To the Wilton Community:

Here is the latest update on the 2019-2029 Plan of Conservation process:

Over the summer, Milone & MacBroom took stock of the nine months of data collection, Joint Working Group input, public workshops, public comment and online surveying comprising the first data-gathering phase of the POCD update. From that process, Milone produced a first draft of the POCD update’s core goals, objectives and strategies and delivered this draft to the Planning and Zoning Commission in mid-September.

The Planning and Zoning Commission performed a preliminary, high-level review of this draft at a meeting on September 26 before sharing the draft with the Joint Working Group for performing a similar review. This shared POCD core draft is posted on the POCD website (Wilton2029.com).

The Planning and Zoning Commission gratefully received and discussed comments from the Joint Working Group at a joint meeting on November 8 (Joint Working Group comments are also posted to Wilton2029.com). The POCD core draft is currently being distributed to town staff and additional groups beyond the Joint Working Group for their preliminary input.

In the interim, the Commission has been working with Milone on honing the set of issues to be queried in a community-wide, statistically-valid phone survey being conducted by the Center for Research & Public Policy. The survey will focus only on those POCD issues, goals, objectives and strategies that would benefit most from full-community feedback, given survey length and response rate considerations. The Commission has benefited much in this process by reviewing the questions and approximately 270-330 responses it received for each of the six online surveys that have already touched on major planning topics in Wilton, including: Visioning, Housing, Route7 and Transportation, Community Facilities and Infrastructure, Wilton Center and Villages and Conservation, Preservation, Sustainability and Cultural Resources. At present, the Commission expects to receive and review the first draft of the phone survey at a special meeting being held at 5pm on Thursday, November 29, 2018, at the Town Hall Annex.

The phone survey is expected to launch in early-to-mid December, when response rates are anticipated to be higher. Stay tuned for a survey launch announcement – and keep those phones handy (yes, indeed, phones).

Finally, the Commission always welcomes questions and comments, whether submitted via the POCD website or email to wilton2029@gmail.com. Also, all POCD meeting agendas, minutes and recordings are available on the town website at (http://techjohn.com/wordpress2/?page_id=164) and (http://www.wiltonct.org/tv/).

Wishing you and yours a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday,

Scott Lawrence

Chair, Planning and Zoning Commission