P&Z Approves Design Guidelines For Sandy Hook Design District

By Andrew Gorosko

Following lengthy review, Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) members have approved a set of architectural and site guidelines for the Sandy Hook Design District (SHDD) zone in Sandy Hook Center.

P&Z members unanimously approved the guidelines at a February 15 session.

The detailed standards, which were formulated by the town’s Design Advisory Board (DAB), with advice from a group of Sandy Hook Center property owners, provide builders and developers with specific aesthetic recommendations from the P&Z on the appearance of future development and redevelopment in the SHDD zone.

The design guidelines are an adjunct to the SHDD zoning regulations.

P&Z Chairman William O’Neil told P&Z members that DAB members met recently with Sandy Hook Center merchants and the merchants’ lawyer to review the wording of the DAB’s June 2006 design guidelines proposal. The changes that were made to the guidelines generally “softened” the wording used in the standards, Mr O’Neil said.

Starting last August, some Sandy Hook Center property owners voiced concerns that the proposed design guidelines, as they were then written, would be burdensome and could be counterproductive to the P&Z’s goal of a physically improved Sandy Hook Center. Criticisms included that the guidelines seemed overly complex and potentially costly to implement.

Mr O’Neil stressed that the design “guidelines” are not zoning “regulations,” but are a set of aesthetic recommendations or standards that the P&Z supports for the SHDD zone.

In approving the guidelines, P&Z members agreed that they are consistent with the SHDD zoning regulations and with the 2004 Town Plan of Conservation and Development.

“Sandy Hook is the only place in Newtown where it is possible to preserve what is left of a small town commercial center…We have the opportunity to encourage development that reinforces this unique sense of place for new retail, entertainment, recreational and commercial uses,” according to the guidelines.

The 28-page guidelines address the many facets of site design and architectural design in the SHDD zone.

Site design topics include: site planning, setbacks, pedestrian access, parking, vehicle traffic, public spaces, landscaping, landscape buffers, amenities, walls, fences, lighting, street lighting, curbs, sidewalks, and fixtures.

The architectural design guidelines address: rooflines, roof materials, the appearance of buildings, building size, building scale, entrances, exterior building materials, wood, brick, stone, paint, stain, doors, windows, commercial windows, building fixtures, and signs, among others.

The P&Z created SHDD zoning in 1995 to encourage a diversity of compatible uses in Sandy Hook Center to enforce the district as a historic, mixed-use hamlet functioning as a neighborhood commercial hub, which is also attractive to visitors.

SHDD zoning regulations emphasize the value of the pedestrian scale, historic quality, and natural resources of the area. The regulations seek to encourage mixed-use development that locates dwellings near employment, shopping, and services. The SHDD regulations are intended to encourage the creation of public walkways, bicycle paths, shared off-street parking lots, and landscaped public spaces.

In September 2005, the town started work on the Sandy Hook Center Streetscape Project, a civic program that beautified the section of Church Hill Road lying between the Pootatuck River and Dayton Street. The streetscape project’s goal is to attract more visitors to economically stimulate the area.