THIS IS NOT AN OFFICIAL WEBSITE OF ANY GOVERNMENTAL AGENCY:
Please remember that this website is totally unofficial - it represents the opinion of the webmaster and no one else's!  Artwork is also original to this website.

PLEASE VISIT OUR TOWN PLAN OF CONSERVATION AND DEVELOPMENT PAGE - CLICK HERE.


AERIAL SAUGATUCK
Watercolors on this website by Margaret Wirtenberg



T A B L E    O F   C O N T E N T S  :   
Working on the update - early draft below--check out our latest draft here!

T A K E    O U R    T O W N    P L A N     U P D A T E    Q U I Z !     ( A B O U T    T O W N ' S   A N S W E R S    H E R E)
WATER, TREES AND GOOD URBAN DESIGN: 

Is there something, perhaps in nature, that you think especially makes Weston Weston?  Is it the purity of our streams?  Are they pure?  What you can do all by yourself (with like-minded citizens) to keep watch over water quality...
 
Are we like Greenwich in our devotion to trees?  Or an inland version of Westport's love for sailing and unobstructed views of Long Island Sound?  Or anything as historic as Norwalk's maritime tradition?

How do the principles of good urban design apply to a "rural" place like Weston?  

COMPARE IT TO SOMEPLACE ELSE...FAMOUS...HOW ABOUT JAMAICA PLAIN?
Did you know that Jamaica Plain ("The Eden of America") in Mass. is known as a really green place?  Has anyone you know ever lived near an important design of Frederick Law Olmstead (other than Central Park)?  Stay at  a B&B there!  Check out the architecture.

WHEN IT RAINS IT POURS DEPARTMENT...
Town Hall Roof now up to five garbage cans instead of two in five months - when will the roof be replaced?  Check out  stories here.


NEMO on-line:  do-it-yourself Town Plan toolkit from CLEAR...check this out!!!


CONSERVATION EDUCATION CENTER PROPOSAL BACK ON THE TABLE!
Lachat 2 was purchased by Town Meeting in 1999, completing this most significant acquisition - Margaret Wirtenberg watercolor.

In Weston, what has changed since the June 2000 Plan of Conservation and Development?


Outside of Weston, what has changed?


Get out the drafting tools...


AS SOMEONE ONCE SAID TO ME, "YOU GOTTA HAVE A MAP"...AND ONE THAT GIVES YOU A BIG PICTURE!

WHERE TO BEGIN?
An overview of what is "on the ground"...

WHAT DOES THE U.S. CENSUS TELL US?

WHAT WE THINK THE TOWN PLAN HAS ACHIEVED:  "About Town" is of the opinion that Weston is doing very well at implementing its Plan.  Committees formal and informal are at work on Global Warming, Saugatuck River Valley Initiative, Weston Parks Project, WestonArts, and others.  The School expansion project is winding down successfully and the Shopping Center has submitted a map and plan for its activities.

However, since the Weston Plan was approved (June 30, 2000), newer Town Plans in other towns must say more than Weston's does about the affordable housing issue.  The Weston P&Z, when commenting on the new Regional Plan, expressed interest in creative solutions SWRPA might come up with on the subject of affordable housing, as they were informed that SWRPA was to embark upon a new Housing Study.

READ THE MOST RECENT WESTON TOWN PLAN (JUNE 2000) BEFORE GOING FURTHER!  IN PREPARATION FOR THE 2010 UPDATE, "ABOUT TOWN" HAS MADE IT AVAILABLE IN AN UNOFFICIAL VERSION, PDF FORMAT HERE.

Adopted 6-19-00, available at Town Hall; effective 6-30-00...WESTON TOWN PLAN OF CONSERVATION & DEVELOPMENT.  Until a copy was mailed to every household in Weston in December 2000, all citizens had to do to read (in the comfort of their home) the official DRAFT of the Weston Town Plan of Conservation and Development 2000 (which was revised minimally for grammar, etc. and then ADOPTED effective June 30, 2000).  A visit to the Town of Weston WEBsite was all it took!  Copies were also available (of the text) in Town Hall. 

REMEMBER: THE NEW PLAN MUST BE "NOT INCONSISTENT WITH" SWRPA's (and SWRPA's had to be found "not inconsistent with" the CT Plan--which it was found to be).  The Regional Plan is currently under review to make more complete the open space and recreation chapter and maps.  Also, as you read this, an "implementation" of the Housing Chapter is taking place via a study of housing opportunities within the region - click here in June 2007 for news and more information on this.

 


On your mark, get set, search and survey!!!



