New generation of ‘study circles’ to look at development

by Robert J. Cyr

July 9, 2008 | Journal Inquirer | Coventry, Connecticut

Officials want to know what residents are thinking about the results of a town-wide survey and a tentative development plan, and have formed a group dubbed “Community Conversations” to draw responses.

It’s much the same as study circles, a resident-run group that met about three years ago as a think-tank for various issues in town, Town Manager John Elsesser said. One offshoot of the group’s recommendations was a communications task force that helped upgrade the town Web site, now complete with an updated events calendar, meeting agendas, and minutes of some committees.

Planning officials are gearing up for a long-range plan of where the town is heading on the topics of commercial and residential growth for submission to the state. The group so far is scheduled to meet once a week for four weeks in September at Patriot’s Park Lodge.

Last fall, a consulting firm was hired to develop a survey of how townspeople felt about issues relating to quality of life, government services, and development. The National Citizen Survey sent out questionnaires to 1,200 households and got back 495. Out of those responses, 51 percent said the rate of growth in town was “too fast,” and 52 percent said they’d “strongly support” the town in buying open space to help curb that development.

Last month, a separate company presented a study on how much land is available for development and how that growth may encroach on open space.

“This is viewed as more of an assist, but not in lieu of whatever the PZC may be doing,” Elsesser said, referring to the Planning and Zoning Commission

“We’ve just finished a build-out analysis and citizen survey — let’s talk about these things,” he said.

It’s possible that new town ordinances could eventually come from resident concerns and recommendations, such as a response to worries that abandoned lots in town are an eyesore, with their junk cars, garbage, and weeds, Elsesser said.

http://www.journalinquirer.com/articles/2008/07/09/towns/coventry/doc4873986878f6e929192891.txt

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