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03/03/2020 01:28 PMThose driving through Westbrook may have spied bright red signs around town bearing the word “PLAN” in large letters, followed by “Like Your Kids Will Live Here.” They were up for a week and then replaced with blue ones reading “MOST FUN You Will Ever Have at a Public Meeting.”
While their purpose might not be clear at first glance, they’re designed to pique interest in the town’s updating of its Plan of Conservation and Development (POCD) and, in particular, an interactive public meeting taking place on Thursday, March 12 at 7 p.m. at Town Hall.
By Connecticut statute, municipalities must update their POCDs every 10 years. The Planning Commission has put together a steering committee of nine members with the goal of representing a wide range of interests and a target completion date of June 2021.
At the March 12 meeting, the public will be asked to “flag issues that they think are going to be important for the plan,” said Westbrook Planning, Zoning, and Development Coordinator Eric Knapp.
Those who attend will have opportunities to talk about what they like about Westbrook as well as what they feel needs improvement, he explained.
“Before we get rolling, we thought that now is the right time to reach out to the public,” he said.
According to the introduction of the 2011 POCD, it “establishes a vision and common goals for the community’s future and identifies action steps that, when implemented, will help attain that vision.” As before, the new plan will be broken into three themes: A Healthy Environment, A Vibrant Community, and A Strong Economy.
Within each theme are subtopics (under A Healthy Environment are The Natural Environment, The Coastal Environment, and Sustainability/Resiliency) and within those subtopics are specific goals, followed by action items.
Reaching a Broad Audience
An effort has been made to reach out to high-school students and young adults in the community, in the hope that younger people will attend the meeting and get involved, Knapp explained.
“If we’re doing a plan that’s going to be effective until 2031, we need people who are going to be involved who are going to have a stake in what’s going be here in 2031,” Knapp said. “For people who are younger...they’re the ones who are going to have to live with whatever happens.”
Residents will have further chances to share feedback, but the purpose of the meeting is to help the committee begin the process with a sense of what members of the public see as important.
Many of the action items included in the previous version are open-ended, such as “Promote Westbrook as an eco- and heritage tourism destination,” “Preserve and restore stonewalls along roadways,” and “Maintain compliance with the National Flood Insurance Plan.”
“It’s an ongoing process,” said Knapp. For instance, “we’ve worked on updating the regulations to facilitate the town center development...[T]he town center is not where we want it to be, so we’re going to continue to look at ways to improve opportunities for the town center.
“There’s a lot in there about working on conservation and resiliency,” he continued. “Between now and 2031, which seems like a long way away, resiliency and coastal issues are going to be a big issue going forward that we’re going to need to keep working on.”
Septic issues, sewer avoidance, affordable housing, and the town’s substantial ALICE (asset-limited, income-constrained, employed) population are all ever-present issues that the plan will address with recommendations for the ensuing 10 years.
“While there’s a little bit in [the 2011 POCD] regarding seasonal communities and coastal resiliency, I think if you ask people now about that issue versus 10 years ago, it’s probably much more on people’s minds then it was then,” said Knapp. “You’re probably going to see more of that in the new plan.”
The steering committee, which will meet once a month, is chaired by Marilyn Ozols, who not only was a member of the steering committee for the 2011 POCD, but was then and is now chair of the Planning Commission (PC). She also chairs the Town Center Revitalization Committee (TCRC).
Glenn Chalder, president of Planimetrics, a consulting firm in planning and zoning, has been hired as the consultant for project, as he was for the 2011 POCD. Chalder worked recently with the town on updating its zoning regulations and map as well as its sidewalk plan.
Chalder “has been involved in the town extensively in the last ten years or so,” said Knapp, who is working with Chalder and the steering committee on the project.
One of the challenges in creating the plan is predicting the changes that will take place in Westbrook over the next 10 years. In the 2011 POCD, Planimetrics projected Westbrook’s population to grow by 814 over nine years, from 6,938 in 2011 to 7,728 in 2020. However, the U.S. Census Bureau’s population estimate for Westbrook in 2018 was 6,914, a loss of 24 residents from 2011. The 2011 POCD also includes the 2020 Westbrook population projected by the Connecticut Data Center, which was 6,627.
“The projections that were in [the 2011 POCD] don’t quite track what...happened, but obviously we’re going to update a lot of the statistical information and discuss what we think should be happening in Westbrook going forward, given the community we’re likely to have,” said Knapp.
A diversity of perspectives is crucial to the plan, Knapp stressed, and the steering committee will devote its meetings in May (A Healthy Environment), June (A Vibrant Community), and July (A Strong Economy) to “listening sessions” with groups having expertise and experience in those particular areas.
In addition to Ozols, steering committee members are Darlene Briggs and James Crawford (who also serve on the Economic Development Commission as well as the TCRC), Selectman John Hall, Emergency Services Director Don Izzo, PC member Tammy Niedzwiecki, Board of Finance member Tony Cozza, and Council of Beaches member Eric Peterson. Selectman Hiram Fuchs will be lending the perspective of a parent of small children and former business owner. Cozza, Hall, and Crawford are also members of the Middlesex Chamber of Commerce.
All meetings, which will be held on the first Thursday of each month at 7 p.m. in Town Hall, will be open to the public.