Table of Contents
Budget 2022
| For viewers of last Wednesday’s FY 2022-23 budget hearing, the crafting of a town budget was fully in evidence. Over several at times contentious hours the differing views of council members were heard, discussed, and action taken to add, delete or otherwise alter the final budget document. On almost every issues, save education and the pension, there was no party line voting and that is encouraging. Despite the pandemic and other world events, Glastonbury is fiscally healthy. In this budget, the town’s pension obligations are fully met; the school system adequately funded; police department staffing increased; mental health services for children increased; new fire trucks purchased and our reserve account funded to handle nearly any contingency. these necessary actions and more were accomplished without the need to increase the mill rate. This coming year brings with it server challenges and community discussions that need to be held on affordable housing, the Williams Memorial and the continued acquision of farm and open land spaces. When these discussions occur, I hope residents will remember that Glastonbury has had till recently a history of civility. Behavior contrary to civil discourse reflects poorly not only on the individual or individuals raucously demonstrating but on the community as a whole. |
Affordable Housing
| An Open Letter to the Members of the State Legislative Planning and Development Committee” We applaud you for working on solutions to address Connecticut’s housing crisis. Over the years we have looked to make more rental opportunities and entry level housing available in Glastonbury with limited success. We would like to share some experiences so that any resulting bill may have a real chance of improving the situation. To illustrate, Glastonbury’s experience with deed restricted housing has not been positive. Why? Because developers could not sell those units. Qualified low income buyers who purchased at a reduced rate still expected full equity to surrounding units when they sold and were unwilling to settle for less. Thus, affordable units sat unsold. Once these unsold affordable units saw their deed restrictions lifted due to the passage of time, they sold at market rates, giving that developer an unintended windfall from the increased 20% housing density bonus given in failed expectation of increasing affordable housing. Presently, much of Glastonbury’s remaining land for development is without public sewer, water or transportation. Much of that land requires large lots to support wells for drinking and septic systems for sewage. As you undoubtedly are aware, given the controversy continually surrounding the MDC, extending public water and sewers is no small matter and incurs an expense that your constituents and ours would find onerous. Raised Bill 6611 suggests that properties need to be deed restricted. Given our aforementioned experience, this suggests that Glastonbury’s well-run and successful Housing Authority would be the vehicle for development However, this bill provides no financial support to achieve its lofty ambitions. To assume, as Bill 6611 does, that local taxpayers will tax (bond) themselves to bring a project to fruition doesn’t as old Yankees are apt to remark “pass the mustard.” Lastly, it should be noted that Glastonbury does have a number of housing units that are either sold or rented that would qualify as affordable but the current methodology of counting does not permit this to occur. This needs to be corrected and should be done so as quickly as possible to insure that the “fair” in “fair share” is indeed “fair.” |
License Plate Readers
| Why aren’t Glastonbury police using license plate readers? The simplest answer is that the chief of police through the town manager has not requested the council to fund them. Why not? Speculating now, I imagine one reason might be the number of false positives that even in the best of circumstances average 10%. I suspect the last thing the chief wants is for officers to be chasing imaginary car thieves across Glastonbury’s landscape. Another consideration could be that the town has numerous entrance points where locating a license plate reader is not feasible. Third, other technologies that the department already uses communicate information like the make, model and plate number of stolen cars to officers that reduce the necessity for a plate reader. Next, there is the issue of privacy. Just as the Second Amendment insures the right to gun ownership, the First, Third, Fifth, Ninth and Fourteenth Amendments provide for the right to privacy. Actions that infringe on that right need to be undertaken cautiously. Recognize that the camera does not discriminate between good guys and bad guys. Information will be collected on everyone. How that information will be analyzed. stored and for how long are legitimate concerns. Further, is the seller of that technology able to access that information (even at a mega data level) thus potentially providing an opportunity for the dissemination of that data for purposes outside those originally intended? These are questions deserving careful consideration. I have no doubt that the police chief and town manager will approach the Town Council with requests for additional financial support if they believe those funds will improve the safety of town residents. And while I am speaking only for myself, I also have no doubt that if additional financial support is requested, it will be provided by this Council. |
Village District is a Powerful Tool
| For several months in a bi-partisan effort, we, Tom Gullotta and Kurt Cavanaugh, have pursued the creation of a town center village district. You might wonder why? To answer that question, travel north from Katz’s to the East Hartford town line. Are you impressed with the architecture, landscaping, and signs? Do you find it beckoning you to park your car and stroll along Main Street? How about that most recent development that houses Chick-fil-A? Several of us on the Council urged the developer to use a building style complimenting a town with a rich traditional architectural heritage. Instead, in our opinion, the town got a retro 1950’s minimalist variation on a strip mall, with flat-roofed boxy buildings that don’t enhance our town’s image. The same is true for the new building at the ‘corner of Sycamore and Hebron Avenue that greets visitors to our Town Center with a flat- roofed box, punctuated by a comical false gable. Now, return to Katz’s and travel south. Note that a two-and-a-half story center chimney colonial sits beside St. James Church; that two attractive Victorians still grace the area before you reach the Gideon Welles House at the corner of Main and Hebron; and that the building south of the library compliments the colonial and other traditional buildings that remain in the Town Center. Look across the street at the building that Kamin’s once occupied and imagine the mass of concrete that will someday spill over from that site past Bollywood’s to swallow Evert’s and the other small retailers in the old Curtis building. A village district will not stop change along Main Street but it will give TPZ a powerful tool to ensure that the architectural mistakes north of Katz’s are not repeated south of that property. That is why we, and some others on the council, want a Village Center designation. Once our town’s historic character is gone, it’s gone forever. |
Proofs