DATA RESOURCES: link to "About Town" maps for neighborhoods

E-STUDIES & E-SOURCES

  1. Handy map of U.S. Census Block Groups 2000, and courtesy of the South Western Regional Planning Agency, some data for Weston.
  2. Background on the affordable housing issue;
  3. Where the vacant land identified in the 1969 Town Plan (our first) went;
  4. Dominski-Oakrock recommendations re: zero incremental run-off and others built into subdivision and zoning regulations since 1976 in Weston;  some of the more advanced concepts recommended but not yet implemented by P&Z from D&O "Weston Environmental Resources Manuel."
  5. Taxation - how government activity in Weston is financed:


  6. NEW -In August 2007, this was the URL for State Data Center, which should provide FREE info:  http://ctsdc.uconn.edu/
  7. U.S. Department of Labor: http://www.stats.bls.gov/
  8. Research Data link, D.E.C.D.: http://www.ct.gov/ecd/cwp/view.asp?a=1106&Q=250610&ecdNav=|
  9. Our labor market area: http://www.ctdol.state.ct.us/lmi/lma_bridgeport_stamford.htm

E-MAPPING
    1. Newest from "CLEAR" ("Son of NEMO") is  Weston map showing changes in land cover between 1985 and 2002, tables.
    2. The CT State Plan:  http://www.opm.state.ct.us/igp/cdplan/cdplan2.htm
    3. The SW Regional Plan:  http://www.swrpa.org/pdf_files/regplan/2006_Regional_Plan_Final_5-18-06.pdf
    4. Run-off matters...and global warming.


LAND USE PLANNING 101:  a "windshield survey" (in the 21st century, maybe aerial perspective???) requires a functioning road system (and bridges across the Saugatuck).
How to do a "windshield survey" of existing land use...some examples from "The Central Part of Town." Can you place the features listed (and shown in aerial views) below on the parcel map?

Watercolors by Margaret Wirtenberg (l to r):  Cobb's Mill - By the Waterfall;  At the Corner;  Do You Think the Roof Leaks?  Campus (detail).  Norfield Easter '07.

 What land use color to use for each?  An "existing land use map is two-dimension; it depicts land use category for the acreage but not the structures.
Note: parking and loading requirements not discussed.  But that is an interesting topic to explore - how have these changed over time?

Weston eyes rehab plan for municipal buildings
By JEREMY SOULLIERE, Hour Staff Writer
July 2, 2007

WESTON — In the coming weeks, the condition of Weston's municipal and school facilities will be closely examined to map out a future rehabilitation plan for the buildings.

The town will be contracting the architectural firm, Kaestle Boos Associates of New Britain, to evaluate the bulk of its facilities, Town Administrator Tom Landry said, with the arrangement close to being finalized. Kaestle Boos will be assessing a dozen town-owned buildings, he said, including all the schools, Town Hall, the Weston Public Library, and the transfer station buildings.

The Board of Finance approved an appropriation of $117,000 for the assessment earlier this month, Landry said, approximately $110,000 of which will be allocated to Kaestle Boos. The remaining funds are set aside for the contractors running the town's two water pump stations and the wastewater treatment plant, he said, who will be conducting their own evaluations at those facilities. Town employees will also be assessing some of the town's smaller facilities, he said, including the dog pound and the salt shed.

The idea for a sweeping assessment of town facilities stemmed from the schools' request to replace a portion of the high school roof this year, Landry said, a $1.6 million project that was approved at a special town meeting this past March. The roof was in critical condition, he said, and had not been on the town's capital budget radar.

Town officials wanted to avoid such a surprise in the future, he said, and the building assessment was a way to do that.

"It became apparent that we needed to identify all these town-wide needs in a systematic way," said Landry, who noted the town had not been in the habit of compiling its long term facility needs in the past. "We're really trying to get out of being reactive in planning our building needs. We want to be proactive."

The three month study, which is expected to begin sometime before the end of July, will take an inventory of each facility, he said, examining roofs, doors, windows, foundations, plumbing, heating, cooling and electrical systems, among other items. They'll gauge how old each structure and system item is, and estimate when they need to be replaced, Landry said.

When the study's finished, the town will have a "to do list" it can work off of for years to come, he said.

"It will help us prioritize what needs to be done first," he said.

Once the building priorities are identified, Landry said, town officials will then be left with the task of determining a financial plan that will help carry out the future renovations. The town could decide to set aside funds each year for its building needs, he said, or take out bonds for the construction projects.

"That's going to have to be a community decision," he said, referring to the financial strategy the town will take with future renovations.


Please remember that this website is unofficial...

SOURCE: modified Town of Weston Tax Assessor's maps, 2003;  Legend for this map is here.  Base  maps:  all information will be supplied by "About Town" and thus be unofficial. Above is the sketch plan map for the "Central Part of Town."


