The Westport Planning & Zoning Commission has completed work on establishing its major planning and development priorities for 2010, according to Chairman Ron Corwin.

The top priorities include developing regulations to encourage more restaurants, outdoor dining, and entertainment venues, and reviewing regulations regarding the size of residential structures. 

They also include review of regulations that impact affordable housing, and those that regulate fill and excavation so as to minimize the adverse impact of development.

“The priorities were agreed upon by the Commission members after a review of the 2007 Plan of Conservation and Development, comments received from time-to-time from the public, and individual commissioner objectives,” Corwin said.

"Given Westport’s need continue to carry out the objectives of 2007 Plan of Conservation and Development, the Commission looks forward to becoming active in a number of these areas,” he said.

He said each of the top five top priorities will have a subcommittee or task force consisting of Commission members and staff working on them. In almost all cases, the result will be draft text amendments which will propose changes to existing zoning regulations, he said.

“Once the Commission has prepared a proposed amendment and it has gained a majority vote of members, the Commission will then conduct public hearings on each proposal and invite comments from the public as well as town departments,” Corwin said.

Following is a list of the Commission’s priorities for 2010 with a brief explanatory comment on each.

1. Quick Hits for Westport Businesses. The Commission recognizes that Westport's commercial areas appear in the last few years to have lost ground to surrounding communities, especially downtown and wishes to consider a range of actions to help bring about more vibrant, active and appealing commercial areas. These include: 1) encouraging more restaurants and more outdoor dining, 2) simplified rules for outdoor events and activities, 3) regulation changes to encourage more entertainment venues, 4) more sensible and practical signage regulations and 5) parking requirements that are more sensitive to business needs and the environment.  Each of these areas will require a collective effort by the Commission, the P&Z Staff and the public to more fully explore and come up with workable solutions.
2. Excavation & Fill Regulations. The Commission will be working on some simple and quick changes to the town’s excavation and fill regulations to help minimize the adverse impacts associated with development. Environmental and drainage concerns continue to be a problem that Commission’s efforts should be able to address.
3. Residential Structure Regulations. This year the Commission will work to complete its efforts to implement new residential structure regulations.  Much of the work on this topic was previously completed by the town’s consultants and the Commission’s objective is to put the finishing touches on this and bring it to the public for review and comment.
4. Affordable Housing. Affordable housing is another area where the Commission has already done a considerable amount of subcommittee work that needs now to be completed. The objective is to finish the work and to present solutions to the public so that this very important topic can be addressed.
5. Definitions for New Construction, Demolition and Reconstruction. Zoning Regulations need to have clear and definable terms. The Commission’s goal, with assistance from the P&Z staff, will be to provide clear and measurable standards for these terms.

Time permitting, the Commission may address other Commission generated initiatives as well, Corwin said.