To the Editor

I’m Don Mitchell and I’m running for a seat on Newtown’s Zoning Board of Appeals this November.

As the attorney for the Borough of Newtown and its zoning commission for 37 years (the Borough never lost in court) and as a past member of the town Planning and Zoning Commission, I’ve seen our Land Use commissions and agencies repeatedly depart from their own zoning principles, whether inadvertently or intentionally, and often enough, just because someone wants a particular result. Those practices compromise the town’s growth plans and corrupt its regulatory system. They have to change. The sidelining of zoning rules and regulations renders both the regulations and future town planning efforts meaningless.

Many of those departures have resulted from our land use agencies having operated without, or in disregard of, proper legal guidance — and sometimes being misdirected in that regard. There is a distinct need to bring “Land Use” back to more principled zoning practices where personal whims are less important than clear and understandable rules so that everyone (land owners, developers, professionals and residents alike) can see and anticipate what the law requires — where murky backroom deals and questionable support for citizen-boards are no longer tolerated. Healthy growth in Newtown will only come with predictable land use outcomes after robust public participation.

Zoning, itself, deals with rules restricting the uses of property. It might best help economic growth, in a sense, by “getting out of the way” in order to allow more development to occur. We can’t do that in a vacuum, however, or at the expense of the way of life that generations of our citizens have built. It must be done in a manner that protects our entire community, both residents and businesses alike — now and into the future.

There is some hope on the horizon if the director of Newtown’s Land Use Agency is made no longer responsible for the town’s economic development — a situation inherent with conflicts of interest.

I hope to use my years of legal and zoning experience to assist Newtown in administering its zoning rules in a more principled way and perhaps, even to prompt some real future planning for our town’s growth. I intend, if elected to the Zoning Board of Appeals, to bring a principled, open and balanced view toward development and economic opportunity for Newtown.

Don Mitchell

Newtown