P&Z Approves ‘Festival’ Regulations

For Sandy Hook Center

By Andrew Gorosko

The Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) has approved a set of zoning regulations which will allow commercial “festivals” in the Sandy Hook Design District (SHDD) zone in Sandy Hook Center.

The P&Z action comes in response to a request by the Sandy Hook Organization for Prosperity (SHOP), a group of Sandy Hook Center business people who promote commercial growth in that area.

George Benson, town director of planning and land use, told P&Z members at an April 5 session that SHOP members requested such zoning regulations to allow them to conduct public events in Sandy Hook Center for business promotion.

Mr Benson said the festival regulations, in effect, are a rewording of the P&Z’s existing regulations which allow “carnivals” and “circuses” to be staged by nonprofit groups.

The new regulations would allow “for-profit” groups to stage festivals promoting businesses in the SHDD zone, he said.

The new regulations, which took effect on April 16, define a “festival” as an event that is sponsored by a group of town for-profit businesses to promote sales, or that is sponsored by a town nonprofit organization for fundraising.

Allowed activities would include: vendors positioned in off-street areas and at business storefronts; the posting of commercial signs as allowed by the zoning regulations for special events; and the posting of a promotional banner across Church Hill Road, provided that permission is obtained from relevant property owners and the state Department of Transportation.

Permits for festivals would be valid for a maximum of ten days.

Also, the zoning enforcement officer must determine that such a festival would have adequate off-street parking for the people attending the festival.

Mr Benson said that if the festival regulations prove to be workable in the SHDD zone, those festival rules might be extended to cover local shopping plazas and also the town’s two other business design districts — the South Main Village Design District (SMVDD) and the Hawleyville Center Design District (HCDD).

P&Z Chairman Lilla Dean said that the SHDD zone is a good place to initiate such regulations on festivals because SHOP is a cohesive business group.

The SHDD zone is a special land use zone that the P&Z created in 1995 as a stimulus for the physical improvement and economic revitalization of Sandy Hook Center. SHDD is a form of flexible mixed-use zoning that encourages a mixture of commercial and residential land uses, and suitable parking, plus the provision of pedestrian amenities.

The Sandy Hook Center Streetscape Project, which enhanced the appearance of Church Hill Road in Sandy Hook Center, illustrates the SHDD zoning concept. That project, which was built in 2005 and 2006, provided textured-concrete sidewalks, granite curbing, fieldstone walls, a pedestrian plaza, decorative street lighting, and crosswalks, plus landscaping elements, such as ornamental trees.

The Church Hill Road leg of the streetscape project was the first leg of a planned multilegged project.