Newtown’s Planning and Zoning Commission intends to start work this year on the 2003 Plan of Conservation and Development  – a once-a-decade exercise in foresight. The plan is supposed to serve as a guideline for making decisions about the development of the town. It is useful in that it reminds us of our intentions, even when circumstances run like rabbits through the carrot patch of our intent.

The US Census Bureau now puts Newtown’s population at more than 25,000, a 20 percent increase over the past ten years. Regional planners calculate, based on current zoning laws, that the town’s population will one day swell to 38,000 or more. How big is 38,000? Look at Southington or Trumbull. Newtown’s growth model, however, may more closely resemble what has happened in lower Fairfield County, where growth has been accompanied by skyrocketing housing prices.

The brisk market for real estate in Newtown in the past ten years has largely ignored the 1993 revision of the town plan, which called for greater housing diversity in town to provide affordable options for people with low and moderate incomes. Condominiums have come to town in the intervening years, but most of them are not-so-affordable for people of modest means. And most of the newly constructed single family homes are coming on the market in the $400,000 to $800,000 range.  So much for diversity in housing. So much for our intentions. The real estate market is the 800-pound gorilla that appears at times to be the dominant force in shaping our future. Planning documents are sometimes strewn like banana peels in its wake.

Still, the Plan of Development can be a useful tool for the Planning and Zoning Commission. In recent years, it has helped the commission focus new proposals for commercial and development in areas well suited to accommodate and sustain such revenue-generating enterprises for the town. New development in Hawleyville, including the Homesteads assisted living facility, which opened its doors just last week, is a case in point.  The 1993 town plan also called for aquifer protection, and the Planning and Zoning Commission followed through with strengthened aquifer protection regulations in 1999. The document also provides the commission with guidance in its review of specific applications for residential and commercial development.

The challenge for the Planning and Zoning Commission in revising the Plan of Conservation and Development is to produce a document that accurately reflects the hopes and vision of the people of Newtown for their community. The first step in meeting that challenge is to listen to townspeople. The commission has scheduled a session to do just that next Thursday night, March 29 at 7:30 pm in the Booth Library. Plan to attend, and help our town grow with care and intention.