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All Talk, No Action
Sixth draft of regional plan produces not much beyond calls for a seventh
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Business New Haven
4/3/2000
By: Linda Mele
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It's back to the drawing board for members of the Regional Planning Commission (RPC) of the South Central Regional Council of Governments and its Regional Plan of Development.
The RPC unveiled the “draft” plan - the sixth such draft it has released over the last 18 months - March 23 at a public hearing in Hamden before fewer than three dozen attendees. Those who chose to speak had a common complaint: It doesn't go far enough.
The goal of the project was to update the current plan, which dates from 1968. “While several attempts were made over the years to update it, it was never done,” explained Sal Catardi, a member of the RPC executive committee.
New Haven Mayor John DeStefano submitted a summary of his own recommendations while also praising the commission's efforts. “It has good, strong, powerful goals,” DeStefano said, “but it falls short in a meaningful and significant way by failing to come up with specific plans to reach those goals.
“We can figure out the how-to, but you should be setting the specific goals,” DeStefano said. “For example, how can we improve a regional airport when the town line runs down the middle of the runway?” DeStefano asked, referring to Tweed-New Haven Airport, located in both New Haven and East Haven and which has been a bone of contention between the two municipalities for years.
“Challenge us to think big and get beyond the petty town-line boundaries set up hundreds of years ago,” DeStefano added.
According to Catardi, RPC members didn't think they had the expertise to outline solutions to the problems facing each individual community even though they might affect the region as a whole. “I'm encouraged by the amount of work put into this plan,” said John Friedlander, a Meriden resident who works in New Haven, “but I believe every plan can be improved.” Friedlander said he was “tremendously encouraged by the transportation goals,” but the plan “doesn't begin to address the goals.”
Friedlander said the plan needs to recommend specific transportation Initiatives, including mass transportation.
While the issue of housing was addressed in the plan, a half-dozen people testified that it did not adequately address the problem of affordable housing in the region, and neither did it provide a clear direction or solutions. Sarah Cowan and Abigail Levine of the Yale Hunger & Homeless Action Project also said that the plan “has no quantitative goals regarding affordable housing.” Rev. Howard Nash of St. Bernadette's Church in New Haven said that each of the 15 COG municipalities should be responsible for providing “a variety of housing options. New Haven shouldn't be the safety net for towns like Orange and Woodbridge.
Kathy Alagno, executive vice president of the Milford Chamber of Commerce, says she was not pleased at the reference to New Haven's proposed Long Wharf mall, which Milford has challenged in court. “The plan should not talk about specific developers or development projects [and references to the mall project] should be deleted from the plan,” Alagno said.
“We felt we didn't know enough about each town and its specific needs to say that North Branford or Guilford should be required to do something specific,” Catardi explained, “but obviously you think we should. “It's clear what you think is lacking in the plan and that a seventh draft would probably be necessary before it can be presented to the mayors and first selectmen of COG,” Catardi added.
The next step for the commission was to review the testimony given at the hearing as well as any written comments received before the March 31 deadline and plan another draft if necessary.
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