The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
HISTORIC VALUES
Residents clash over ‘rampant commercialization’ taking over historic Main Street
DURHAM >> The town’s Planning and Zoning Commission voted 6 to 2 last week to adopt the draft of the Plan of Conservation and Development, which will go into effect on Aug. 1.
According to the 123-page Plan of Conservation and Development found on the town website, “... the plan reflects a community desire to maintain Durham’s small-town character and project its natural beauty while, at the same time, allowing an appropriate scale of development to expand the tax base and accommodate demand for new residences and businesses.”
Two dissenting P&Z members voiced concerns about the wording in sections of the document.
Joe Pasquale said wording in the economic section needed to be rewritten to reflect the positive attributes of the Durham
community. “We are portraying a negative where we should be portraying a positive,” he said. “With minor modifications, we could have a more positive plan.”
David Foley also suggested certain language in the plan should be revisited and “hashed out” on a more gradual basis.
Chair Frank DeFelice thanked the commission members for their hard work, adding that wording of the plan can be modified at a future time.
Former Town Counsel, Republican Robert S. Poliner, who did not attend the meeting, said the POCD “makes no changes to regulations. It’s a general statement of potential use of land in Durham.”
The state requires the POCD to be updated every 10 years. Durham’s decade deadline expired on July 1, but was extended. At the July 13 public hearing, which attracted less than 30 residents, the term “mixed-use real estate” was discussed and clarified. Though not defined in the POCD, the term refers to a property or development that mixes residential with commercial use.
Earlier, during a February meeting, 250 town residents participated in charrettes, brainstorming sessions about the future of Durham. Information gleaned was used by the planning commission to prepare the town’s next Plan of Conservation and Development.
Values participants discussed included the town’s historic district, agriculture, and that “small-town, rural feeling that Durham is known for,” DeFelice said. The meeting also welcomed opinions on Durham’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and possible threats.
This spring, Poliner drew both positive and negative comments when he wrote on Facebook that “Durham has taken two hits in successive revaluations over the last six years. Our grand list has shrunk because of those revaluations by nearly 15 percent. The P&Z must take into consideration throughout the town what may help to restore values. Unprecedented numbers of homes have been on the market for sale in the last two years and it has taken many months ... to find buyers,” Poliner wrote.
“Houses along Main Street have been some of the most difficult to sell and taken the longest time. More uses compatible with our Main Street will help to raise values of Main Street properties without changing the historic designation or character or the requirement for Historic District Commission approval,” according to Poliner.
“The draft of the plan does not suggest any drastic changes should be considered ... it is time to take down the little blue signs reading ‘Save Historic Durham.’ [P]eople driving through Durham are getting the wrong idea about what is happening, causing negative inferences concerning properties and negative effects on their valuations thus hurting both owners and the town,” Poliner wrote.
However, resident Shari Davidson Foley responded that “your demand that the residents shut up and take down those signs because ‘we know best’ smacks of free speech suppression. The residents of Durham need to be heard.”
Poliner said he believes overregulation “is harmful and reduces values of Main Street properties depriving the owners of true fair market value and the town of needed tax revenues. Many Main Street residences are granted reductions of approximately 10 percent simply for being in a very busy location.”
He added that “the busier the location usually (means) more activity and higher values. Existing regulations have kept many clean businesses from locating in Durham and those cost the town additions to the grand list and depress revenues.”
Speaking this week by telephone from the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Durham resident Jay Berardino said several people in town have told him they have been waiting for the vision expressed in the POCD to become a reality.
“Many town residents have to shop in either Middletown or Madison,” Berardino said. “They’re looking for more stores in town. Most of the older houses on Main Street at one time or another housed shops, taverns, lawyer or doctors’ offices.”
Berardino, a retired Realtor, said 15 years ago the town hired economist, Don Klepper-Smith of New Haven-based DataCore Partners LLC, to conduct a survey of what the Town of Durham needed.
“The second biggest item was get rid of the blight on Main Street,” Berardino said. “No porches or siding falling off houses. But, the number one item was more shops.”
Berardino says he is not concerned that POCD will open the door to rampant commercialization in Durham.
“Over the years, I’ve had many inquiries from businesses who wanted to open in town,” he said. “But, there were no places. Now there will be. The plan calls for very careful review. The P&Z (Commission) has been very deliberate in its approach.”