Tag Archives: development

Public Asked for Input on Lyme’s Plan of Conservation and Development at Hearing, Nov. 13

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The image above shows the cover photo of Lyme’s 2025 Draft Plan of Conservation and Development.

Option Available to Email Comments in Advance of Meeting

LYME–The Planning and Zoning Commission invites public comment on the draft Plan of Conservation and Development (POCD) on Wednesday, Nov. 12.

The public hearing and special meeting will both be held at 7 p.m. in Lyme Town Hall.

Lyme residents who attend the public hearing can make comments on the POCD for the commissioners to consider.  Lyme residents who are unable to attend the hearing can email their comments to the commissioners before the hearing at zoningclerk@townlyme.org.  

The public hearing will be immediately followed by a special meeting of the Planning & Zoning Commission where the commissioners will discuss and vote on whether to accept the 2025 POCD, according to the meeting agenda.

The draft was produced as part of a roughly year-and-a-half-long process by the Lyme Planning and Zoning Commission and endorsed by the town’s Board of Selectmen in September.

A link to the draft is available here.

TOP STORY: Draft 2025 Conservation and Development Plan Shows Lyme Residents Still Prioritize Town’s Rural Environment

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Report Notes Opposition to Affordable Housing is “Softening”

The image above shows the cover photo of Lyme’s 2025 Draft Plan of Conservation and Development.

LYME, CT— Residents continue to prize the town’s rural environment and natural resources above all else.

That’s according to the 35-page draft of the 2025 Lyme Plan of Conservation and Development (POCD), the town’s foundational planning document required by state statute to be updated every 10 years. 

The draft comes as local officials and volunteers work to align the local vision of Lyme – painted as a safe, rural retreat by its residents – with state directives to spread more affordable housing options across all cities and towns. 

The draft was produced as part of a roughly year-and-a-half-long process by the Lyme Planning and Zoning Commission and endorsed by the town’s Board of Selectmen last week. The draft will be filed with the town clerk and available for online review on Oct. 6, according to Planning and Zoning Commission member Carol House.

In a phone interview this week, House said the results show not much has changed since the 2015 plan. 

“People like living in Lyme, and they want to keep a lot of it the way it is,” she said.  

The draft update, obtained by LymeLine through a Freedom of Information request, is based largely on 704 responses to a survey distributed late last year to gauge opinions on topics including emergency services, open space and affordable housing. Eligible respondents live in Lyme, own property there, or volunteer with the local fire and ambulance companies. 

House said the last survey distributed a decade ago garnered fewer than 300 responses. This time around, the commission brought back some questions for continuity while adding new definitions and questions to address emerging issues. 

The draft report describes a population that remains willing to travel outside town borders for employment, shopping and services in order to keep the landscape unspoiled.

The vision statement, too, has remained largely consistent through two revisions over the past quarter century.

“Lyme will not attempt to become frozen in time, but will adjust to the demands and opportunities of modern life,” the statement reads. “As new technologies create the possibilities of new lifestyles, Lyme will adjust its regulations and requirements to allow people to work at home or to live in non-traditional family households. Change will occur as a result of our changing society, but in a way that preserves Lyme’s quality of life and natural resources.”

Still, House pointed to subtle shifts in the outlook among residents. 

Among them is a “softening” of opposition to affordable housing, according to the draft report. Authors cited an almost 19% increase among residents in favor of using town funds to increase housing options. But they acknowledged supporters, who totaled 47.9% of respondents in the survey, still do not represent a majority. 

The draft also shows new survey questions implemented this year revealed priorities not previously explored: that respondents “place a very high value on Lyme’s low crime rate and the ability to remain in their homes and community as they age.”

House, who serves as a co-chair of the town’s Affordable Housing Commission as well, said the POCD will provide guidance for the group tasked with figuring out how to diversify housing options in town. The commission has held off on proposing or implementing new plans while waiting to see what the surveys and final planning document had to say about the town’s appetite for change.

