By TERRENCE S. MCAULIFFE
The Middlebury Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) on Sept. 3 postponed a vote on the long-awaited Plan of Conservation and Development (POCD) until a final draft of all sections was available. It also heard a complaint about construction dust at Ridgewood and OK’d a minor plan change at Quassy.
State statutes require the POCD to be updated every 10 years, but Middlebury’s last update was completed 14 years ago in 2001. The Board of Selectmen, at its Dec. 10, 2011, meeting, awarded a $66,000 contract to the Turner-Miller Group for a one-year project to update it concurrently with updates to zoning regulations.
Subsequent legislation allowed a slip to 2013, and the current POCD was scheduled to be published in mid-2014. Instead, continued public hearing comments, particularly on the “Middlebury Village District,” prevented an acceptable draft from coming to a vote.
In the latest postponement, Commissioner Matthew Robison said he wanted the document to clearly delineate the district as those commercial properties fronted on Middlebury Road and bordered by the entrance to Bristol Park and Ledgewood Park. He also wanted boundary lines removed from plan maps.
Town planner Brian Miller, author of the POCD, said the lines indicated a “study area” but Robison objected and said they would be taken as boundary lines, and they expanded too far into residential areas. Miller told Chairman Terry Smith he would incorporate those changes in two weeks for commissioner review and also include a dedication page and updated photographs and maps. He told Robison a “streetscape plan” could be added to the POCD at a later date as an addendum.
In other business, Zoning Enforcement Officer Curtis Bosco told commissioners he would hold back on permits for Ridgewood until the developer handled residents’ dust complaints by wetting down the construction area with a watering truck. Bosco also reviewed ongoing progress with upgrades to rides at Quassy Amusement Park. He said those changes were part of an approved two-year plan, but he wanted the commission’s blessing for a minor alteration to one of the rides, which still will be within the plan footprint.
The next regular P&Z meeting will be Thursday, Oct. 1, at 7:30 p.m. at Shepardson Community Center.
