To the Editor:

There has been much talk in town lately about a possible moratorium on residential development, usually directed at the state’s affordable housing program, known as 8-30g, or at multi-family housing projects generally. The Bee published my Letter to the Editor on the proposed Ridgefield moratorium on January 10. Mitch Bolinsky and Tony Scott, our local state representatives, held a community forum on March 23 to help educate the community on how the 8-30g program came to be, how it operates, and the potential adjustments being advocated at the state level. There have been many, many, social media posts with wide local circulation.

Although adjustments to the 8-30g program may help restore some elements of local planning and zoning control, those changes, if they happen at all, lie in the future. Newtown needs to address the here and now and start a community discussion, outside the context of any particular application, about how we deal with affordable housing issues with the rules as they exist today. The housing shortage and affordability crisis is real, we see it with our friends and our families every day, and we cannot stand by and wait for Hartford to (maybe) fix the problem.

The Newtown Planning and Zoning Commission, of which I am an Alternate Member, has just created a subcommittee to research whether Newtown might credibly pursue some moratorium on multi-family housing, including 8-30g, and also consider other possible modifications to our zoning to encourage some development. I am a member of that subcommittee along with Commission Member Greg Rich and fellow Alternate Member Don Mitchell. Although I cannot speak for my friends and colleagues on the subcommittee or the Commission as a whole, I would urge the community to contribute their perspectives to our research, including information on what other towns in Connecticut are doing.

The subcommittee will do plenty of research on our own, but your perspectives matter and we want to hear them. Use the “Click Here” link on the Planning & Zoning Commission page to submit materials and perspectives to the Commission members, and the subcommittee will read them. We will strive to hear from experts in the field, and any of those meetings will be publicized accordingly.

Community discussions about these big issues are very important, and I, for one, hope that this discussion can broaden everyone’s understanding of both the possibilities and constraints as we go forward. As the saying goes, “watch this space.”

Peter Schwarz

Newtown