“I think all of that together will provide a clearer picture for how we need to move ahead with affordable housing,” she said. 

First Selectman David Lahm in a Thursday phone interview said the “will of the people” is evident in the draft document. 

“Open space is still the priority,” he said. 

That doesn’t mean affordable housing is not an important factor, according to Lahm. He said survey responses show that encouraging accessory dwelling units (ADUs) – also known as in-law apartments, guest houses and granny pods – and affordable single-family homes can be a solution in town. 

“The one thing they are not in favor of is multi unit housing,” he said. 

The town’s environmental ethos has remained unchanged since the publication of the first plan in 1964, when town leaders laid the groundwork for a focus on farming and conservation they hoped would keep the town’s population of 1,300 relatively steady despite the completion of nearby Interstate 95 only a few years prior. 

At the time, they feared the town’s inhabitants could number 5,000 by 1990 if left unchecked. So they put in zoning and subdivision controls restricting commercial development to existing areas in Hamburg and Hadlyme while keeping large tracts of undeveloped land intact. 

Today, U.S. Census figures count the population today at 2,352 people. Land records show more than half the town’s land mass is preserved as open space. 

Minimum lot sizes in Lyme now range from one to three acres across town in order to limit how many homes can be built. Only 4% of respondents said they believed smaller lot sizes should be allowed. 

The document calls for Lyme’s “aggressive sewer avoidance program” to continue, with regular inspections and maintenance of septic systems and required pumping.

The draft is being presented against the backdrop of a state vision, outlined in the Connecticut Conservation and Development Policies Plan, that describes thriving economies and increased affordable housing as key components of sustainable, equitable, vibrant and resilient communities. 

According to the plan’s authors, Lyme’s vision is in keeping with state goals for conservation and development.

“The State Plan is based on an overall philosophy of anti-sprawl, directing growth to those areas of Connecticut where infrastructure such as roads, public water and public sewers already exists, or where infrastructure can easily be expanded,” the document reads. “The State’s Plan also recommends that extensive growth be avoided in sensitive environmental areas and areas where little infrastructure exists. Lyme’s Plan meets both criteria.”

The draft POCD, stating that “uncontrolled growth and poor planning” can drastically change a town, emphasized the need to act in ways that preserve Lyme’s rural atmosphere. 

Recommendations include increasing the availability of housing by converting existing homes into affordable units, promoting ADUs and creating design standards for residential development. 

The plan continues to support farming, farm markets and work-from-home enterprises. Recommendations include limiting commercial development to existing zones while investigating regulations “that support local tradespeople, certain essential service providers and farm stores.” 

The draft report acknowledges more than 50% of land in town is protected as open space, but cautioned there’s still a lot of room for growth: “If future development on Lyme’s remaining available land is not carefully monitored and controlled, Lyme could quickly be transformed into a more suburban town.”

Recommendations call for strengthening land use regulations, preserving open fields and cultural features, maintaining an inventory of historic sites, and educating residents about sensitive areas. Farmland should be safeguarded through policies that protect the town’s agricultural roots and promote local food production. Open space preservation should focus on large, connected tracts managed for biodiversity through dedicated funding in partnership with local, regional and state groups. 

The POCD survey for the first time includes questions about emergency services, which exist locally as the publicly funded Lyme Fire Department and privately funded Lyme Ambulance Association.

Respondents supported continuing the volunteer-based models for the fire department and ambulance association, according to the draft report. Ambulance company leaders during a stakeholder interview said taxpayer funding for facilities and equipment will become necessary in the coming years.

Data in the report puts the number of ambulance association calls at 300 per year. The Town provides one bay in each firehouse, fuel for the ambulances, workers compensation coverage and a pension plan for those who qualify. The nonprofit organization’s operating costs and capital expenses for vehicles and equipment are funded by donations and by billing insurance companies.

Lahm credited the POCD writing committee, consisting of House, David Tiffany, Jennifer Tiffany and Mary Stone, for a job well done. 

