Planning and Zoning Commision to seek additional funding for plan publication

By Veronica Burns

The Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) recently held a special meeting with town plan consultant, Glenn Chalder, to hammer out behind-the-scenes issues in the ongoing town plan process. First, P&Z tried to fine-tune a survey questionnaire and then discussed the town plan program options. Last September, when the process of creating a new town plan began, one of the suggestions was to conduct a town survey. This remains a commitment for P&Z Chairman West Lowe. “We promised the townspeople that we wanted their input,” said Lowe at the meeting, “so it is critical that they are involved in this town plan. We need to do this questionnaire.” Discussion centered on the best way to formulate questions. The commission’s concern is that if survey recipients are confused about a question, they would likely respond with a “No Opinion” category, which everyone felt could undermine the value of the questionnaire. The commission decided to wrap the survey into a progress report to bring Norfolk residents up to date with the status of the plan and also to ask for their opinions on specific topics. Chalder then presented the program options for Norfolk’s town plan. P&Z could agree to produce a poster and an implementation guide, which would be a 10-page document, as originally proposed. For more money, P&Z could opt for a town plan book to be produced. There was some concern about the extra money for the book, estimated at an additional $12,000, but most agreed this was a better option. If the commission opted for the poster alone, the schedule for the town plan would likely be completed this year. If P&Z opts for the book, it would move the completion date into spring 2009. Lowe requested, and won, unanimous approval to approach the selectmen and the board of finance for this additional funding. Vint Lawrence, president of the Coalition for Sound Growth, reiterated their offer to pay half of the cost.