BASE MAP LEGEND FOR "EXISTING LAND USE" - Central Part of Town (shown reduced in size) above, is an example: how to do a "windshield survey" (without leaving your office)...in Weston, since there is only one zone ("2 acre residential and farming") plus 1)a pre-existing Shopping Center, 2)centralized schools, 3)Town office functions (these three in the same central location); large Nature Conservancy and Aquarion holdings (3000 PLUS ACRES) to the north, many mapped Aspetuck Land Trust parcels all around Town, one country club, one transfer station, three churches, plus assorted clubs, Town-owned parks and fields...and one really beautiful restaurant...WESTON LAND USE could be a parlor game played on a game board.

The Town Plan Update (not due until June 30, 2010--never too soon to start thinking about how to do it, however)...some ideas for the update process...

Step one:  check the C.G.S. (state statutes) for any new requirements (there are PLENTY of them--see the new State Plan of C&D 2004-2009; implementer bill was 2005 Session's HB6570);  watch out for actions taken in this, the "Long Session" in Hartford--there are several bills that might impact Weston's Plan.

Step two:  prepare "existing land use map".  You have to know what is actually "on the ground" (or in Weston's case, what is or is not UNDER the ground) before you consider recommending major land use changes--"land capability" in Weston limited as there are neither sewers nor public water lines (with minor exceptions to this at Godfrey Road landfill and at the edges of Town next to Westport;  the new School Road "community" has common wells and a tertiary treatment plant).
 Step three:  Start thinking about potential external impacts on Weston's future.  How will the fortunes of Connecticut, the New York Metropolitan Region, the nation and even world-wide influences make a difference in our:

Land Use Changes, 1986-1999;  Residential only, 1999;  Open Space/Recreation only, 1999. 

MAP ONE:  1986 land use;  MAP TWO:  1999 land use;  MAP THREE: 1999 residential development;  MAP FOUR:  1999 open space/recreation uses.

How has Weston changed? What has not changed?
The Town of Weston is very close to full development at present zoning.  Maps above show the progression of subdivision of large holdings in the geographical center of Weston;  not shown on any map are the conservation easements and development rights held by the Town of Weston.  Where Weston truly had no specific neghborhoods in earlier maps (above), in 2005, the differences in areas is much more clear--as vacant land disappears, giving way to 21st century style "country living."  Click HERE to see sketch plan.

LEGEND:  existing land use.   Click here for color code.
Open space land ("passive") is green, private, "active" open space is olive; red is commercial and dark blue is public (or "municipal") use and light blue is "semi-public" use (i.e. churches).  White is vacant or not put to any use.

COMPARATIVE LAND USE:
On the left,  MAP ONE "Existing Land Use" from the Town Plan of 1987; next MAP TWO, "Land Use 1999" - this WEBSITE'S map, taken from Aspetuck Land Trust 1992 base map and modified by us.  MAP THREE:  1999 residential development (implicit in this map is the concept that everything else in town might be up for development);  MAP FOUR:  permanently protected open space and recreation uses in 1999...

Coming:

Update of 1999 map, showing new, larger subsivisions and land purchases by the Town of Weston or others (such as the State of Connecticut) since 1999.  These are represented, at least as far as the Saugatuck River Valley section of Town, as "sub-neighborhoods."

Discussion of latest ideas for neighborhood protection (against traffic, etc.) and cooperative, informal agreements of a public-private nature that can help preserve the character of the sub-neighborhood.  Detailed maps of latest subdivisions of large parcels--showing open space land and easements.

How is "downtown Weston" changing?  Is it?  Do all neighborhoods blend together as they did 25 years ago, or is there now a clear definition between "downtown Weston" and its "ring" sub-neighborhoods?

Shown below, "Weston Neighborhoods 2005" - please remember that this represents the thinking of "About Town" and is in no way to be considered "official" information.  How has the Internet had an effect on Weston land use?


Not all towns and cities have a modern GIS, even in SWR:
Putting Norwalk's information a finger click away Common Council to vote on streamlining city's Geographic Information System
Norwalk HOUR
December 9, 2007

Aerial photographs, as well as maps of land parcels, sewers, fire hydrants and utility lines could be at the fingertips, so to speak, of all city departments within a year.
The public also may be able to access much of the information online.

On Tuesday night, the Common Council is scheduled to vote on a $100,000 contract with Camp Dresser & McKee, Inc., to streamline the city's Geographic Information System. Such systems allow computer users to store, view, and analyze maps and other geographical information.

The city currently has five different mapping databases. Those databases belong to the Department of Public Works, the Tax Assessor's Office, the Health Department, as well as the Police and Fire Departments, according to Harold F. Alvord, public works director.

"When another department needs a map, Planning and Zoning, for example, they walk over (to public works), they sit down and say, 'Can you give me a map of this section here?' It takes (a senior engineer) an hour-and-a-half to two hours to produce that map," Alvord said. "This is to update that implementation plan and get commitment to go to one GIS database that can be used by all the departments in the city."

