To The Editor:

Wednesday night, the Borough Zoning Commission met to vote on a settlement over Castle Hill. Over the last 3 years we’ve watched a loud and vocal minority flood meetings, file litigation, and turn “just asking questions” into a strategy for delay and obstruction, all while forcing a 13% tax hike along the way.

This campaign season, I’m watching our state candidates talk about “local control.” But they all need to clarify something: who do they want to empower with “local control?”

Connecticut law hands zoning obstructionists real weapons. A petition signed by a fraction of nearby landowners can force a two-thirds vote instead of a simple majority. To me, that recalls a time when only landowners got a vote, a time I thought we’d moved past. Wetlands appeals work similarly: anyone can file, whether or not they are personally affected, with most filings in the state aimed at making projects too slow and too expensive to finish. That’s not local control. That’s an anti-growth minority with a state-sanctioned veto.

I’m asking every candidate this fall, Republican or Democrat: will you close these loopholes so that Newtown’s elected commissions get to make decisions we elected them to make? Or will you continue to empower those with the time and privilege to flood meetings, file lawsuits, and keep supply low and prices high? Local control should mean all of us, not just some of us.

Samuel Grummons

Newtown