To The Editor:

My name is Peter Schwarz, and I’m running for a full seat on the Planning and Zoning Commission. For the past two years, I’ve been an Alternate Member of the Commission, involved in all its activities, including our public hearings, but only called on to vote when required by an absence or a conflict of interest. In my day job, I’m a corporate lawyer for a local environmental engineering firm. Planning and Zoning can be a pretty technical environment, both in terms of the applicable regulations and state policies, so serving as an Alternate Member is a great way to learn the ropes while also moving the business of the Commission forward. I’ve also been serving on the Fairfield Hills Authority, an appointed Board that is best thought of as the first stop for development activities on the Fairfield Hills campus.

Our Planning & Zoning process has lost the trust of many people in Newtown. We need to get the community earlier and better access to our documentation, we need to educate them about the process, and we need to do a better job of explaining our decisions. It’s not that we’re not following the law, it’s that we could do much better.

Digitized Planning & Zoning files need to be available to the public as soon as they are made available to the Commission Members. There may be some times when confidential information cannot be made public, but let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater. We can do much better.

It’s often difficult to show up and sit through hours-long meetings and hearings. To have an educated public, we need to do a much better job with our agendas and the records of our meetings. The minutes of P&Z meetings could be more robust. Minutes are not a transcript, but we can do much better. P&Z meetings are recorded, and we should make those recordings publicly available for a defined period of time. If that takes an ordinance or Charter change, I’m committed to leading that effort.

Finally, we all need to be better educated about the decision-making rules. Often the Commission only has limited discretion. Just because a decision doesn’t go your way doesn’t mean the system is rigged. The time may be ripe for some broader community conversations, outside the formal Commission hearings, about where we’re going as a Town. The POCD is a guideline, but regular, ongoing public input is invaluable.

I truly hope that better communication and fuller disclosure can help restore some trust and make for better decisions. Not everyone will be happy with every decision, but hopefully they will understand how we got there.

We’ve got some big decisions to make in the next few years, about affordable housing, development of the Fairfield Hills campus, and economic development. Please give me your vote and I’ll do everything I can to help us make better ones.

Peter Schwarz

Newtown