Town leaders meet to share planning strategies

FALLS VILLAGE — A large group of town officials and interested parties met at the Senior Center in Falls Village Monday, Oct. 25, under the aegis of the Northwestern Connecticut Planning Collaborative to discuss what different towns are doing to revitalize their village centers.

The collaborative includes the six Region One towns — Cornwall, Falls Village, Kent, North Canaan, Salisbury and Sharon — plus Norfolk and Goshen. Barkhamsted is also contributing to the collaborative.

Jocelyn Ayer from the collaborative provided homemade pies as an incentive for attendance.

The collaborative has recently released the results of its Village Vitality project — a town-by-town survey assessing strengths and weaknesses in the towns, and another document providing immediate and long-range recommendations for the towns (see town pages for these suggestions).

Representatives from the towns spoke about the current state of play in their jurisdictions.

Cristin Rich, Chairman of Salisbury’s Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z), said her group has been busy trying to implement the recommendations of an independent consultant, Don Poland, whose 2009 report was critical of town regulations and procedures.

Rich said that Salisbury was at the public hearing stage of a proposed ordinance to give the commission the power to issue fines.

Planning consultant Tom McGowan, who is working with Salisbury P&Z, now attends all meetings, looks at site plans and has meetings with applicants — all in an effort to streamline the process and avoid costly legal entanglements.

“When you have expensive homes in microcosmic settings, you get escalating squabbles,� said McGowan. He said he believed other towns will be forced to do something similar.

Alice Macchi from the Falls Village P&Z said the commission had updated its regulations after completing its last Town Plan and is hiring the collaborative to do the next update. Town Plans are documents that are required by the state; they must be updated at least once every 10 years and they form the basis for each town’s planning and zoning regulations.

First Selectman Gordon Ridgway of Cornwall said his town is forming an Economic Development Study Group and reactivating its Conservation Commission.  

Dan McGuinness, executive director of the Northwestern Connecticut Council of Governments (COG), which is made up of first selectmen from nine area towns,  said he’s been helping Salisbury with excavation regulations and was able to adapt Salisbury’s for use in Warren. “It’s a good example of regional collaboration,â€� he said.

Larry Power of Sharon’s P&Z (and the Sharon Land Trust) said his town’s commission had implemented some suggestions made by the collaborative, including establishing an Incentive Housing Zone for Sharon Ridge (already zoned for multi-unit housing), and a housing zone proposed in town.

Sharon has also made it easier to create accessory apartments.

He described the town as “charming but terminally flawed.�

“The mixture of history and business make it hard to provide continuity.�

He said the town is considering a connecting road between Route 343 and Hospital Hill Road, an area that could be zoned for commercial use.

He asked that the collaborative provide a clear vision for what commercial development should be like. “The state sees it as tourism and recreation. An overall goal would be helpful.�

He also urged that town officials get in touch with their legislators to do whatever is necessary to get the area wired for broadband Internet access.

“Trends indicate that small companies don’t have to be in urban areas� if their Internet connection is up to speed, and that companies attracted by the quality of life and proximity to New York City might bring jobs — if they have the web hookup.

Dennis DePaul from the Kent P&Z and that town’s Conservation Commission said the Kent P&Z was using a momentary lack of applications as an opportunity to do some regulatory housecleaning.

He said that village district regulations and an architectural review board had been established, that affordable housing was now included in the overall zoning regulations, and that the commission had taken action on small wind turbines.

The next step for Kent is the Town Plan, which he said was “way overdue.� It was last updated in 1990.

Selectman Jim Dresser of Salisbury spoke briefly about the report from the town’s affordable housing committee, and Pat Hare from the Cornwall P&Z said that town’s residents are “worried about looking like the towns to the south and east.�

Hare spoke glowingly of a concept called “flexible residential development,� an approach that has apparently worked well in Granby.

The collaborative’s Chris Woods said the studies from AKRF — the consulting firm that analysed the collaborative towns’ strengths and weaknesses, and provided short- and long-term recommendations — indicate the possibility for “some relatively quick results.�

He said the collaborative would soon publish a project overview for use as a sales pitch  to attract businesses to the region, and urged the first selectmen to stay involved.

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