Residents Talk About Present State of Town, Offer Visions for its Future

Residents passed on a myriad of viewpoints, priorities, perspectives and ideas during a meeting on “Canton’s Future” Monday night.

The meeting at Town Hall was held by the town’s Plan of Conservation and Development Update Committee in an effort to get the public’s input as it goes about revamping the document.

The Plan of Conservation and Development, or POCD, is a planning document that by state statute is supposed to be updated every 10 years. The document contains information about nearly every aspect of town and one of its goals is to “define the core community values of the town and integrates them into a long-term vision for the future.” It is advisory but is often referred to by town staff, boards and commissions when making planning decisions.

On Monday Jason Vincent of Planimetrics, the Avon firm helping the committee with the process, facilitated the meeting.

“Planning is a process for marking informed decisions about the future,” he told the some 135 people gathered at the meeting.

As people came to the meeting Monday, they were given colored stickers to mark several large town maps with information about were they lived, what they were proud of in Canton and what about the town made them sorry. An index card allowed residents to note four specific items for each category.

Vincent said the idea was to have residents do more than talk about the one issue on their mind.  

“We’re looking for the tour guide,” he said.

Many residents marked Collinsville as an area of pride, citing aspects such as the farmers market, community events, the trail and its walkability.

Jeff Schlichter said he came from California 20 years ago and stayed in town because of Collinsville.

He said it was, “because of the river, because of the trail because of the people in this little community here – the artist and the musicians  — it’s what made this really special.” He said some of the artists are gone but other changes like Downright Music and Art have been positive.

Other positive aspects of town residents mentioned included Canton Land Conservation Trust trails, the rural nature of North Canton, the historic aspects of Canton Center, open space, Mills Pond recreation area, the school system, economic diversity and Roaring Brook Nature Center.

When it came to the “sorrys” Collinsville was actually high on the list again.

Ralph Monaco said he was one who marked the village as both a proud and a sorry. He said while it is the distinctive part of Canton, he felt it had aspects that were being neglected – such as roads, blighted buildings and the lack of period lighting.

“It has tremendous potential that is not being tapped,” Monaco said.

Other “sorrys” mentioned included the lack of pedestrian and bike friendliness in places like Route 179, 44 and Canton Village, the delay in redevelopment of the Collins Company property, the condition of town roads, limited playing fields, lack of public access to the river and untapped tourism potential.

Alan Weiner said there’s also been a lack of a coherent economic development policy for many areas of town, including Route 44.

“A lot of people feel that the local board and commission tend to be reactive to development proposals,” he said.

Also at the meeting residents were given planning “points” in denominations of a 20, two 10s and two 5s. They could then spend the points in various categories they were most concerned with.

The areas with the most points were:

1. Business development — 880
2. Open space — 730
3. Natural resources — 590
4. Community facilities — 525
5. Community character — 510
6. Historic resources — 410

Vincent also asked residents to further expand on those areas. While many mentioned economic development to expand the town’s tax base, others aspects mentioned were difficulties for establishing businesses, health of existing businesses, tourism efforts, and having input on what kind of development takes place.

With open space residents mentioned everything from the shortage of playing fields to lack of public access to the Farmington River, something another committee in town is studying. While many touted the idea of open space and some advocated purchasing more and better planning its use, one resident said too much of town is tied up and impeding projects like finding land for a new town garage.

Other ideas mentioned in the meeting were making better use of historic resources, slowing down traffic, constructing a dog park, better marketing the town’s strengths, expanding community center offerings for working parents and improving the town’s roads.

The committee will schedule two future public forums to delve further into some of the topics. It also continues to meet monthly and members talked Monday night of scheduling a special meeting while the ideas offered were still fresh.

"I think the committee was extremely pleased with the turnout — the number of people and the participation," said chairman Jonathan Thiesse.

The committee's meeting schedule can be found at http://www.townofcantonct.org/content/120/9376/default.aspx. The committee has also set up a blog, on which residents can comment and learn more about the process.