Printed bound versions of the 2014 Town Plan of Conservation and Development and the 2013 Fairfield Hills Master Plan are now available at the town Land Use Agency office at Newtown Municipal Center at 3 Primrose Street.

The published volumes are the product of lengthy planning projects by the Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) and by the ad hoc Fairfield Hills Master Plan Amendment Work Group, respectively. The price of the documents is $25 for the 171-page town plan, and $10 for the 34-page Fairfield Hills plan.

Besides the printed versions, both documents are available for public review on the town’s website; the town plan can be viewed here, and the Fairfield Hill plan can be viewed here. 

The documents are intended to serve as general guides for the future development and conservation of the town, and the town-owned section of Fairfield Hills.

Following more than three years of public hearings, the P&Z approved an updated town plan late last year.

P&Z members held dozen of public hearings on the many aspects of the town plan, with the first hearing held in October 2010.

The document is intended to guide municipal decisionmaking into 2024.

The state requires towns and cities to update their municipal plans at least once every ten years to provide a consistent, comprehensive planning framework for land use decisionmaking.

The town plan addresses abroad range of subjects, including community character, conservation, economic  development, natural resources, open space, housing, public facilities, and transportation, among others.

When making decisions on land use applications, P&Z members typically cite whether an application adheres to or conflicts with the town plan, when respectively approving or rejecting an application.

Also late last year, the P&Z approved an update to the Fairfield Hills Master Plan, a document intended to generally guide future land use at Fairfield Hills, where the town bought 186 acres and many buildings from the state for $3.9 million in 2004.

The town is in the protracted process of redeveloping the property in the geographic center of town, which formerly served as the psychiatric institution known as Fairfield State Hospital that housed several thousand patients.

The land uses that are permitted at Fairfield Hills are covered by the P&Z’s Fairfield Hills Adaptive Reuse (FHAR) zoning regulations.

The Fairfield Hills Master Plan is a broadly written planning document intended to generally guide the town in its governmental decisionmaking on future land uses at the property that served as a state psychiatric hospital for more than 60 years until it closed in 1995.