Town Organizes Public Notice Registry For P&Z Hearings

By Andrew Gorosko

People who want to receive formal notice of certain types of public hearings conducted by the Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) will now be placed on a registry to provide them with advance notice of those hearings via either the US mail or electronic mail.

The town is creating a public notice registry as required by Connecticut Public Act 06-80.

Landowners and voters, as well as nonprofit organizations, are eligible to be placed on the registry.

The advance notice of public hearings applies only to certain categories of P&Z applications, not all applications, explained Rita MacMillan, head of the town land use department.

Notification will be provided on hearings concerning proposed changes to the zoning regulations, proposed changes to zone boundaries, proposed changes to the subdivision regulations, and also proposed changes to the Town Plan of Conservation and Development.

Notice of many other public hearings that P&Z conducts will not be provided to people on the notification registry. Such hearings include individual subdivision or resubdivision applications, commercial development proposals, and industrial projects.

The town has compiled a public notice registry application form, a registry log,  and a legal notice which advertises the registry.

To receive notification by mail, interested people should contact the town land use office at 31 Peck’s Lane, telephone 270-4276.   

To register to receive public notices of hearings via email, residents should visit the town’s Internet web page at www.newtown-ct.gov/subscriber.shtml.

Scott Sharlow, who is the town’s Geographic Information Systems coordinator, said this week he hopes residents will take advantage of the email version of the public notice registry, noting that it will inform people of upcoming land use hearings sooner than they would receive notice by conventional mail. Mr Sharlow is organizing the town email version of the public notice registry.

The public notice registry expands the existing notification requirements for P&Z hearings.