The Bridgeport Post from Bridgeport, Connecticut • Page 113

Sunday Post photos by Roger Brooks and Reg Johnson SITE OF PROPOSED WATERSEDGE DEVELOPMENT In the left hand photo is a view of Shelter Harbor, Lake Candlewood. The wooded land which surrounds the harbor will be part of a "Planned Unit Development" to be composed of condominiums and garden apartments which will eventually house 8,000 persons of low and medium income. The New Fairfield Development company plans to put in boat marinas on the shore of the harbor. In the center photo is some of the of wooded land which will be part of the Watersedge project. A road which the owner of the land, Steve Weil built without permission from the town of Sherman is also shown.

Mr. Weil is a partner in the New Fairfield Development company with Garden Cities Development corporation, an organization which has planned this type of development in several other suburban communities. In the right hand photo is the end of Shelter Harbor and the rest of Candlewood Lake stretching'down to Danbury. The dam- which can be seen was recently constructed by Mr. Weil.

Construction was stopped after the State Department of Environmental Protection issued a cease and desist order. Suburban BRIDGEPORT SUNDAY POST December 2,1973 Westport RTM to Vote On Regional Refuse Plan By DORIS SULLIVAN WESTPORT The Public Works committee of the Rep- Scholarship Saturday in By HELEN L. HUBEN NEWTOWN "Nouvelle Noel" is the theme of the 1973 ball of the Newtown Scholarship association to be held Saturday from 9 p.m.'to 1 a.m. at Newtown High school. Mrs.

Robert Campbell and Mrs. Douglas Hewitt are cochairmen. The dinner has been replaced this year by a dessert table and a champagne punch. There will be a bar and mixed drinks can be purchased. Mrs.

Bernard Meehan will be in charge of coordinating tlie dessert table. All donations of food and holiday items should be phoned to her, so that she can plan accordingly. The decorations, under the supervision of Mrs. Temby Argall and her committee are expected to consist of ropes of interwoven pine branches, and decorated with ornaments of the most vivid colors. Music will be to the dancing of Joey Zclle and his orchestra.

Tickets Available Regular tickets for couples are available from Mrs. Jack Blomquist or Mrs. Peter Cummins. As patron's tickets are just twice the cost of regular tickets, their names are listed in the programs, which are sponsored by local businessmen. These tickets may be obtained by calling Mrs.

P. Douglas Martin or Mrs. Edmund C. Platt. Since 1937, the association has awarded $88,100 in scholarship resentatlve Town Meeting an-.

nounced it "heartily endorses" the approval of an agreement with five area municipalities Ball Slated Newtown grants to 251 Newtown High school graduating students to assist them in financing their college careers. From 1937 to 19-1!) the grants ranged from $50 to $100. Beginning with 1950, the the new program the grants ranged from $200 to $1,200. The 1972 grants totaled with 19 students receiving awards. Funds for the Newtown Scholarship Association, are raised by general solicitation and an annual ball which has always been a great success because it receives broad community participation, and is one of the social highlights of the season.

Funds of the Newtown Scholarship association are administered by a wholly volunteer Board of Governors comprised of Robert E. Munger, president; Mrs. C. Harold Schwartz, vice president; Mrs. Patrick Carroll, secretary and treasurer; Mrs.

Harold Haase, assistant treasurer; Mrs. Paul Vander Wende, assistant secretary; and Mrs. Robert Campbell, Clarence Goss, Mrs. Douglas Hewitt, Mrs. P.

Douglass a i Donaldson Murphy, Mrs. C. E. Platt, and Mrs. James Osborne, Jr.

Selections for scholarships are made by a committee on awards after careful study. The committee lias conferences with each student applicant. The results are then referred to school officials and final decisions are made after joint conferences. which will implement a regional program of refuse disposal. The RTM will meet Tuesday night to vote on the ratification of the pact with the City of Bridgeport and the towns of Fairfield, Monroe, Trumbull and Stratford.

The target date for the completion of the regional facility is mid-1976, the committee said. Under the terms of the proposal, the center for the separation of the refuse from area towns Would be in Bridgeport, and the utility boiler would be built by the Northeast Utilities company in Devon. Regional Program Tho regional refuse disposal program is part of a statewide plan which will be conducted under the direction of the Connecticut Resources Recovery authority, the committee noted. "The state-wide plan is an evolutionary and innovative blueprint for the future, illustrating that environmental, economic and social goals are achievable. The proposed agreement to be considered Tuesday night, represents the first step for Westport in solving its long-standing garbage problem and is fully consistent with these goals," the committee said.

"The town's present method of shipping refuse out of town for disposal is expensive and 'tenuous. The statewide plan provides certainty and peace of mind in that it guarantees disposal of refuse at a lower cost and fulfills all st'ate requirements," the committee said. Controversy Over Proposed Project Centers on New Fairfield Growth By REGINALD C. JOHNSON NEW FAIRFIELD A conflict between this town and the people who would like to build a unique housing development is graphically showing the problems inherent in making social goals more than just "social goals." The conflict centers over the proposal for a development called Watersedge, that might house 8,000 persons in a cluster arrangement of townhpuses and condominiums. The community would be built on 253 acres of land bordering Lake Candlewood and overlapping into the town of Sherman.

