Falls Village
Regional planning group hires staff to promote ‘smart growth’
By TERRY COWGILL
09/18

FALLS VILLAGE — The Northwestern Connecticut Regional Planning Collaborative, a pilot program originally spearheaded by two Falls Village officials, has taken the project to the next level.

The collaborative grew out of a forum held two years ago called Bulldozers vs. Bears. It was organized by Falls Village First Selectman Patricia Mechare and Planning and Zoning Commission member Ruth Skovron. The idea behind it: Many environmental and land planning issues don’t stop at town borders.  

A regional planning board would help towns coordinate their regulations and protect their rural character while encouraging economic growth and providing affordable housing opportunities.

County government was eliminated here in the 1950s. Since then, Connecticut’s 169 municipalities have been essentially on their own in the area of development. By contrast, most of neighboring New York’s 62 counties have their own legislatures, along with tourism, economic development and planning departments.

Critics complain that Connecticut’s lack of regional planning has led to the unchecked proliferation of suburban sprawl and a dearth of what planners and conservationists call “smart growth.”

Trio will help coordinate planning

At a Sept. 30 gathering in Falls Village, the collaborative will introduce its newly hired three-person team. Attending the meeting will be selectmen and land use commissioners from the eight towns participating in the state-funded project.

The towns are Canaan (Falls Village), Cornwall, Goshen, North Canaan, Norfolk, Kent, Salisbury and Sharon. The meeting will begin at 7 p.m., Sept. 30, at the Falls Village Senior Center, 107 Main St.

“Though we didn’t plan it this way — the original plan was to hire one planner — we are ending up with a terrific team of two professional planners [both working part-time] and a graduate student who will manage the Web site,” said Skovron.

Woodbury resident Chris Wood will be the collaborative’s team leader. Wood has been a professional planner in public and private practice for many years. He has drafted regulations and written plans of conservation and development for small towns throughout the state. He serves as the chairman of the government relations committee of the Connecticut Chapter of the American Planning Association and has been actively involved in drafting legislative proposals, preparation of position statements and presentation of testimony, as well as advising legislators on planning and land use issues. He has worked with the Trust for Public Land, the Housatonic Valley Association, HOMEConnecticut and other area conservation and affordable housing organizations.

Jocelyn Ayers, a planner who recently moved from Massachusetts to the Northwest Corner, also joins the team. Ayers has been a planner for six years working in Massachusetts and Vermont on affordable housing in small towns and cities.

The third member of the team, Kristen Ponak, will manage the Web site (nwctplanning.org). In addition to possessing strong technological skills, Ponak holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Connecticut in geographics and information technology. She is currently working on a master’s degree in biology, environmental science and ecology.

Protecting farms, fields, fauna

Almost two years ago, Skovron and Mechare hosted the Bulldozers vs. Bears forum. They and representatives from area conservation agencies heard from scores of Northwest Corner residents who said they were concerned about threats posed by development and about the lack of resources for planning and managing growth in this largely rural area.

Several weeks later Kent First Selectman Ruth Epstein followed up with a meeting of local first selectmen, the speakers from the first forum, the executive directors of the Northwestern Connecticut Council of Governments (which represents nine Litchfield County towns, including all the towns in the Region One School District)and the Litchfield Hills Council of Elected Officials (which represents 11 towns) and planning consultant Tom McGowan, who is the town planner for Salisbury and other area towns.

The organizers took to heart a major recommendation of those in attendance: The Northwest Corner needs to find a stronger, more regional approach to planning in the face of the threat posed by development.

The result was a proposal for a two-year pilot project for regional planning services that attracted the attention of state officials and the financial support of the state, along with local businesses and conservation-minded organizations.

After a request for state aid, the collaborative received a state grant totaling $125,000 for the program, whose goal is to show how shared planning services can be delivered effectively to small communities. Those funds were used to hire a staff to deliver services to the Litchfield County towns within the two small regional agencies that already exist: the Northwestern Connecticut Council of Governments and the Litchfield Hills Council of Elected Officials.





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