Plan Of Development, An Oxymoron

To the Editor:

We noted with great interest that last week’s Bee has an article announcing the invitation for the public to attend the P&Z’s open hearing on formulating the next Newtown Plan of Development. What a waste of time, money and effort.

Newtown has generated two such documents over the last 20 years; one in 1981 and one in 1993. In each case, the documents were well thought out, well prepared and visionary. Neither was remotely utilized. Our first selectman’s office doesn’t even have a copy of the most recent edition.

With an allocated expenditure of $120,000 to finance this exercise in generosity, someone seems to have missed the point. Why spend the money if we will not be getting any value in return.

None of the first selectmen over the last 20 years, including our incumbent, have found the need to follow the script of the wisdom of our Plans of Development. They discarded the documents and created their own policy.

The P&Z, which has been the commission assigned to shepherd the Plan of Development process through the years, is currently being sued for deviating from it and has been accused of being arbitrary and capricious.

NPOA has a more practical solution. Let’s take the 1993 edition, print up a new cover page calling it the 2002 Edition of the Newtown Plan of Development and place it in the Public Library, high on a shelf to gather dust alongside the last two editions.

Take the $120,000 and spend it on repairing unusable playing fields at the high school. This way, we have satisfied the state requirement for a plan of development and the money will have been used for a tangible and productive cause that is meaningful for Newtown.

Newtown Property Owners Association

Barry Piesner, Director

34 Alpine Drive, Sandy Hook                                    March 27, 2001