Commentary: What Do YOU Want Middletown To Be?

The author is Chair of the Planning and Zoning Commission, but this information for the public is not an official Commission document.
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All zoning code changes must be consistent
with the Plan of Conservation and Development 

This month you have a once-in-a-decade chance to provide input that will shape our city's future. The city is gathering public input on what is right and what is wrong about Middletown, this input will profoundly impact one of the city's most important guiding documents, the 10 year Plan of Conservation and Development (POCD).

Here is how you can tell city leaders what you think:

• Fill out the POCD community survey (https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/MiddletownPoCD). Surveys should be completed by early May.

• Attend one of the community discussion and planning groups

• Thursday, April 25, at Middletown High School, 200 La Rosa Ln,  from 6:30-8:30PM 
• Saturday, April 27, at Woodrow Wilson Middle School, 1 Wilderman's Way, from 10:30AM-12:30PM. 

There will be free public transportation to each session, with a bus leaving from the downtown MAT station at 6:00PM on Thursday and at 10AM on Saturday. Snacks will be available at each session.

The community discussion and planning groups will be in the form of "Charrettes". Small groups will be formed to discuss the following topics:

• Housing
• Open Space/Conservation
• Social Justice and Community Services
• Infrastructure (roads, trails, multi-modal transp., Complete Streets, traffic, sewer, water)
• Economic Development and Growth
• Arts & Culture/Community Character
• Downtown and Riverfront

The groups will be prompted with specific questions on each topic, with the goal of setting goals and priorities, and identifying the actions that City staff, elected and appointed officials and volunteers should take over the next decade to achieve these goals.

The importance of the POCD

The Plan of Conservation and Development is a comprehensive plan that can impact all city policies and procedures. It can provide guidance for all of the work that the city does on its streets, sidewalks, parks, and buildings. It can provide guidance on police policies. It can influence budget priorities. It can influence policies on transportation, open space, development, housing. It can address issues of social justice, homelessness, poverty, and access to goods and services. It can specify goals and metrics to determine whether those goals have been met, in any of those areas.

In short, it can influence virtually all aspects of how we live, work, shop, and play in our city. More than any other document, it determines the future of our city.

What happens to the public input?

The POCD must be updated every 10 years, in order for municipalities to be eligible for discretionary state funding (Public Act No. 15-95). Our city's POCD was last updated in May of 2010. 

The city has hired a consulting firm, which is helping staff to collect and organize data and public input (survey and charrette). A draft of the POCD will be shared widely with the public through workshops and listening sessions; it will then be the subject of one or more public hearings at the Planning and Zoning Commission. This further public input may lead to modifications of the plan. It will then be reviewed by the regional council of government, to ensure compliance with regional plans. Adoption of the POCD requires a vote by the Planning and Zoning Commission, it must also be approved by the Common Council.

Below are more details on what the state requires to be in the POCD.

The state provides detailed guidance on the process of the POCD. The following items must be taken into account (from Public Act No. 15-95):

1. the community development action plan of the municipality, if any [Middletown does not have one], 
2. the need for affordable housing, 
3. the need for protection of existing and potential public surface and ground drinking water supplies, 
4. the use of cluster development and other development patterns to the extent consistent with soil types, terrain and infrastructure capacity within the municipality, 
5. the state plan of conservation and development adopted pursuant to chapter 297, 
6. the regional plan of conservation and development adopted pursuant to section 8-35a, 
7. physical, social, economic and governmental conditions and trends, 
8. the needs of the municipality including, but not limited to, human resources, education, health, housing, recreation, social services, public utilities, public protection, transportation and circulation and cultural and interpersonal communications, 
9. the objectives of energy-efficient patterns of development, the use of solar and other renewable forms of energy and energy conservation, 
10. protection and preservation of agriculture, and 
11. sea level change scenarios published by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Technical Report OAR CPO-1.

The state also specifies what must be included in the POCD (from Public Act No. 15-95):

1. a statement of policies, goals and standards for the physical and economic development of the municipality, 
2. provide for a system of principal thoroughfares, parkways, bridges, streets, sidewalks, multipurpose trails and other public ways as appropriate, 
3. be designed to promote, with the greatest efficiency and economy, the coordinated development of the municipality and the general welfare and prosperity of its people and identify areas where it is feasible and prudent (i) to have compact, transit accessible, pedestrian-oriented mixed use development patterns and land reuse, and (ii) to promote such development patterns and land reuse,
4. recommend the most desirable use of land within the municipality for residential, recreational, commercial, industrial, conservation, agricultural and other purposes and include a map showing such proposed land uses, 
5. recommend the most desirable density of population in the several parts of the municipality, 
6. note any inconsistencies with the following growth management principles: (i) Redevelopment and revitalization of commercial centers and areas of mixed land uses with existing or planned physical infrastructure; (ii) expansion of housing opportunities and design choices to accommodate a variety of household types and needs; (iii) concentration of development around transportation nodes and along major transportation corridors to support the viability of transportation options and land reuse; (iv) conservation and restoration of the natural environment, cultural and historical resources and existing farmlands; (v) protection of environmental assets critical to public health and safety; and (vi) integration of planning across all levels of government to address issues on a local, regional and state-wide basis, 
7. make provision for the development of housing opportunities, including opportunities for multifamily dwellings, consistent with soil types, terrain and infrastructure capacity, for all residents of the municipality and the planning region in which the municipality is located, as designated by the Secretary of the Office of Policy and Management under section 16a-4a,
8. promote housing choice and economic diversity in housing, including housing for both low and moderate income households, and encourage the development of housing which will meet the housing needs identified in the state's consolidated plan for housing and community development prepared pursuant to section 8-37t and in the housing component and the other components of the state plan of conservation and development prepared pursuant to chapter 297, and 
9. consider allowing older adults and persons with a disability the ability to live in their homes and communities whenever possible. Such plan may: (i) Permit home sharing in single-family zones between up to four adult persons of any age with a disability or who are sixty years of age or older, whether or not related, who receive supportive services in the home; (ii) allow accessory apartments for persons with a disability or persons sixty years of age or older, or their caregivers, in all residential zones, subject to municipal zoning regulations concerning design and long-term use of the principal property after it is no longer in use by such persons; and (iii) expand the definition of "family" in single-family zones to allow for accessory apartments for persons sixty years of age or older, persons with a disability or their caregivers. In preparing such plan the commission shall consider focusing development and revitalization in areas with existing or planned physical infrastructure. For purposes of this subsection, "disability" has the same meaning as provided in section 46a-8. 

https://www.cga.ct.gov/2015/ACT/PA/2015PA-00095-R00SB-01045-PA.htm