Conservation Official Retiring From Environmental Post

By Andrew Gorosko

Since starting work with the town in early 1998, C. Stephen Driver has watched a lot of water flow, ceaselessly eroding the high ground and then relentlessly filling in the lowlands.

As the town’s conservation official, Mr Driver’s prime tasks have involved wetlands protection, plus erosion and sedimentation control, as well as floodplains and aquifer protection.

“I just never realized how big this job was. There’s a lot of work,” said Mr Driver, 68, who has served as a technical adviser for town land use agencies. He plans to retire on August 20.

When he started work here in 1998, Mr Driver came from a broad background in natural resource conservation and development, having worked in many private jobs involving planning and land development. He also has served as a member of the Kings Mark Resource Conservation and Development Area, a group of government environmental experts that review certain development and preservation proposals for an 83-town area in western Connecticut.

While working in Newtown, Mr Driver has served as a technical adviser for the Conservation Commission, which also acts as the town’s inland wetlands agency. Much of the commission’s work involves gauging the environmental effects of development proposed near wetlands. The group also conducts aquifer protection reviews intended to protect the water quality of the Pootatuck Aquifer, a major local underground source of drinking water.

Mr Driver estimates that he has spent about 60 percent of his time at work addressing wetlands-related issues, about 30 percent of his efforts on erosion/sedimentation matters, and the remainder on floodplain protection.

“I like to go out and evaluate a wetland application,” he explained.

“The challenge has been to help the community handle the growth,” he added

“It’s been indeed a pleasure. It’s expanded my experience and knowledge,” he said.

As one of the fastest growing municipalities in the state, Newtown’s population rose to just over 25,000 in 2000, increasing by more than 20 percent during a ten-year period. “Newtown is a big town,” Mr Driver said.

The town’s land use agency should be restructured to meet the demands of continuing residential development, he said.

The town holds a half dozen large parcels that may become the sites of future residential growth, Mr Driver said. Three of those parcels are farms. There are many smaller parcels that also may become future growth sites, he said.

Mr Driver said he hopes that the town and organizations such as the nonprofit Newtown Forest Association act to acquire local rural acreage before it is developed.

“Certainly, what to do with Fairfield Hills is going to be a challenge…for everybody,” Mr Driver said of the town’s recent acquisition of the sprawling former state psychiatric institution and grounds.

The town must manage its continuing residential growth, as well as address the challenges posed by its acquisition of Fairfield Hills, he said. The town has yet to achieve a consensus of opinion on the future of Fairfield Hills, he noted. A prime task of the town’s Fairfield Hills study panel will be formulating such a consensus of opinion, he said.

The creation of “cluster housing,” as described in the Planning and Zoning Commission’s (P&Z) proposed “open space conservation subdivision” regulations, would allow Newtown to retain some of its remaining rural character, and prevent the town from becoming thoroughly suburbanized, Mr Driver said. “Innovative design is always a challenge,” he said.

Such regulations are intended to cluster single-family houses in residential subdivisions to conserve relatively large amounts of undeveloped open area nearby. The P&Z has been considering such regulations for almost two years and is expected to approve such development rules soon. 

Because local land has become so valuable, poor quality land, which would not have been developed in the past, is now being developed, Mr Driver said. Such land contains steep slopes and is situated near wetlands. High site-development costs, in effect, become part of the high price for such land, he said.

Mr Driver said that his role as a selectman in Southbury since last year has helped him as Newtown’s conservation official, allowing him to view public issues from a different perspective. While a Heritage Village resident, Mr Driver also has served on Southbury’s Inland Wetlands Commission, Charter Revision Commission, and Republican Town Committee.

While a Redding resident before moving to Southbury, Mr Driver was a member of the Redding Conservation Commission, Planning Commission, and Republican Town Committee.

After leaving his post as Newtown’s conservation official, Mr Driver plans to move to Port St Lucie, Fla., where he will live in a new house with his wife, Diane.

Mr Driver said he plans to volunteer his time in the field of natural resource conservation and development in Florida. He said he may also seek a part-time job.