Newtown’s Economic and Community Development team — Christal Preszler and Kim Chiappetta — along with E&CD team member Christine O’Neill have been working throughout the COVID-19 crisis to supply reso...
The opening of an ice cream stand is among the things that herald the return of spring. But what happens when a pandemic is added to the mix? In Newtown, there are two answers to that question.
Newtown’s cases of COVID-19 hovered just below 60 as nearly 5,200 others in Fairfield County logged positive test results Friday. By that time Connecticut was marking a statewide total in excess of 10,500 positive cases of the coronavirus.
Following the launch of a live streamed Facebook forum with several local experts unpacking and discussing the federal Payroll Protection Plan (PPP), organizers will be welcoming a new panel in an effort to help local businesses survive and thrive during the coronavirus emergency.
Philanthropic initiatives across a widening landscape of businesses, nonprofits, and even utilities, are trying to respond to help fill some of the growing burdens faced by local and state residents.
Banks serving Newtown are quickly falling in line by either limiting customer interactions with staff or closing certain branch operations while encouraging depositors to utilize computer banking services and ATMs to access cash or to transact other applicable business.
Business name: The Station Dance Academy
Address: 6 Mile Hill Road, Newtown
Owners: Nicole Russo-Henderson and Leon Henderson
What is your business background? We have recently moved b...
Nobody is suggesting shutting the doors on new neighbors. What neighboring towns are doing, and what we should be doing too, is to tap the brakes on all of the multi-family residential development proposals so that we can spend 6 months updating our regulations such that if you want to build dense residential housing here, XX percent of it needs to be affordable (we will never make any headway on increasing our percentage of affordable housing otherwise, short of 8-30g), and the rest needs to be done in as low an impact manner as possible. Low impact on traffic, health & safety, the environment and on the cost of town services.
Hey, there you go! Richard solved it. Thanks, that seems so easy- we'll just get rid of the 2nd amendment and the Supreme Court. Seriously, the 2nd amendment doesn't create violent criminals or mental illness. The Supreme Court doesn't create violent criminals or mental illness. The problem is not the tools, but the criminals & the mental illness. The state of Connecticut seems to be focused on the tools, like Richard, while ignoring the users of those tools.
Ned, please familarize yourself with 8-30G, and then please share the unique flaws that may be helpful in formulating a denial
An 8-30g project can be denied only on very narrow grounds – i.e., if it presents health, safety or other concerns that exceed a town’s need for affordable housing.
According to the TOG website, “projects cannot be rejected for incompatibility with a Town’s Plan of Conservation and Development (POCD); density; traffic congestion; height; aesthetics; concerns of neighbors or the community; and failure to comply with local zoning regulations.”
8-30g proposals are rarely denied by planning and zoning officials because the burden of proof on appeal is on the town. Appeals are costly, but a municipality can be successful in a court case if it has sufficiently established that the concerns leading to denial are factual and substantive.
The town should certainly measure its performance against the statewide strategies. Unless I missed it I only know of one small cluster of homes that would meet the affordable housing program. Given the 500 or so new units being added in the last 10 years I think that 4/500 would not meet the metric to allow for a moratorium. I mean, fingers crossed for a Christmas miracle but I suspect we will see a few 8-30's sent our way in a method to avoid the Nimby mob. Thanks, Nimby mob.
