Plan of Conservation & Development Community Workshop Scheduled for Evening of May 20th at Lapham

The Town of New Canaan Plan of Conservation & Development (POCD) Sub-Committee is inviting the general public to its final Community Workshop in the year-long process of creating a 10-year-plan for the town. The next step is for the public to help the committee create Action Steps to implement the newly drafted Community Vision Statement. This workshop will be held May 20 from 6 to 9 p.m. at Lapham Community Center in Waveny Park.

The May 20 Community Workshop will be Open House style, similar to the committee’s event last October. Those who are able to attend may spend an hour or so at the event circling through four stations and engaging in conversation with sub-committee members, Town staff and SLR consultants. Each station will be centered around one of the following themes: Preserve New Canaan’s Welcoming, Small-Town Identity; Promote Creative, Balanced Development; Embrace Sustainability & Resiliency; and Enhance Community Infrastructure & Facilities. Each station will have possible action items relating to the corresponding theme for the public to provide feedback on.

Following the Community Workshop and Community Dialogues that were held in late 2023 and early 2024, the Sub-Committee, Town staff, and consultant SLR have been hard at work developing a draft plan taking into deep consideration, all the comments received from those first phases of community participation.

In March of this year, we conducted a survey with a public preview of our draft Vision Statement for the plan and received 150 responses with very positive feedback. Information on the Vision Statement and the survey can be found at the link here The Community Vision (arcgis.com).

Following the development of the Community Vision, draft Action Steps have been drafted, and the public is now invited to give feedback on these Action Steps.

A full draft of the 2024 Plan of Conservation and Development will be available for public review and comment by July. A final public hearing will be scheduled for early fall with a target to adopt the full plan by October 2024.

As always, at any point during this process, questions and comments can be directed to the Town Planner, Sarah Carey, at sarah.carey@newcanaanct.gov.