I hope to use my years of legal and zoning experience to continue to assist Newtown in administering its zoning rules in a more principled way and, perhaps, even to prompt some real future planning for our town’s growth. I intend to bring a principled, open and balanced view toward development and economic opportunity for Newtown.

There is a distinct need to bring “Land Use” back to more principled zoning practices where personal whims are less important than clear and understandable rules so that everyone (land owners, developers, professionals and residents alike) can see and anticipate what the law requires — where murky backroom deals and questionable support for citizen-boards are no longer tolerated. Healthy growth in Newtown will only come with predictable land use outcomes after robust public participation.

Zoning, itself, deals with rules restricting the uses of property. It might best help economic growth, in a sense, by “getting out of the way” in order to allow more development to occur. We can’t do that in a vacuum, however, or at the expense of the way of life that generations of our citizens have built. It must be done in a manner that protects our entire community, both residents and businesses alike — now and into the future.

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As the attorney for the Borough of Newtown and its zoning commission for 37 years (the Borough never lost in court) and as a past member of the town Planning and Zoning Commission, I’ve seen our Land Use commissions and agencies repeatedly depart from their own zoning principles, whether inadvertently or intentionally, and often enough, just because someone wants a particular result. Those practices compromise the town’s growth plans and corrupt its regulatory system. They have to change. The sidelining of zoning rules and regulations renders both the regulations and future town planning efforts meaningless.