“They put a lot of hard work into that and came up with a good product,” he said. 

A public hearing must be held no sooner than 35 days from the filing of the plan with the town clerk. A date has not yet been set, according to House. She said the commission hopes to schedule two hearing dates to ensure as many people as possible can participate. 

The draft document will then go back to the Planning and Zoning Commission for any revisions and a final vote before the new year, House said.

View a copy of the draft plan here.

Editor’s Note: This report was updated to include a copy of the full draft report.

Controversial Overlay Proposal Comes to a Crossroads at Public Hearing in Old Lyme Wednesday

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OLD LYME – A long-awaited hearing is scheduled for Wednesday as residents remain enmeshed in a fractious debate over the meaning of progress on a short span of road stuck between two interchanges of the state’s busiest highway. 

The Old Lyme Zoning Commission on Wednesday is slated to invite public opinion on a controversial proposal to reenvision Halls Road as a mixed-use town center with businesses on the ground level and apartments above. The plan involves the creation of an overlay district that gives business owners and developers in the commercial zone more ways to use their property than are currently allowed. 

Opposition to the plan is evident in “Overlay? No Way!” signs all over town and a petition that has amassed 1,204 signatures at the time of writing. 

Critics say the plan has the potential to create more than 1,000 apartments on 40 acres if it goes through. Proponents argue topography and regulatory realities would effectively limit development to less than 400.

The proposal was developed by the Halls Road Improvements Committee (HRIC) and submitted to the Zoning Commission in November by First Selectwoman Martha Shoemaker after approval by the Board of Selectmen. The public hearing, which began in January, was continued to the end of February. But the meeting was postponed at the request of Shoemaker and the HRIC, who informed residents the move was prompted by “strong interest” in the topic that required a larger venue and more time for the commission to review communications from residents. 

Deadlines contained in state statute require the public hearing to be closed no later than the end of next week, according to Old Lyme Land Use Coordinator Eric Knapp. The commission then has 65 days to make a decision on the proposal. 

The discussion on how best to guide development in one of the town’s main commercial districts has been ongoing for over a decade. Proponents of the latest iteration of the plan are pitching it as a way to entice developers to build a livable, shoppable, walkable hub over time, while those opposed decry its potential to drive out existing small businesses and bring in enough new residents to decimate the small town’s “character.”

The petition on change.org says the signers strongly oppose development of Halls Road as submitted by the HRIC. 

“While we understand the need for thoughtful progress and economic growth, we believe this specific project will negatively impact the character, environment, and quality of life in our cherished community,” the petition says. 

But HRIC chairwoman Edie Twining describes the proposal as a positive change that would benefit businesses through increased foot traffic while providing more diverse housing options in a town dominated by single-family homes. 

“We have people every day trying to find a place to live, to downsize to, and it’s not available,” she said in a phone interview Monday. 

The three-quarter-mile-long thoroughfare currently is lined with strip malls and parking lots that hark back to the mid-20th century rise of suburbanization. Back then, developers sought to capitalize on the distance between where Americans lived and where they worked by creating commercial zones in between. 

Now, the mixed-use philosophy of development seeks to close the gap with the goal of creating more vibrant, self-sufficient communities. 

At the crux of the proposal is an amendment to zoning regulations that would create the overlay district as an alternative set of guidelines and design specifications that property owners can choose to follow if they wish to undertake certain projects currently prohibited in the zone, namely residential construction. 

Overlay zoning is an increasingly popular municipal planning mechanism to address specific community goals in sections of town that would otherwise be limited to one type of use.

The overlay district would require at least 10% of the apartments or condominiums to be set aside at rates affordable to lower-income households. That means up to 90% could be rented at market rates attractive to developers in a landscape dominated by a shortage of housing. 

‘Out of Scale’

Sloan Danenhower, a former alternate member of the Zoning Commission and vocal opponent of the overlay proposal, said the problem can be boiled down to the sheer size of the buildings that would be allowed in the overlay district. 

