Selectmen Approve $175,000 Appropriation to Long Range Planning Committee

In a 2-1 vote, the Board of Selectmen approved a request for a special appropriation of $175,000 for the Long Range Planning Committee (LRPC) to embark on the second phase of its master plan for New Canaan.

At a Special Meeting on Tuesday afternoon – “special” only because it was held at 3 p.m., instead of the usual 9 a.m. – Jeb Walker and Selectman Sally Hines voted in favor of the allocation. Selectman Rob Mallozzi voted against, saying he is “not confident the public is behind this.”

Walker said the committee’s work would “lay out a broad range of options and opportunities “ and provide a “roadmap” for future town leaders.

LRPC Chair Christine Wagner said the phase 2 study would include town buildings, as well as privately owned facilities, including , parking lots and “future developments,” such as senior housing.

Wagner told the Selectmen the 100 residents who attended a the committee held on Jan. 19 told them “cost is a top priority.” She said workshop attendees told the committee and its consultants the town’s character and aesthetics are the second most important considerations for future development projects.

In September, the Board of Finance appropriated  to the committee  to hire consultants for the first phase of its work. Tuesday's $175,000 appropriation includes an additional $105,000 in consultants’ fees, $11,680 for an energy audit, $10,000 for cost estimating, $3,500 for budget planning, $25,000 for traffic counts, $10,000 for communications and a $9,820 contingency fee.

Wagner said a report on the first phase of the committee’s work will be available soon.

“Just out of curiosity, how could you vote on appropriating $175,000 for phase 2 on the long range planning when phase 1 hasn't even been reported on yet?” resident George McEvoy wrote in an e-mail to the Board of Selectmen that he shared with Patch Tuesday night. “I spent 40+ years in the consulting racket and never once saw a phase 2 voted on or approved before a phase 1 results were delivered and digested by all appropriate parties.”

The committee plans to hold another public workshop in June, “before school gets out” in order to get maximum input from residents, Wagner told the Selectmen Tuesday afternoon. The committee will work over the summer and present a draft plan in a public presentation at the end of October, according to the appropriation request.

 The Long Range Planning Committee was established by the Board of Selectmen in May 2010 as the “.” Soon after its creation, charges were raised that the committee had pre-determined goals, including plans to move the library behind town hall. The to Long Range Planning Committee in October.

“I think we’re over the part that people thought we’re going to bulldoze parts of town and build skyscrapers,” Wagner said. “We’ve made a very good attempt at getting the word out. Clearly there are people who want to do nothing. But that is what the town has been doing for too long. The bigger issue was that there was some predetermined plan, that we were just going to undertake it. I hope that has been dispelled.”

Mallozzi praised the committee for “opening it up and getting the dialogue going,” and said his concern was about the cost. He asked about the dozen or so planning studies the town has commissioned that sit on shelves in . He asked if it was necessary to spend another $175,000 to tell residents “what they already know.”

Frank Fish, a consultant with BFJ Planning, one of three consulting groups working with the LRPC, told the Selectmen, “Good planning is about fiscal prudence.”

“I’ve had many conversations with (Town Planner) Steve Kleppin,” Wagner said. “He describes this not as a ‘want,’ but as a ‘need.’  People say, ‘We have a town planner. Why can’t he do it?’ He said he can’t possibly devote the time and do the job he does. Even if he had the time he thinks it’s too big a job for one person to do.

Wagner said that if the town planner undertook the planning as part of his job, there would be less opportunity for public input.

“Zoning is the result of planning and that’s why the town fathers combined planning and zoning. One cannot step without the other,” Zoning Commission Chair Laszlo Papp told the Selectmen. “This is a planning proposal. I’ve lived here 52 years and there’s never been a comprehensive plan like this.”

Saying the plan is a good investment, Papp said the town doesn’t necessarily have to “go the next day and spend millions of dollars to implement. You can go step by step. But if you don’t have the overview you are blindsided.”

Fire Commission Chair Roger Williams wanted to know about the “shelf life” of the plans if they are not implemented soon after the study is completed.

“It will have a reasonable shelf life,” Fish said. “Hopefully there’ll be some priority items there’ll be consensus on. Some items will go forward.”

“It’s going to take political will and public will to get this done,” Walker said. “People might view it as it costs too much, but if we don’t get that kind of detailed path forward then we and our committee will have failed to meet this charge.”