Following lengthy discussion at a November 7 meeting, in a 3-to-2 vote, Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) members did not endorse a developer’s controversial proposal to create two new regulatory mechanisms in the borough zoning regulations in connection with the developer’s proposal to build a market-rate rental apartment complex at 19 Main Street, the site of the former Inn at Newtown.

About 45 residents attended the P&Z’s internal discussion on a referral from the Borough Zoning Commission (BZC), which sought P&Z recommendations on applicant 19 Main Street LLC’s request for new borough zoning rules to create the Borough Residential Overlay District (BROD), and also apply those BROD multifamily provisions to a 3.002-acre site at 19 Main Street. The P&Z did not allow public comment at its November 7 session.

The BZC is scheduled to hold a public hearing at 7 pm on Thursday, November 14 in the Alexandria Room at Edmond Town Hall, 45 Main Street, on the proposed BROD zoning rules and on applying such rules to 19 Main Street. Public comment will be allowed at that session.

Basically, the P&Z motion which failed on November 7, stated that the two proposed regulatory mechanisms are consistent with the 2014 Town Plan of Conservation and Development. Voting in favor of that motion were P&Z Chairman Don Mitchell and Roy Meadows. Opposed were Jim Swift, Corinne Cox, and David Rosen.

The BZC referred the regulatory proposal to the P&Z because the P&Z serves as the borough’s planning agency.

The P&Z’s vote on the matter may trigger a requirement that a “super majority” of four BZC members, not a “simple majority” of three members, vote in the affirmative in order to approve the developer’s regulatory proposal.

(Read a detailed account of the P&Z’s action on the borough zoning referral in the November 15 print edition of The Newtown Bee).