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Improve the quality of life for current and future residents of the Central Naugatuck Valley Region by promoting orderly conservation and development of the Region as a whole, while encouraging community identity and character.

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An Adobe PDF copy of the plan can be download here. (11.18 mb)

SUMMARY OF KEY ISSUES & RECOMMENDATIONS

The following sections summarize the key issues and recommendations that comprise the Plan. The issues and recommendations are presented under topical headings that relate to their discussion in the Plan.

• Demographic Trends
• Land Use & Growth Patterns
• Natural Resource Conservation
• Housing & Residential Densities
• Economic Development
• Transportation
• Open Space
• Water Supply & Sewer Service

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Key Issues

• Outward movement of population and employment, resulting in a concentration of poor and minority groups in urban areas.
• Changing age composition in the Region:
  • growing school age population (ages 5-17),
  • more mature adults (ages 35 to 64) due to the aging baby boom, and
  • a significant increase in the elderly population (ages 65 and over).

Key Issues

• Outward movement of population and employment in the Region resulting in:
  • a trend towards more sprawling development patterns,
  • an increased rate of land consumption in the Region, 
  • new development being located outside of the regional core and outside of utility service areas,
  • a loss of open spaces in the Region, and
  • a loss of a sense of place or community in parts of the Region.
• Development on constrained land at the perimeter of the Region, bypassing:
  • fully serviced land closer to the regional core, and
  • "brownfield" sites in urban areas.

Recommendations

• Guide the location of growth in the Region towards the regional center and areas with infrastructure.
• Encourage settlement patterns that reduce the rate of land consumption.
• Facilitate sustained and coordinated efforts to renovate brownfield sites.
• Evaluate the fiscal impacts of growth within the Region.
• Encourage periodic review of local land use regulations.

Key Issues

• Relationship of development intensity to natural resource limitations.
• Conflicting water usage interests in the Pomperaug River basin.
• Overall water quality in the region. 

Recommendations

• Protect water quality in the Region.
• Relate land use intensity to the capability of the land.
• Support efforts to protect natural resources.
• Encourage consideration of impacts on natural resources.

Key Issues

• Lack of construction of affordable housing
• Lack of housing of desired types and costs in parts of the Region
• Inefficient settlement patterns.
• Loss of community character.
• Need to revitalize urban housing units and neighborhoods.

Recommendations

• Increase opportunities for affordable housing in the Region.
• Encourage a variety of housing types throughout the Region.
• Encourage settlement patterns that utilize infrastructure.
• Continue efforts to enhance the character of our communities and revitalize urban housing units and neighborhoods.

Key Issues

• The importance of nurturing precision manufacturing businesses.
• The need for worker training to benefit people and businesses.
• Strengthening the role of Waterbury as the employment center of the region.

Recommendations

• Nurture the Region's strength as a center of precision manufacturing.
• Aggressively pursue economic development for the Region.
• Guide the location of economic development to the regional center and major economic areas.
• Prepare workers for current and future needs.

Key Issues

• Increasing automobile dependency in the Region.
• Increasing traffic congestion in the Region.
• The need to maintain and upgrade the Region's transportation system, both highway and transit.
• Declining use of local bus service.

Recommendations

• Maintain and improve the Region's highway system - the I-84 corridor is the greatest highway priority.
• Improve and expand transportation options (bus, rail, bicycle, pedestrian).
• Coordinate land use and transportation actions.
• Continue to plan for needed transportation improvements.
• Anticipate and address future transportation needs.

Key Issues

• Lack of preserved open space in the Region.
• Lack of water-based recreation opportunities in the Region.
• Lack of a coordinated approach to open space preservation.

Recommendations

• Protect more open space in the Region.
• Focus efforts on obtaining sites for water-based recreation.
• Preserve declassified water company property as open space.
• Coordinate and prioritize open space preservation throughout the Region.
• Encourage use of a broad range of tools to protect open space.
• Manage open space effectively to maximize benefits.
• Encourage efforts to preserve open space action areas, critical environmental areas, and areas threatened by development.

Key Issues

• Whether to provide infrastructure for growth in outlying areas.
• The need to maintain infrastructure in the Region, especially older systems.
• New development that is located outside of utility service areas and at densities that are too low to efficiently serve with infrastructure.

Recommendations

• Protect the quality of the Region's water supply.
• Ensure an adequate supply of water for the Region.
• Reduce the impacts of sewer discharges.
• Use the infrastructure system to guide growth.
• Carefully manage existing infrastructure systems.
• Encourage private maintenance of septic systems.
• Encourage water conservation in the Region.