This is a printer-friendly version of an article from Zip06.com.
02/16/2022 07:19 AMOn Feb. 9 the Deep River Planning & Zoning Commission (PZC) met in a special session open to the public to consider drafting a revised Plan of Conservation and Development (POCD).
The redraft is required every decade under the Connecticut state statutes. The document is a necessary guide for developing the future residential and commercial development of any municipality, and in Deep River, with a residential population of around 5,000 and comprising a total area of 14.2 square miles, land use is an issue that concerns residents and business owners alike.
A great deal of work goes into a comprehensive conservation and development plan, and the document needs to reflect both the needs and desires of the town while satisfying new laws enacted by the state.
“Most of the towns do incremental changes to the plan, just small changes every couple years,” PZC Chair Anthony Bolduc told the Courier. “That’s basically what everybody’s done. But ours has not had a real thorough go-through in quite a while.”
The current Deep River POCD was adopted by the town on October 15, 2015, and is available for download as a PDF on the town website under the Departments/Planning & Zoning tabs.
“At the moment what we’ve done is reach out to the land trust, Inland Wetlands, the Economic Development Commission, and ourselves to say, ‘Hey look, this is something we should look into,’ and hopefully we have a two-year plan to go about redoing this update,” Bolduc said.
Part of the redrafting process will include a questionnaire that will be either mailed to residents or posted on the town’s website.
“We want to see what people think of this,” Bolduc said. “We definitely want a questionnaire out there asking people what direction they think the town should be going and [to ask if we are] going the right thing or are we missing something.
“That’s just the basics at the moment,” Bolduc noted, adding, “We haven’t done a lot of research into this yet. The zoning enforcement officer, John Guszkowski, is really taking the lead. His company is a planning company, and they do tons of this stuff. John is working with Guilford and he works on RiverCog projects. We have the right people on board, but it’s going to be a long process.”
RiverCOG (short for Lower Connecticut River Valley Council of Governments) is a non-partisan forum designed to provide communication and shared regional services and planning across municipal boundaries.
Affordable Housing at the Fore
Regarding the topic of future development planning, one important issue that all towns face is a state requirement to provide more affordable housing units, the total number of which must exceed two percent of the total housing units in each town.
In 2017, a new state law mandated that at least once every five years each municipality must prepare or amend and adopt an affordable housing plan. The statute requires that each municipality specify how it intends to increase the number of affordable housing developments.
While it might be confusing among the general public about what the term “affordable” means, the term does not mean low-income.
Those who would benefit from affordable housing might be people who work in Deep River but must commute daily from New London. There would be social advantages to making it possible for these people to live in the town where they work, and to become members of the local community.
Others who might benefit from affordable housing are retired people living on fixed incomes. Many older citizens would like to remain in town, but can only do so by downsizing from larger houses where children were raised to more appropriately sized, low-maintenance, high-energy-efficiency housing while remaining in the community they have known and loved for years.
The affordable housing topic will be addressed at the regular PZC meeting beginning at 7 p.m. on Thursday, February 17.
“At the next planning and zoning meeting, we will discuss how best to address the affordable housing issue,” Bolduc said. “Our first selectman is involved,” along with other key town employees and commissioners.
Bolduc is hopeful that a citizen from the town will volunteer to help with the affordable housing plan.
Deep River’s affordable housing plan is part of a wider Regional Housing Plan led by RiverCOG, which is targeted for completion in May or June.
According to information on the Deep River town website, “The public information session on the 17th will review existing housing conditions and population demographics in Deep River, and will discuss how the town’s current zoning and other regulations affect the development of housing in Deep River.”
“As a planning a zoning commission, we want to be open and to talk to people,” Bolduc said, “and see what people [in town] want.”