Community Design Handbook

A call to action: As suburban and exurban areas in Connecticut ​“build out,” growing numbers of citizens have recognized the effects that low-density sprawl growth patterns - longer commutes and endless traffic jams, rising taxes and housing prices, destruction of natural resources and open space - are having on their daily lives. And many citizens are being motivated to take action by the recognition that their sense of place is being destroyed and their quality of life is being threatened.

In Connecticut, each city and town is vested with the responsibility of governing land use change within its borders and setting standards for development. Without up-to-date town plans supported by consistent zoning regulations, these communities are at risk of being overrun with traffic, having village centers replaced by strip retail, losing open space and creating hostile environments for pedestrians and bicyclists. In other words, without thoughtful planning guided by sound design and planning principles, uncontrolled growth will slowly diminish the quality of life and livability of communities.

As the new patterns of suburban and exurban development have emerged, so too must the solutions be different than those that have worked in the past. Traditional land conservation and regulatory approaches - such as large lot zoning or traditional cluster - will not succeed in taming exurban growth or suburban sprawl. Instead, a new generation of innovative and comprehensive planning and land preservation initiatives will be needed. This new planning and regulatory system must rise above the development vs. conservation confrontations of the past.

This new approach must identify appropriate, environmentally suitable locations for needed development and provide infrastructure to service that development. At the same time, this approach must limit development in areas containing important environmental resources and hold development that does occur in these places to stringent environmental performance standards. The ultimate goal of this new approach must be to create patterns of development that reinforce, rather than destroy, character of communities.