Ridgefield Candidate Profile: Tracey Miller, Inland Wetland Board

RIDGEFIELD, CT — The 2019 municipal election is heating up in Ridgefield and there are plenty of races with candidates eager to serve in elected office.

Ridgefield Patch asked candidates to answer questions about their campaigns and will be publishing candidate profiles as election day draws near.

Tracey Miller, 57, is running for a seat on the Inland Wetland Board, as a Democrat. She is a landscape architect with 20 years of experience, and holds a master's degree in landscape architecture from the University of Virginia.

The single most pressing issue facing our town/district is _______, and this is what I intend to do about it.

Balancing the right of individual property owners to derive value from their property while ensuring that our natural water resources are being managed responsibly. I was glad to see Ridgefield vote for the creation of an Inland Wetland Board distinct from Planning and Zoning. This new board (which will be comprised of professionals with relevant experience) will usher Ridgefield into a new era of checks and balances that protect our waterways for the future.

What are the critical differences between you and the other candidates seeking this post?

I’m a licensed landscape architect with 20 years of experience working on ecologically sensitive landscapes (often in collaboration with ecologists) throughout New England, including Coastal Rhode Island and Cape Cod Massachusetts. Over the years I’ve noticed that the communities which have successfully maintained their unique sense of place are those that have most proactively established meaningful strategies to protect natural resources. I will bring my insights and experiences a designer who has worked extensively within a broad range of codes and regulations adopted by a diversity of oversight boards and agencies.

List other issues that define your campaign platform:

The Democratic IWB campaign platform promotes strategies to protect wetlands and aquifers in order to ensure long-term health, safety and welfare, balanced with a thoughtful plan for economic development.

The best advice ever shared with me was ...

"Be kind to your classmates, they will become friends and colleagues later in life." – College Professor