Town Plan of Conservation and Development gets OK

SALISBURY — The Planning and Zoning Commission unanimously approved the Town Plan of Conservation and Development at a meeting Tuesday, June 26, that followed a public hearing that same night.The new plan is an update of the town plan that was approved in 1999. Town plans are documents required by the state. They must be updated at least once every 10 years or the state can deny funding and grants to the town. The town plan forms the basis of a town’s planning and zoning regulations and is considered a roadmap to how a town will develop over the course of the coming decade. Because the town plan was approved before the end of June, Salisbury will meet its obligations to the grant that the town received from the state’s Office of Policy and Management to prepare the plan. About 25 people were in the audience at the start of the public hearing, which began at 6:30. By the time the public hearing was closed at 7:50, about 10 people were left.Planning consultant Glenn Chalder of the firm Planimetrics in Avon, Conn., worked with the Planning and Zoning commissioners on the update of the plan over the past year. He was introduced at the beginning of the public hearing by P&Z Chairman Michael Klemens. Chalder explained that a town-wide meeting was held last fall and Salisbury residents were asked to vote on what they are most proud of in their town, and what they are least proud of. The top three items on the list of “prouds” were the beauty and character of the town; the community’s facilities; and local assets such as the schools and cultural opportunities. Things that residents are most concerned about are the risk of changes to the fabric of the community; changes to the villages; and responsiveness to community needs. In a PowerPoint presentation, Chalder shared a summary of the proposed town plan, which includes maps, lists of assets to protect and suggestions for implementing the goals in the plan. He said that the town plan is meant to be “a guideline to how the town residents want to approach the future.”Affordable housingAbout a half dozen people came before the commissioners to make comments on the proposed plan. A majority of their comments concerned affordable housing.Kathy Lauretano was the first to speak. “I have a couple of concerns but not such that I’m opposed to passing this tonight,” she said. First she referred to a section of the proposal that said municipal funds could be used to buy land and protect it from development.“Additional taxation expenditures such as that have to be approached very carefully,” she warned.She also warned against a section that suggests using “green” building materials to construct affordable housing, noting that “I’m seeing and hearing a difference of opinion on the durability and worth of some green materials, you need to look at that very carefully.”A section describing plans for creating Incentive Housing Zones as a way to increase affordable housing in town elicited comments from Lauretano and several other people at the meeting. Lauretano’s request was that any regulations and guidelines on affordable housing be written clearly, so that “one person doesn’t get short shrift while another gets carte blanche.”Discussion of Incentive Housing Zones continued as a sort of leitmotif of the evening. Audience members learned that the state has a program that specifies what can and can not be considered Incentive Housing Zones, and that its guidelines are very specific. Commission members also expressed a desire to create “homegrown” versions of affordable housing rules, that can be better suited to Salisbury and its residents.Cindy Smith came before the commissioners and asked what exactly affordable housing is. Chalder explained that, according to state law, affordable housing is housing that doesn’t cost more than 30 percent of a person’s income when that income is 80 percent of the median income for an area or less. Smith pointed out that the state includes Torrington when it sets the annual median income figure. For a person who makes $1,000 a month, she said, it’s become impossible to live in town.Language of the planKlemens also read aloud a letter from Dan McGuinness, executive director of the Northwestern Connecticut Council of Governments (COG), an organization made up of the first selectmen from nine Litchfield County towns, including all six towns in the Region One School District. All town plan proposals are submitted to COG for approval because each town’s plan can impact its neighboring towns. McGuinness advised in his letter that the Salisbury town plan relied too heavily on the word “consider” rather than more forcefully using words that would require action or compliance.Klemens spoke for the commission in saying that they had specifically chosen to advise rather than require out of respect for the many people who work hard as volunteers on town boards and commissions. “These are recommendations, not commandments,” he said. He also noted that the commission was seeking a balance of public interest versus private rights.Discussion of details of the language of the plan continued until 7:50, when the public hearing was closed. Chalder then went through a list of 17 amendments that would be made to the plan based on that evening’s discussion. Many of the changes were cosmetic and had to do with the choice of photographs to be used as illustrations, but other changes included reworking a section on affordable housing and adding Lime Rock in several areas of the plan that discussed village centers. The commission then voted unanimously to pass the plan, which goes into effect on Saturday, June 30. Paper copies of the final, approved Town Plan of Conservation and Development will be available by the end of July, but an electronic version will be online at the town of Salisbury website by June 30, at https://salisburyct.us/offices/planningandzoning.The plan includes a virtual snapshot of Salisbury today, with maps and data. During his presentation, Chalder called out three notable statistics. The population of Salisbury is decreasing, after peaking in 1990 when there were 4,090 town residents. The town is on track to have the same population it had in the 1800s. But the number of housing units in town has increased. More than 25 percent of the housing units are for part-time residents, he said. One consequence of that change is that there are fewer people in town to support village businesses.He also noted that Salisbury has the oldest median age demographic in the state, with a median age of 57 — compared to a median age of 43 in the rest of Connecticut.