The city's current GIS database dates back to 1994. Five years ago, the city launched but never followed through on a study update and streamline it.
Under the proposed contract, Camp Dresser & McKee, a consulting and engineering firm with offices in Wethersfield, would update the 2002 GIS Implementation Plan, review the city's existing GIS system, including hardware and software, and develop and install a new, Web-based system.

"This is to basically to review where we stand with all departments, not just public works, and how they can best use GIS, implement it, how to staff it, how to acquire the software, the hardware — basically how to implement GIS citywide, as well as get it on the city's Web site, for use by the residents to access certain data," said Richard P. Linnartz, principal engineer of design in the public works department.

Linnartz said the department interviewed consultants to perform the work. A selection committee recommended Camp Dresser & McKee.

Requests for maps now often land in the hands of Michael Yeosock, senior civil engineer in the public works department.

"When anybody needs stuff, because the Department of Public Works has the only software, they put in a request and one of the techs needs to produce a map," Yeosock said. "What we're trying to do is more of a Web site arrangement. By having a Web-based platform, anybody could access (the information) from their computer, internally from the city, and we'd like it to make a lot of it available publicly."

With a single, streamlined GIS databases, staff from the Planning and Zoning Department, Conservation Commission, Police and Fire departments will be able to retrieve maps and other frequently used geographic information, from within their offices, without making special requests to the public works department.

The information is diverse and used for many different purposes, according to said Karen Del Vecchio, director of information technology for the city.

"It's parcel information. If you want to look at where are the hydrants in the city — a layer in the GIS — that's a very interesting thing for the Fire Department," Del Vecchio said. "You have aerial information, you have a sewer layer within the GIS, you have the utilities layer within the GIS. It's all in there."

Getting the new system up and running will take time — perhaps a year — patience and dollars, according to Del Vecchio.  Among other things, city employees will have to learn how to use the system.

Del Vecchio has asked for $60,000 to $70,000 in her department's 2008-09 operating budget submission to hire a GIS systems analyst.  The person would assist employees in using the new system.

Otherwise, public works engineers now handling GIS requests, such as Yeosock, will have even more work, according to Del Vecchio.

Aquarion and Nature Conservancy in Joint Venture
Westport NEWS
By Frank Luongo
Article Launched: 11/14/2007 01:21:39 PM EST

In what is being described as a one-of-a-kind model for water-supply management, the Aquarion Water Company and the Nature Conservancy (TNC) have established a water-management partnership that will attempt to hold sufficient water in reserve for human needs without denying an area watershed the flow of water necessary for ecological health and vitality.

At the water company's Aspetuck Environmental Center in Easton last Thursday, Charles Firlotte, Aquarion president and chief executive officer, and Lise Hanners, TNC state director, signed an agreement to put together a team of freshwater experts for the purpose of developing such a water-management plan for the Saugatuck River watershed.

According to information distributed at the signing, the watershed covers more than 37,000 acres in southwest Connecticut and provides drinking water for 300,000 residents of Fairfield County.

Eighty percent of the watershed is located in Westport, Weston, Easton and Redding. The balance of the watershed is in Bethel, Danbury, Fairfield, Newtown, Norwalk, Ridgefield and Wilton.

Those 11 towns and cities teamed up in 2004 with the conservancy to form another partnership to reduce the stress on the river system, resulting from such problems as pollution, invasive plant species and excessive extraction of water from the Saugatuck River for commercial use.  Downstream from two of the water company's reservoirs, the Saugatuck in Redding and the Aspetuck in Easton, the watershed is home to diverse animals, plants and fish that rely on a natural flow of water to flourish.

At the signing of the agreement, Firlotte said that his company would be expanding its role as an "environmental steward" by using a computer model to "determine the impact of water releases" and more closely mimic the natural process.

This is the first time that the conservancy, which has a worldwide membership of 1 million and has been responsible for the conservation and protection of more than 15 million acres in the United States, will be collaborating with a private water company to re-examine reservoir practices to promote freshwater ecology, according to Hanners.

"We hope that Aquarion's progressive thinking will set the stage for similar efforts by other private and public water suppliers," Hanners said in a press release issued jointly with Aquarion.

Firlotte said that his company "understands that sound management of freshwater resources is the key to maintaining the quality of life in our region," and expressed confidence that the partnership would "create a flow-management plan for the Saugatuck River basin that will achieve both public water supply and river ecosystem health goals."

Stressing the need to follow nature's lead in monitoring the release of water from reservoirs, Hanners said during the signing ceremony that "creatures take their cues from the natural rising or falling levels of river water."

She said, for example, that the seasonal changing of water levels in rivers signals the time for fish to move to spawning areas for laying their eggs.

