national award from the New England Resource Conservation and

Development Association. King's Mark provides technical expertise in reviewing

development proposals. Since its inception, it has reviewed about 500

development proposals in western Connecticut.

The goal of King's Mark is proper and wise growth management.