Too Many Houses In Newtown

(The following open letter to First Selectmen Herb Rosenthal and the Planning and Zoning Commission has been received for publication).

Dear Mr. Rosenthal and the Planning and Zoning Board:

I would like to express my concern about the excessive amount of house building that is going on in Newtown.

Do you have a master plan here? Or, is it that anyone who wishes to build a development here be allowed to do so? Everywhere you look, every available tract of land is being made into a housing development. Every week in The Bee, I read about several new developments in the works, approved by the P&Z. Why are you doing this? Have you no regard for the impact on our roads, schools, volunteer ambulance, parks, police department, etc., etc.,?

I just read in The Bee that yet another project of 12 houses is in the works on Hanover Road, and the same people want to build more on another road, and there, they want to disregard the open space requirement. Why should this be allowed? Do we need this? Our kids already sit three to a seat on the bus, and attend an overcrowded school. We don’t need 12 more families’ kids on the bus, nor 12 more families’ cars on narrow, winding, Hanover Road. We don’t need the trucks, the noise, the disruption, or the loss of beautiful land that the building will produce. If I wanted to live in Levittown, I would have moved there.

Why does our government bend over backward for people that don’t live here? Why do they cater to out-of-towners who buy up the land to subdivide it? What would be best for this town is not to build another house here. Our schools are full, you can’t drive on Main Street or Church Hill Road anymore, and our town is overcrowded. Even the 5/6 school will be full before it opens.

What we do need is town government who is responsive to town residents, not to people from outside who just want to make a quick buck off of a bunch of new houses. Election Day is coming. What do our elected officials stand for? Who do they really represent? Please tell us where you stand and what you’re going to do about this. What is the plan for this town? Thank you for your attention, I’ll be watching The Bee for any news.

Joan Charash

12 Silver City Road, Newtown                                    October 31, 2001