On that point, Mark Smith, the director of TNC's Eastern U.S. Freshwater Program, is quoted in the press release as saying, "Seasonal high waters trigger spawning migrations in fish and provide them access to upstream habitat. When these flows are reduced or stopped, fish lose habitat essential to their life cycles."

He added that such reductions in river flows can also have a "dramatic effect on wading birds, waterfowl and the diversity of plant life along the river."

An added benefit of developing a successful water-management plan for the watershed, according to Lee Dunbar of the state Department of Environmental Protection's Bureau of Water Protection and Land Reuse, would be less intrusion by state government in local water management.

"If we are successful with a good plan, the state will not have to throw its weight around. If a local agreement balances water needs with ecological needs on this scale, it will be the plan. This could manage stream flow for years and years to come," Dunbar said in remarks at the signing.
May 1, 2007 FORUM online - we intend to be at this meeting and ask about Saugatuck River Water quality.  It should be able to be answered...
Weston: Saugatuck watershed is topic of talk
 
Sally Harold, project director for The Nature Conservancy’s Saugatuck River Watershed Partnership Project, discussed the partnership’s latest efforts to protect this local resource Tuesday, May 8 at the Weston Public Library.

As a backdrop for her talk, Ms. Harold showed her photographs of the Saugatuck River, Devil’s Den and seldom-seen areas within the watershed, along with slides documenting the conservation work that has already been accomplished within the last year.  An avid amateur photographer, Ms. Harold always has her camera along when her work takes her “into the field.” Her images reveal the natural beauty of the area in all seasons and feature many of the native inhabitants from copperhead snakes to brook trout to delicate trillium orchids.

Ms. Harold grew up in Guilford, and was introduced to conservation at an early age. Her mother was instrumental in starting a town-wide recycling program, the profits from which were donated to the Guilford Land Trust for the acquisition and preservation of open land.

Ms. Harold attended the University of Vermont and the University of Salzburg, Austria, earning a bachelor’s degree in German.

She has worked at an international student exchange program in New York City, helped to develop a global studies program for Sacred Heart University and managed a World Bank public administration grant for the International Executive Service Corps in Stamford. She also worked at a small venture capital firm in Southport for four years.

In 2001, she decided to use her project management skills in the environmental sector — a field for which she has a special passion. She has worked with The Nature Conservancy in Weston for the past five years.

Ms. Harold lives in Fairfield with her husband and three daughters.

The lecture was free and information about it can be made available by the Conservancy’s Norwalk office at 203-854-6936 or by e-mailing Priscilla Squiers at psquiers@tnc.org.

Watershed partnership - did you know...

The Saugatuck River Watershed covers 89 square miles of land within the 11 towns of Bethel, Danbury, Easton, Fairfield, Newtown, Norwalk, Redding, Ridgefield, Weston, Westport and Wilton. Two main tributaries, the West Branch of the Saugatuck and the Aspetuck, combine with smaller streams to form a 242-mile network of waterways that all discharge into the Saugatuck River and, finally, into Long Island Sound.

Despite being surrounded by the cities and crisscrossed by Interstate 95, the Merritt Parkway, and Metro North rail lines, the Saugatuck River Watershed is remarkably healthy. Within the 57,264-acre watershed, conservation activities have protected 17,000 acres — nearly one third — from development. These protected lands contain forests, streams, wetlands, hilltops and fields include those found in Devil’s Den Preserve, Trout Brook Valley, Putnam Park, Huntington State Park, Centennial Watershed State Forest (former water company lands), and numerous town and land trust properties.

The watershed supplies drinking water to more than 300,000 customers of the Aquarion Water Company’s main Bridgeport system and through pipelines to additional customers in Ridgefield, Greenwich, New Canaan and Stamford.

Although studies show excellent water quality in the main streams and rivers of the watershed, some smaller tributaries which run through developed and developing areas are already showing signs of stress, with fluctuating conductivity values and elevated indicator bacteria counts. There are numerous threats to the watershed including inappropriate land use, stream buffer loss and degradation, inappropriately managed storm water runoff, invasive plants and animals, potentially excessive water use, and artificial barriers to fish passage.  In addition, poor property management in the residential areas, septic infiltration and overuse of lawn chemicals and fertilizers are beginning to take a toll.

Led by The Nature Conservancy, the Saugatuck River Watershed Partnership was established in April 2006, when the chief elected officials from the 11 towns within the Saugatuck River Watershed signed a conservation compact recognizing the value of regional planning and a healthy watershed.  The partnership comprises more than 80 individuals representing 25 organizations and all 11 towns in the watershed to assist in developing a plan of action to preserve, enhance and protect the health of this valuable natural resource.

For more information on the Conservancy,  visit  www.nature.org/connecticut or call 203-854-6936.

