Planning Commission Minutes 01/28/2020
PLANNING COMMISSION - MEETING MINUTES WORKSHOP
TUESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2020
SIMSBURY TOWN OFFICES - MAIN MEETING ROOM - 7:00 P.M.
933 HOPMEADOW STREET, SIMSBURY, CONNECTICUT
I. CALL TO ORDER - Chairman William Rice called the meeting to order at 7:00 P.M.
II. ROLL CALL
1. Appointment of Alternates - Julie Eaton and Richard Cortes appointed to sit for David Blume and Erin Leavitt-Smith
Present: William Rice, Alan Needham, Craig MacCormac, Holly Beum, Julie Eaton, Richard Cortes
Absent: David Blume, Erin Leavitt-Smith, Sean Fernand Glenn
III. APPROVAL OF MINUTES (January 14, 2020) - At 7:03 P.M., Ms. Beum made a motion to approve the minutes with the following corrections:
1. Line 11 - Correct spelling of Mr. MacCormac’s name
Mr. Needham seconded the motion and it passed with a vote of 5-0-1, with Mr. MacCormac abstaining.
IV. POCD UPDATE WORKSHOP - Chairman Rice explained how the Commission would vote in order to prioritize concepts that should be looked at more closely and possibly edited. He also noted that the workshop would last approximately an hour. After using a system of multi-voting, the concepts identified as higher priority were as follows:
1. Affordable Housing, with 5 votes
2. Economic Development, Sense of Place, and Regionalization of Services, all with 4 votes
❖ Affordable Housing
➢ Inclusionary Zoning
➢ Investigate qualifying housing stock
➢ Investigate developing affordable housing plan for community
➢ Review term of “affordable housing,” possibly changing this term to “inclusionary housing”
➢ Consider expansion deed restrictions such as tax sales, etc.
➢ Consider affordability requirements to be added to the Town Center Code
Mr. Glidden will pull up some other local areas affordable housing plans and bring them to the next meeting.
❖ Economic Development
➢ Possibly workshop with Economic Development Commission - Business Incentive “Draft Policy.”
➢ “Net fiscal” gains/impact
❖ Sense of Place
➢ Place Changing - due to development (Large multi-family apartment complexes)
➢ Review impact of development’s Scale and how community character is affected
➢ Look at regulatory options that preserve community character (building heights, number of units, floor to area ratios)
➢ Look at impacts to character Town Center and North Village
➢ Consider different approaches for different neighborhoods/areas
❖ Regionalization of Services (New Chapter of POCD) - long range planning
➢ Investigate “economy of scale”
➢ Consider more shared positions such as the shared Building Official (Bloomfield and Simsbury)
The Commission opted to Table this topic until the next meeting
Mr. Glidden to look at most recent POCD locally (what others have done)
V. ADJOURNMENT - At 8:20 P.M., Mr. Rice made a motion to adjourn the meeting. Motion was seconded by Ms. Beum, and the motion passed unanimously.