Upzoning Hearing Rescheduled

Due to heavy public interest in the Planning and Zoning Commission’s (P&Z) proposal to upzone extensive residential areas of town, the P&Z has rescheduled its public hearing on the proposal.

The hearing had been scheduled for Thursday, January 6, at the small town land use office at Canaan House at Fairfield Hills.

On learning of the broad interest in the subject and expected high attendance at the hearing, land use officials decided to reschedule the session for a larger meeting room. The hearing is now scheduled for Thursday, February 3 at Newtown Middle School auditorium, 11 Queen Street. P&Z business meetings start at 7:30 pm; public hearings start at 8 pm.

 The controversial upzoning proposal is intended to protect water quality in the town’s Aquifer Protection District (APD), which lies atop the Pootatuck Aquifer in south-central Newtown, and also to protect groundwater quality in general, especially in the several lakeside communities along the eastern edge of town on Lake Zoar. The lakeside communities are Shady Rest, Pootatuck Park, Riverside, Cedarhurst and Great Quarter.

The comprehensive upzoning proposal covers an area greater than 2,500 acres. It affects approximately 2,315 properties, almost 2,000 of which have dwellings on them. Upzoning would increase certain minimum development standards for affected properties.

Property owners who would be affected by the upzoning proposal told P&Z members at an initial public hearing in December they fear that increasing minimum zoning standards will damage their properties’ development potential, and thus reduce the value of their land.