'Smart growth' gaining ground 
By By Angela Carter, Register Staff 
Saturday, November 17, 2007

NEW HAVEN — There is a small but growing demand among consumers for “smart growth” features in the housing market, according to a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency official who spoke at the first Smart Growth Conference Wednesday.

In addition, more home builders and developers are incorporating smart growth principles in their projects, said Lee Sobel, the real estate development and finance analyst in the EPA’s Development, Community and Environment Division.

Sobel was the keynote speaker at the conference, organized by the statewide citizen group 1,000 Friends of Connecticut and held at Southern Connecticut State University.

Smart growth refers to a planning and design concept that communities use when housing and commercial developments are formulated. It emphasizes improving transportation, as well as protecting public health, the environment and cultural and historic resources.

The EPA plans to release a research report on the topic in February, Sobel said.

Because New England has few large tracts of land available that appeal to developers in conventional projects, Sobel said the opportunities for smart growth here are likely in urban neighborhoods where sites are being rehabilitated or in small communities where “the infrastructure stops” but land is available to add a modest number of buildings.

“It’s really about providing the consumer with a new choice for housing, working, shopping, playing and getting around,” he said.

During the EPA’s study period, from 2001 to 2004, researchers found that “one-third of today’s home buyers want a smart growth product,” Sobel said. In that time frame, there were 7.7 million housing starts, with 33,085 of them featuring smart growth units, simultaneously showing both lagging support and market potential, he said.

Heidi Green, president of 1,000 Friends of Connecticut, said about 340 attended the conference, which included morning and afternoon workshops on how smart growth relates to issues such as sprawl, affordable housing, the state economy and public health.

Green said the organization is likely to hold such events again. “Conferences are a good way to inspire people and to educate people,” she said.

It also gave members of the coalition a chance to meet and build a base of supporters who will keep smart growth issues at the forefront next year, the first year campaign finance reform laws will apply to state races, she said.


Trees stand close to the heart of town's image
Greenwich TIME
By Hoa Nguyen, Staff Writer
Published April 7 2007

The weeping beech, hemlock and gingko trees shading parts of the Putnam Hill apartment complex trace their history back to when William M. "Boss" Tweed owned the estate. The majestic hardwoods lining central Greenwich roads leading to the backcountry were the brainchild of the Rockefeller family.

When the elm trees S. Merwin Mead planted along Greenwich Avenue and Elm Street in the 1850s succumbed to Dutch Elm disease, Gertrude Howland -- then wife of Alfred Rhett duPont -- planted new trees to replace them in the late 1930s.

If there was ever a darling of Greenwich society, it would be the tree. In fact, the town's love affair with trees and commitment to spending money on maintaining them has earned it distinction throughout the state.

"Greenwich certainly has a very good reputation," said Chris Donnelly, an urban forester with the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection who listed the town as being among the municipalities which spend the most money on tree resources.

But some town residents fear the historically positive attitudes about trees are disappearing, especially in light of intense development pressures and fears that severe storms are occuring more often than they used to, toppling trees and causing major power outages. These tree activists are working to revive interest and increase awareness about the value of the vaulted arbor.

So far, their efforts have born fruit and membership in the newly formed Greenwich Tree Conservancy is 50 people strong, said executive director JoAnn Messina.

"Trees are being destroyed," she said. "It does spur people on."

At the same time, there are residents who believe tree loyalists have taken their love of trees too far and are unwilling to look at the potential dangers the trees may pose.

"We're walking around with blinders on," said Susan Cahill, a real estate agent and homeowner who has unsuccessfully lobbied officials to cut down a town-owned tree that sways high above her Davis Avenue home.

Although the tree warden said the white pine tree is healthy and in no danger of falling on Cahill's house, she believes the tree poses as much danger as an oak tree that fell on her roof during a severe storm one night last year and caused the ceiling in her bedroom to collapse while she and her husband were sleeping.

"It's well and good to love a beautiful tree, but when it becomes a danger, it's ridiculous to put up with it," she said.

The town has reacted to those concerns by recently announcing the creation of a database of 2,100 trees along the town's major thoroughfares and identifying 459 that are dead or dying. They are in the process of removing those trees.

It's fears like Cahill's that prompted advocates to form the tree conservancy, which wants more public discussion of the issue.

"It's a balancing act," Messina said. "We're not saying every tree should be there and there should be trees at every block, but we are saying there should be education on where and how trees enable us to live a better life."

Even civic groups are getting into the act and scheduling tree-friendly events. The Green Fingers Garden Club recently held a flower show at Christ Church Greenwich where one of the main exhibits, "Treescapes," was about the importance of mature trees in Greenwich.

