Zoning Board to Consider Recommending Master Plan Modifications to Planning Board

The Zoning Board of Adjustment met a half hour earlier than usual Tuesday to discuss their annual report and to consider suggesting to the Planning Board modifications to the master plan that better reflect the future of zoning in New Milford.

Board Attorney Scott Sproviero asked the board to consider the "big picture" while reviewing the types of applications that came before them in 2012.

"The annual report should not just be a recitation of what we did," Sproviero said. "It should tell us why(we did what we did), tell us where you think we should go...(you should) begin to engage this thought process and discussion."

Responding to this, Zoning Board Chairman Karl Schaffenberger said that while reviewing the applications that came before the board in 2012, one word kept coming to mind--water.

"We had five applications that came before the board in 2012," Schaffenberger said. "And with the exception of one, they all include water."

The four applications that dealt with issues of water and flooding that Schaffenberger is referring to are:

• New Milford Redevelopment (United Water property)
• Fresh and Fancy Farms
• Sanzari's New Bridge Inn
• Gospel Fellowship Church 

However, Schaffenberger questioned how the issue of water and flooding could be incorporated into zoning, other than to suggest that the Planning Board address it in the master plan.

Sproviero said that in the process of reviewing the borough's zoning structure, the board should take into account issues of water and flooding in order to acknowledge that the town has a water/flooding situation and try to "make the ordinances the best that they can be in acknowledgement of that situation."

Zoning Board Planner, Paul Grygiel, said that Sproviero's suggestions for the board to consider is within the purview of the Planning Board, who can either re-examine the master plan or prepare a new master plan to address the issue of flooding.

Patch will continue to update this discussion of potential Zoning Board recommendations to the Planning Board regarding modifications to the master plan to reflect flooding and water concerns.

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