Say Goodbye To The Class Of 2000

To the Editor,

Most of the current, recent past, and future graduates of Newtown High School are on their way out of town to pursue summer fun, higher education, and employment opportunities. Unless their parents are willing to have the “kids” live at home for the next 15 years, when the kids become adults and want to purchase their first new home, it won’t be in Newtown thanks to the Planning and Zoning Commission.

On the verge of passing an upzoning regulation that targets 2,315 property owners and will also eliminate Newtown’s ½-acre building lots, this action will assure that affordable new construction will become ancient history. Unless working class wages jump up to $150,000 per year, with Newtown’s new construction homes costing upwards of $400,000, what young couple would be able to afford them?

The P&Z is about to pass their repressive, discriminatory, and unjust upzoning regulation that, by their own recently released statistics, has “0” basis without any justification. Of the last 390 zoning permits issued over the last four years, only eight homes have been built in ½-acre zoned lots!

Does an average of two homes built per year on ½-acre lots constitute the emergency that the P&Z portrayed at their open hearings? The answer is no! Are the aquifer protection and sewer avoidance issues a threat to the environment? The answer is again no!

What we have here is an example of a small group of people who, with an enormous amount of power, are using it as a weapon against the property rights of those people in town who can least afford to defend themselves. This is not a land use issue, it is personal vendetta by members of the P&Z against our blue collar community.

Why the P&Z wants to eliminate affordable housing and make Newtown an exclusive community is our question. Their hypocritical statements, by using a phony environmental crisis as their reason to hurt our fellow homeowners, show that they are not carrying out the spirit of their oath of office. Where is their fairness and concern for our community? The well is dry.

They are hurting not only the affected homeowners and their families but all Newtown residents, especially those with children.

Newtown’s young adult children should be able to afford to come back to the town where they were raised and raise their own families. If this makes sense, call the P&Z and voice your concerns. Ask for a “NO” on the upzoning.

Barry J. Piesner, Director

Newtown Property Owners Association

38 Underhill Road, Sandy Hook                                   June 19, 2000