One of the earliest members of the Green Fingers Garden Club was Howland, now 96, a former town resident who lives in Virginia. She moved to Greenwich in 1937, and, a year later, began a campaign to replace the trees that had been decimated by Dutch elm disease.

"When I first moved there, there were these beautiful, tall elms all up and down Greenwich Avenue," Howland said in a telephone interview from her home in Richmond. "The elm disease took them one by one."

Though she and other activists faced resistance from some town officials and merchants, they were finally able to succeed in replanting many of the trees that still arch over Greenwich Avenue today.

Howland, who was friends with members of the Rockefeller family -- tree enthusiasts also credited with planting many of the trees still standing today on Lake Avenue and Round Hill Road -- said residents and garden club members were always supportive of her efforts.

"People appreciate trees now and then," she said.

Even before Howland began her replanting efforts on Greenwich Avenue, town residents were mobilizing in the name of the tree. In the 1920s, a group of residents formed the Greenwich Tree Association, which later disbanded and became incorporated into various garden clubs, according to the book, "Before & After 1776, A Chronology of Greenwich, Connecticut: 1640-1978."

But while the history of tree appreciation in Greenwich is strong and varied, some believe the spotlight needs to return to the value of trees, especially given the rapid development overtaking parts of the town.

These activists may want some way to stem the tide of clearcutting practices, Town Planner Diane Fox said. Many developers subdivide land and in the process chop down mature trees to make room for the houses they want to build.

"It used to be people planned house location around topography and trees," she said. "Now the site gets cleared first, and then you plant the house and then we just cover the area around with trees."

The real estate pressures run so high that even though residents may say they love trees, many cast aside those principles once their house goes on the market, Fox said.

"Someone is selling their house and a developer walks in and offers the best price. Is the homeowner going to say 'I will only sell you the land if you promise not to cut down the trees' and accept a lower price?" she asked.

For residents such as Cahill, a love-affair with trees harks back to a time when there was less development and old trees posed less of a threat to densely settled areas. Nowadays, with proposed budget cuts to the town's tree maintenance staff looming, the town may be ill-equipped to deal with some of the dangers lurking in the form of old trees that may be at the end of their life-spans.

"Most people forget that when the trees were first planted, they were wonderful and lovely but we're talking about 25-40 years later when they've grown up," she said. "What were small, manageable trees are somewhat out of control and the town is not equipped to handle it."


SEE IT AT YALE AND HEAR ABOUT IT AT WHS DEC. 14
"In 1807, a meteorite to be recorded in the U.S. fell at Weston (now called Easton), Conn., at 6:30 a.m., making a hole 5-ft long and 4.5-ft wide. This was the New World's first witnessed fall of a meteorite, with subsequent recovery of specimens, since the arrival of the European settlers. Yale Professor Benjamin Silliman's description of the fall and his chemical analysis of the stone meteorite, the first performed in the U.S., received much attention in the national and international press. A thirty-pound fragment of this Chondrite H4 became the nucleus of Yale University’s Peabody Museum. This meteorite collection, the oldest in the country, was begun by Silliman."  From Google.

December marks anniversary of Weston Meteorite
Norwalk HOUR
November 25, 2007

In the early morning hours of Dec. 14, 1807, the dark skies above what was then Weston turned bright as day, as "stones from the heavens" poured down to the earth, researchers say.

This first recorded meteorite in America, known as the Weston Meteorite, shook the earth more than 50 miles away, said Monty Robson, director of the James J. McCarthy Observatory in New Milford who has researched the historic fall since 2005.

"The people who weren't up and about already were up after that," said Robson, who noted the meteorite fell at about 6 a.m.

Meteorite fragments that historic day landed in a number of locations in Fairfield County, he said, including Monroe and parts of Trumbull and what was then Weston.  The bulk of the rock pieces, Robson said, settled in the original boundaries of Weston, a town which, by petition, was split in 1845 to become the towns of Weston and Easton.

All the "Weston" fragments actually fell in what is now Easton, he said, but the meteorite still bears Weston's name.

To mark the 200th anniversary of the historic descent, the Weston and Easton historical societies have teamed up for a series of meteorite-related events this coming month, including educational talks about the significance of that day in 1807 and the burying of a time capsule containing some of the scientific knowledge gained since that day.

"There are people in Weston who never heard about the meteor fall, and what we are hoping to do is make people aware of what happened near here 200 years ago," said Judy Albin, a Weston Historical Society Trustee. "We also want people to learn about the current things that are going on in space."

A small description of the events that happened that historic day was captured in The Connecticut Journal.  The Dec. 24, 1807 report, titled "Remarkable Phenomenon," stated that "a meteor or fire ball" passed from a northern point and "disploded over the western part of the state."

