Newtown’s Planning and Zoning Commission has scheduled a public hearing April 7 on whether multifamily housing should be allowed as a permitted use under the Fairfield Hills Adaptive Reuse (FHAR) regulations now governing the development of the town-owned campus. Currently, a 160-unit apartment complex proposed for Cochran House by a New York City developer would not be permitted under FHAR requirements, so either the regulations must be changed or the housing plan scrapped.

Introducing a large apartment complex in the middle of a municipal property where parking is already problematic, in the middle of a town where residential growth is already taxing local government’s struggle to maintain decent standards of education and public service, somehow does not sound like the kind of zoning that reconciles easily with the planning half of the commission’s mission. It sounds like the kind of zoning that reconciles with expedience, which is notably absent from P&Z’s good name.

Fortunately, there is some serious planning going on with regard to Fairfield Hills. The Fairfield Hills Master Plan Review Committee is still weeks away from completing its yearlong study of the current planning document governing the development of the campus. To the committee’s credit, it has lashed itself to the mast and sailed right through all the housing-now siren calls that are turning so many heads in other quarters. It is determined to consider the housing question in the context of both public preferences and other development options that may benefit Newtown economically and culturally.

The formal “offer to lease proposal” from Merchant Equity Group, LLC of New York City has presumed to establish an effective lease date for its Fairfield Hills apartment complex as May 1, 2011 — a date apparently chosen to raise the urgency (Mayday! Mayday!) for Newtown officials to move ahead quickly on the lease deal. For those officials who might be swayed by such tactics, we propose that the people of Newtown offer their own countervailing pressure by attending the Planning and Zoning Commission hearing next Thursday to urge the commissioners to take a breather and postpone any action to change the FHAR regulations until the Fairfield Hills Master Plan Review Committee issues its final recommendations. Any public hearing on proposed changes to the rules governing development at Fairfield Hills before that time will be premature.

The hearing begins at 7:30 pm on April 7, in the Newtown Municipal Center.