FFH Master Plan Review Progresses

To the Editor:

The Fairfield Hills Master Plan Review Committee would like to update you on our progress. We’ve been busy doing some homework that will help frame what the long-term future of the Fairfield Hills property could be and what the next immediate focus (i.e., five-year plan) for our leaders should be. To these ends, our homework has progressed along two fronts.

First, we have spoken with lots of folks, including those with historic understanding of the current master plan as well as those representing groups and individuals interested in uses for Fairfield Hills. From these discussions we crafted a set of reports, beginning with a summary of the current master plan and a longer-term outlook for town demographics; and additional documentation on potential uses including core discussions/needs and “Points to Ponder.” We invite you to review these reports, available on our committee page on the town website, at http://www.newtown-ct.gov/Public_Documents/NewtownCT_FFHMPRC/index. You are welcome to send e-mail comments to FFHMPRC@gmail.com, or mail your comments to Fairfield Hills Master Plan Review Committee, Newtown Municipal Center, 3 Primrose Street, Newtown CT 06470.

Second, we have created a number of opportunities for receiving broad community input. We strongly encourage you to: participate in two open community conversations on March 16 and 23; join the “FFH Master Plan Opinion Page” Facebook group; and fill out a community survey when it arrives.

We begin our public participation phase this weekend with the gathering of a “microcosm council” composed of a dozen or so randomly selected citizens — and we wish to thank both those selected for the council and all who so warmly received our calls. While we had to limit the number of participants based on the nature of the exercise, we will be sharing all input gathered during our open community conversations, mentioned above.

In summary, we have done our homework by working long and hard to collect and compile the key information needed and we are now trying to broadly gather input from the citizens of Newtown. All of this work is aimed at ensuring that we provide recommendations to our leaders for the future use of Fairfield Hills with the town’s best interest in mind.

Sincerely,

Deborra Zukowski

On behalf of the members of the

Fairfield Hills Master Plan Review Committee

4 Cornfield Ridge Road, Newtown                                March 1, 2011