"At the same time, several pieces of stony substance fell to the earth in Fairfield County," the report continues. "One mass was driven against a rock and dashed into small pieces, a peck of which remained on the spot.  About three miles distant, in the town of Weston, another large piece fell on the earth, of which a mass of about 30 pounds weight remains entire, and was exhibited the same day at town meeting."

Robson said the meteorite landing "scared the hell out of a lot of people."

"They didn't know what to think," he said. "(The meteorite had) turned the dark sky as bright as day, and they heard three explosions in a span of two to three seconds."

Albin said one Fairfield County farmer was milking a cow when the meteor "crashed through the atmosphere." The farmer then saw some of his cows jump a stone wall after hearing the explosions, she said.

"Cows don't jump stone walls," she said.

Meteorites had been recorded in Europe for thousands of years before the 1807 landing in Fairfield County, Robson said, but this was the first documented landing in the U.S.  It was also the first time American scientists studied rock fragments that came down from sky, he said.

Professors Benjamin Silliman and James Kingsley from Yale University, which has the oldest meteorite collection in the United States, examined the rock pieces and published a report on the meteorite, Robson said.  Their research and published report sparked the study of meteorites in America, he said, and helped level the scientific playing field between Europe and the U.S.

"It elevated the status of American science," he said, "and it really started the science called meteoritics in America."

The meteorite-related events sponsored by the Weston and Easton historical societies this coming month include talks at the Peabody Museum in New Haven on Dec. 4 and the John J. McCarthy Observatory in New Milford on Dec. 8, which will include explanations about the Weston meteorite and further information on meteorites.

On the 200th anniversary of the meteorite landing, Dec. 14, the public is also invited to the burying of a time capsule at 6 a.m. at the Easton Public Library, which is near where one of the rock fragments fell.  The capsule will contain the history of scientific knowledge acquired in the time since the meteorite hit Fairfield County.

Also on the anniversary date, a panel of meteorite experts will disclose some of the scientific mysteries and historical significance of the Weston fall at the Weston High School at 7:30 p.m.  Tickets are $15.

For further information and a full listing of the events surrounding the 200th anniversary visit www.westonmeteorite.com or call (203) 227-1507.



NOTE (correction):  the location of COBB'S MILL INN (@"H" intersection of Routes 57 and 53, Cobb's Mill Road and unpaved Newtown Turnpike) not shown accurately on 1986 map (the part where the restaurant and parking lots sit not colored "red").  Shown more accururately on 1999 map.  State of Connecticut aerial photo 2004 gets it precisely correct!  Or as they say, CLEAR.

SOURCES FOR INFORMATION RELATED TO PLANNING IN WESTON:
"About Town" always considers the first source for accurate information of this kind to be the Town Clerk;  next most useful is the Tax Assessor's records.  Some of this data is available free, online...however, for our purposes, it is the Assessor's Office that is the best source.

Latest environmental initiative sponsored by the Town of Weston (among others) http://www.nature.org/wherewework/northamerica/states/connecticut/preserves/art6096.html



Source:  "About Town" files



FIRST STEP:  read the Town Plan of Conservation and Development 2000.

BEGIN HERE:  TAKE THE "ABOUT TOWN" QUIZ!
The Town Plan of Conservation and Development is due to be updated officially by the Planning and Zoning Commission by June 2010.  What do you think some basic questions to ask are?  Are the goals for this new Plan the same as the previous one? 




SECOND STEP:  Please answer the questions below via e-mail:

OR...if you would just like to drop "About Town" a line with your ideas for GOALS for the new Town Plan of Conservation and Development 2010, please visit our new TOWN PLAN 2010 FORUM

How long have you lived in Weston?  (fewer than 2 years)  (2-5 years)  (fewer than 10 years)  (more than a decade)   (longer)  (how much longer?___________________).

Do you have children of school age?  (YES)  (NO)

Should the Plan's goals today be the same as they were 10 years ago?   (YES)  (NO)
 If "yes" then do you think Planning and Zoning gets high marks for implementing them?  (YES)  (NO);  what more should P&Z be doing?
If "no" then what major change do you think is the most important - (more sidewalks)  (more streetlights)  (more commercial zoning)  (more "things to do" in town?)  (other________________________)



H O W    W E    A N S W E R E D :

"About Town" answered these questions in the following way:  home owner in Weston since 1982.  No kids of school age.  No, the GOALS have changed.  While some are similar (no sewers or public water lines desired),  the suggestions for "major change" within the parameters of limiting infrastructure should be discussed.  That is why we offered some alternative ideas above.  For example, the CENTRAL PART OF TOWN really is the "heart" of Weston - just as the NORTHERN PART is its lungs!

How has the closing of Cartbridge affected residents in the SAUGATUCK RIVER VALLEY?  When will the bridge work on the next span due for redesign (Valley Forge Bridge) begin?