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Haddam Bulletin
Volume XLVIII, Number 7 - July, 2007
Haddam's Plan of conservation and Development - Ready for Prime Time?
by John Friedlander
It's old but good advice: Set meaningful goals, and put them in writing. Measure your progress toward your goals often, using metrics that matter. Be accountable -- if you're not reaching your goals, adjust your tactics, or reexamine your goals.
Haddam has an opportunity to choose a path of future success as it moves toward approval of its latest Plan of Conservation and Development (POCD). Every Connecticut town is required by state law to update its POCD every ten years. Haddam's last Plan was dated 1993, so we are long overdue.
Some view the need to prepare a decennial plan as a waste of time -- a government "make work" law that unnecessarily burdens already stretched public servants with needless busy work that will have little or no effect on real life. This cynical opinion may be accurate if a town simply rubberstamps an off-the-shelf template "plan," before putting it back on the shelf to gather dust for ten years.
However, Haddam's new POCD can be as useful a tool as we make it, if we think carefully about what our true goals should be, how we measure our progress toward those goals, and if we hold ourselves accountable to the Plan.
Current status
Currently being reviewed by the Planning and Zoning Commission, the latest revision of the draft Plan will be referred to the Board of Selectmen for review and recommendation. A public hearing will be held early this summer, during which comments may be shared and debated, and amendments to the Plan considered. The Commission will then have an additional opportunity to revise the Plan before either adopting it or putting more work into it.
The good news is that much serious work has gone into developing the latest revision.
Many devoted people spent considerable time contributing data, analysis and vision to the document. Charts, graphs and maps galore illustrate a wide variety of interesting facts about our town. Major contributions have been made by Haddam's Conservation Commission, P and Z, Economic Development Commission, Historical Society, Board of Education, Parks and Recreation Committee, and others.
As a result, the items listed in the Action Agenda, a ten year list of to-dos, show that these and other groups have clear visions of how they want Haddam to progress over the next decade.
The draft plan also frequently references the 1993 Plan, by noting the goals and strategies contained in that document.
What's missing?
Because it is a forward-looking document with a mission of suggesting rather than enforcing agendas, the new draft Plan notably omits items no business plan update would be without: evaluation of our success (or lack thereof) in achieving the town's 1993 goals, and specific, quantitative goals with measurable benchmarks for assessing our progress toward our new goals. Customarily, progress toward goals is tracked by a town executive in coordination with committee chairs, as well as by citizen's communication with their representatives and election results.
In addition, because most of the work on this draft was done prior to this year, there is no mention at all of facing the challenges of new economic imperatives brought about by drastically increased energy costs, the realities of climate change, and society's new interest in the concepts of sustainability.
Fortunately, the Plan is a flexible document, and can be modified as we see fit to adapt to newly important issues.
Haddam now has a golden opportunity to recognize that the POCD could be a defining document that will help us recognize the connections between the quality of life we all desire and the ways we interact with our environment, our government, and our consumption habits.
What is our challenge?
Because the latest energy cost increases may feel like a new issue to some - even though they've been brewing for years - modifying the Plan to include energy, climate and sustainability awareness may take some "out of the box" thinking.
First let's define the box.
In front of us, we are staring down an inexorable rise in energy prices, and increasing evidence that the effects of climate change - or the efforts to forestall them - will include food supply disruptions, property damage, higher living costs, a variety of health issues, and many other unexpected interruptions to the status quo. These effects will be felt not only at home but also in town operations.
Behind us, mentioned in the POCD, is the steady pressure of development demand. Haddam's quality of life is not a secret, and more and more people want to live here, most with families. Because residential development is costly from the town budget's point of view, unchecked residential expansion will exert upward pressure on municipal tax rates, as well as compromising the beauty of our forest resources, deteriorating natural ground water recharge capabilities, and adding air pollution. Balancing the budget will require expanding commercial development opportunities, while controlling possible environmental costs.
On one side, we have a town governing system that requires citizen participation to work well. With a very small paid, full-time staff, and a multitude of volunteer, unpaid committee and commission leaders and members, it is understandable, but unfortunate that many town management challenges founder on the rocks of the limits of each members' ability to devote family time to town business. Part of the reason the POCD is four years overdue is because more apparently urgent matters took priority when time was short and patience overextended.
On the other side, lack of resident participation in town meetings and votes send a message that matters up for discussion aren't worthy of serious consideration. When few people attend zoning or finance meetings which result in decisions with immediate consequences, it is hard to muster the energy needed to deal with issues whose effects are less direct and less easily understood. Fewer than one percent of Haddam residents have participated in the process of developing the POCD to date.
Underneath us, we stand on what, at first glance, seems to be the solid ground of a relatively stable town situation. No dire crises are shaking us, no sordid scandals are sending waves of townfolk toward Town Hall with pitchforks and torches.
But if we look more deeply, we can easily find matters that need resolution sooner, rather than later.
The smelly matter of what we will do with our waste stream awaits resolution, and the fertilizer may finally hit the ventilator later this summer, if the Department of Environmental Protection demands immediate closure of the Transfer Station. It is interesting to note that, despite four paragraphs of information on Haddam's waste handling procedure in the Community Facilities section of the draft Plan, neither the Transfer Station issue in particular, nor Haddam's waste stream in general is mentioned in the Plan's Action Agenda.
The 1993 POCD made economic development a priority, yet despite years of Commission meetings, several infrastructure studies, and untold hundreds or thousands of volunteer hours contributed to the cause, we are seemingly no closer than we have ever been to actually solving the infrastructure issues that prevent further commercial development in Higganum Center and Tylerville. It is interesting to note that the goal of installing the sewers that will enable further commercial development in these areas is expressed in two (perhaps redundant) Action Agenda items in the draft Plan.
Let's Get Specific
Thinking our way out of this box (let's leave the top of the box open, so we can breathe and have some light to climb toward) must start with measurement. We can't make progress toward a goal if we don't know where we've started, where we want to end up, and how much distance there is between those points.
Measurement must be meaningful. Counting the number of building permits issued, for example, doesn't really tell us much about the ability of town residents to find the kinds of housing they need, nor about the amount of forest land removed from the natural cycle we all depend on to keep filling our wells, nor the number of additional tons of carbon dioxide dumped into the atmosphere by the building process, the utilities required by those homes, and the cars that travel to and from them.
Meaningful measurement must be defined by the people who live in this community.
We need to decide what we value, and how we want to preserve, protect and defend our values.
For example, which is more important to us; paying the lowest possible price for every good and service we need, or keeping more of our money in Haddam by supporting locally owned and operated businesses?
Which is more important to us; our schools' evaluations according to the Federal government, or the percentage of our children who say they enjoy school? Which is more important; the median price for a new home in Haddam, or the ability of our young families to find homes they can afford in town?
Which is more important; the number of new subdivision lots, or the number of new homes built with green technologies and low energy use features?
Every section of the POCD should be considered in the light (remember, we left the top of the box open) of the questions "what is most important to us?" and "how will we measure it?" Obviously, we will not all agree on everything. But without the discussion, we will end up with a POCD that does not truly reflect the values of our residents, the current economic and environmental issues we face, nor the true needs of the town.
Perhaps the best way to ensure that the new POCD reflects an awareness of the importance of energy, climate and sustainability issues would be for Haddam citizens concerned about such matters to develop an action agenda of their own, by meeting to discuss the many ways these issues interact with matters already mentioned in the draft Plan. Convening prior to the as yet unscheduled public hearing on the POCD would enable a specific set of proposals to be developed, and added to the discussion.
Individuals interested in such a conversation are invited to contact the Haddam Bulletin or John Friedlander.
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