New Canaan To Hold Final POCD Community Workshop Later This Month

Information via the town of New Canaan

NEW CANAAN, CT — The town's Plan of Conservation and Development sub-committee invites the general public to its final community workshop May 20 as part of its year-long process of creating a 10-year plan for New Canaan.

According to a news release provided by the town, the next step is for the public to help the committee create action steps to implement the newly drafted community vision statement.

The workshop will be held from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Lapham Community Center in Waveny Park and will be open house style, similar to the committee's event back in 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.

According to the town, 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 and resiliency
• enhance community infrastructure and 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, according to the town.

In March, POCD conducted a survey with a public preview of its 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 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, town officials said.

Questions and comments can be directed at any point during this process to Town Planner Sarah Carey at sarah.carey@newcanaanct.gov.