“If (a building) is 200 feet long, and it’s 100 feet deep, that’s 20,000 square feet of a footprint. You take that and you multiply it by three because you can go three stories up. Now you’re talking about a 60,000 square foot building,” he said in a phone interview Monday. “It’s just out of scale.”

The overlay district proposal was approved by the Old Lyme Board of Selectmen in a 2-1 vote in November. The overlay concept that month earned a letter of support from the Economic Development Commission, and the proposal was endorsed 5-0 by the Planning Commission in January. 

Republican Selectwoman Jude Read in her dissenting vote argued that the swell of support from municipal leaders and data points from outdated, selective community survey results did not tell the whole story. Read, who is married to Danenhower, said voices from residents opposed to the change were not being heard. 

Now, residents are speaking out through petitions and a steady stream of social media posts dissecting the motivations behind the move to alter Halls Road. They object to the scope of the proposed changes and the effect of new construction on the Lieutenant River’s delicate ecosystem. 

The petition calls on residents to attend Wednesday’s public hearing. 

“We are not opposed to change – but we must find a better solution than this developer-driven urbanization of our charming, rural town,” the petition states.  

According to the proposed regulation, the overlay district would allow developers to build up to 40 apartments or condominiums per acre as long as they follow specific guidelines and design standards. It also includes allowances for parking garages and drive-through establishments. 

But possible modifications to the proposal submitted in February by Attorney William Sweeney, who represents the applicant, reduced the density from 40 units per acre to 30 units per acre. 

Opponents like Danenhower multiply 30 units per acre by the roughly 40-acre footprint to estimate the proposal could bring up to 1,200 units to Halls Road. 

Marketability

Twining contends the simple math used by critics to predict the impact of the zoning proposal does not take into account numerous factors laid out in the 12-page text amendment that can limit the number of units allowed on any given property. Factors such as building size, lot coverage and parking requirements combine to allow for far fewer units.

Twining and her partner, Mark Terwilliger, calculated a maximum of about 400 units could be built once all factors are analyzed. 

Terwilliger said the conservative figures don’t take into account the issue of septic or sewer availability, which would further limit the number of units. 

Terwilliger guessed that incorporating septic requirements into the equation would likely bring the allowable number of units down to around 200. 

Asked to respond to the suggestion by some opponents to reduce the allowable number of units if it’s impossible to build that many anyway, he said each parcel is different. 

Some properties are better suited for more apartments and others can accommodate far fewer, he said. 

“To be honest, I couldn’t figure out how to get more than 22 units per acre on even the best site,” he said, based on a typical apartment size just under 1,000 square feet. 

But that could change over time, according to Terwilliger. 

“The average apartment size that we’re talking about is what’s marketable now,” he said. “Who knows, in 25 years people may be renting apartments that are 400 square feet.” 

A Long Road

The effort to re-envision Halls Road has spanned multiple first selectmen. The Halls Road Improvements Committee was introduced by Democrat Bonnie Reemsnyder in 2015 with the goal of advising the Board of Selectmen on how best to develop a master plan for the area. The discussion grew from initial calls for sidewalks to include the possibility of village-like storefronts and apartments, a pedestrian bridge and more greenspace. 

But Reemsnyder successor Tim Griswold, a Republican, called the vision too grandiose. He said at the time that he preferred to focus on building sidewalks one segment at a time before considering such broad plans. 

Twining since then has led the group through grant applications, multiple proposals for zoning changes, numerous vacancies and the election of a new first selectwoman, Democrat Martha Shoemaker.

A previous HRIC proposal, which was pulled by Griswold in 2021, would have imposed building specifications and design standards that anyone developing on the street would have to follow. The overlay concept emerged in a follow-up application as a voluntary way to bring change to Halls Road, but was rejected by the Zoning Commission in 2023 after a negative referral from the Old Lyme Planning Commission.

The Halls Road committee in the current proposal addressed some concerns about its predecessor by specifying a 35-ft. height restriction. But opponents say some other changes – including increasing the maximum building footprint 10,000 sq. ft. to 20,000 sq. ft., and a maximum length from 125 ft. to 200 ft. – make the pending application even worse than the previous one. 

Danenhower last month filed a petition with the town to require a two-thirds voting majority on the application rather than a simple majority, according to commission documents. State statute allows property owners to petition for a more stringent voting threshold if those owners represent at least 20% of the area within 500 feet of the proposed overlay zone. 

“If it takes four out of five instead of three out of five, it’s a higher bar for them to get to in order to pass this,” Danenhower said. 

Land Use Coordinator Eric Knapp in a March 25 memo said the property owners, who signed the petition, represented 25.8% of the affected area. He advised the commission to discuss the petition and how to address it after the public hearing is closed. 

Danenhower, who is unaffiliated, served as an alternate member on the Old Lyme Zoning Commission until the board of selectmen made its yearly appointments of local non-elected positions in February. Meeting minutes show a motion by Read to reappoint three standing alternate members – including her husband – was not seconded. Read was the lone nay vote when Shoemaker and Selectman Jim Lampos (D) reappointed standing alternate members Michael Barnes (U) and Michael Fogliano (U) but did not return Danenhower to his position. Instead, they chose Mary-Gardner Coppola (D).

The Overhaul

Both Read and Danenhower have stated publicly that the town should not vote on changes to the zoning regulations on Halls Road while there is an comprehensive $129,776 overhaul of the current regulations being conducted currently by the Hartford-based FHI Studio. 

The planning and design firm was hired late last year to embark on a year-and-a-half-long project to clean up existing language in the regulations and then engage the public in discussion about potential changes to what can be built in town and where. 

“What they should do is withdraw this proposal and roll it into that plan to revisit and rewrite the zoning regulations,” Danenhower said. 

Knapp, the land use coordinator, said the firm is on track to conclude the clean-up phase by the fall. That’s when the “heavier lifting” on a resident-informed review of the town’s zoning philosophy will begin.

Twining said waiting for the completion of the overhaul project would needlessly prolong a process that’s already been delayed many times. 

She noted the Big Y plaza and Old Lyme Marketplace across the street are currently for sale. The only options currently available to a developer are commercial ones. 

“We could end up with a major medical center right in the middle of our commercial center. We could end up with gas stations or convenience stores to serve the highway,” she said. “In the meantime, we could have had the opportunity to bring in some housing that we desperately need.”

Extremes

Terwilliger lamented that the divisive and oftentimes vitriolic debate leading up to Wednesday’s public hearing relies on what he described as an inaccurate and incomplete reading of the proposed regulation by opponents. 

He said the actual number of units that could be accommodated on Halls Road is “miles away” from the 1,200 to 1,600 figure cited by critics. 

“It’s too bad that we didn’t have the opportunity to have a conversation about whether or not it is a good idea to have a couple hundred apartments in a mixed-use neighborhood that’s walkable, which is all we were really trying to do,” he said. 

Danenhower, for his part, said the current proposal is far removed from the committee’s original charge of addressing pedestrian safety through measures like the installation of sidewalks, lighting and signage. 

“Nobody disagrees that Halls Road needs improvement,” he said. 

Twining said the public hearing will be an opportunity to speak with the Zoning Commission about changes they want to make to the proposal. 

“They have every right to make as many changes as they want,” she said. “The hope is they don’t make it so extreme that no developer wants to be involved with the project.”

Editor’s Notes: i)The public hearing will be held Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. in the Lyme-Old Lyme High School auditorium at 69 Lyme St., Old Lyme.
ii) A reminder of Our Policy on Comments.

This article was updated to correct information about the petition calling for a two-thirds voting majority by the Zoning Commission and to clarify the Economic Development Commission’s letter of support for the overlay concept.