What makes the development unique is that the proposed builders, the New Fairfield Development company want their project to be open to families of low income, as well as median income; to be integrated; and to be a "planned" development. Unachieved Goals The partners in the New Fairfield Development company, Steve Weil, owner of the land, and Neil Gold, president of Garden Cities Development Corporation, believe that this development fulfills certain widely accepted, although largely unachieved social goals. It would for one, provide good housing for people of all backgrounds and races, and at reasonable to low costs. Moreover they say it would be planned community, en vrionmentally sound, knit, and with a minimum of problems in terms of obtaining goods and services. Also it would be a development which anticipated the pressing housing needs of the area in the next decade.

Finally, they say, the Watersedge project could be, a step toward breaking down the disparity betweeen the "have- not" city areas of America and the "have" suburban areas. On the other side of the coin, residents'of New Fairfield and Sherman are almost totally opposed to the project and are worried about a variety of matters concerning the project. Many fear that Watersedge will bring more traffic, possible pollution of the lake, severe pressures on the town to upgrade its school system and other services, higher taxes, and generally a rapid growth of the town which could overnight change the present quiet rural atmosphere to a crowded, noisy, suburban atmosphere. Proponents for both the developer's case and the town's case clashed in three nights of hearings before the "New Fairfield Planning and Zoning com- mission in August. After two months, the commission finally denied the developer's application, which requested a in the town zoning regulations to allow for "Planned Unit Development" (PUD has been declared optional for towns to adopt bv the Connecticut General State Statues; New Fairfield has not adopted it).

Exclusionary Zoning Following the denial, the New Fairfield Development company filed suit against New Fairfield, saying in their suit the action of the town constituted "exclusionary zoning" and was a violation of the 14tJi Amendment of the Constitution. To polarize i between the townspeople and the developers to an extreme, Neil Gold, after announcing the suit at a press conference in Stamford, labeled the people of New Fairfield "racists." Compounding matters further in the Watersedge controversy have been the recent allegedly illegal actions by the landowner Mr. Weil. Mr. Weil first went ahead without town permission and built a new road through his property.

Later, he began construction on a dam across Shelter Rock Cove, the cove which the housing development wrll be adjacent to. The construction of the dam caused a furor in the area, and after irate town officials notified the Department of Environmental Protection of the possible pollution being caused by the dam, the DEP issued a and desist order to Mr. Weil. At this point the courts will eventually resolve the Waters- edge case, but they can resolve it only in a legal sense, and certainly they will not resolve all the issues at hand. What Watersedge seems to represent is an inevitable and unfortunate clash between, social planners (or at least land use planners) who expect some sacrifices from certain groups of people, and those groups of people who have to do the sacrificing.

To understand this clash more clearly, a discussion of the nature of "social mentioned above and of the nature of the local opposition is necessary. For the developers, like Neil Gold, who has studied urban planning and served on several Presidential land use commissions in the past two administrations, one of the most important rationales for the development is the idea of providing everyone, even those of low income, with decent housing In a pleasant environment. According to Mr. Gold, only in a Sunday post photo--Jon slnlsh DECISION Westport Board of Education is expected to rule Monday, on whether it will deny the use of school playing fields to the Little League because of a charge by the National Organization for Women (NOW) that the league discriminates against girls. The question was hotly debated at a board meeting last Monday night with Board Chairman Leonard Rovins, presiding, right photo.

Mrs, Doris Shiller, a board member, is sitting on the right of Mr. Kovins. Those discussing points at the hearing included Carol Agate, a representative of NOW, left photo, Raymond Ross, Little League lawyer, second left, and Donald Levy, Lrltle League president, second right photo. cluster development can the housing be made at once both economic for those below the median income level and also situated within a pleasant environment. According to Mr.

Gold, the two-acre zoning arrangements in towns like New Fairfield and Sherman raise land costs and prohibit- the construction of cheap housing and therefore tend to exclude families and individuals of low" income. Mr. Gold says that whereas today in New Fairfield a typical house on a two acre plot may cost $60,000, in Watersedge the equivalent housing will cost 530,000. Second is the idea or "building communities that make sense." According to Mr. Gold Waters- edge will be a "fantastic community" which will have everything in it that anyone needs -supplies available in stores and in shopping plazas; playgrounds, plazas, and parks; acres of open spaces, theatres, marinas, libraries, a post office, a police force, and a school.

Moreover, unlike two acre developments where one has to drive in and out and all the supplies are outside, everything is in Waters- edge will be within walking distance. To Mr. Gold, this kind of cluster development is much more environmentally sound than the two acre projects, in that more open space is preserved, and air pollution is cut by less use of cars. Moreoever, be, cause everything and everyone is closer together, a much happier community is the result. Mr.

Gold feels that the Watersedge development, with its 2,500 units, anticipates the influx of people who will come with a big economic expansion that they claim has begun to spread northward through northern Fairfield county, northern Westchester, Putnam county and even Dutchess county. They say that because of the people who are inevitably going to be seeking jobs in this area of economic growth, there will be a corresponding need for decent, reasonably priced housing. Mr. Gold asked what will middle-income workers who want to live in the New Fairfield Sherman area do if all the housing that is available is $60,000 and up? Moreover, Mr. Gold and an attorney for the Garden Cities Development Corporation, Jack Walter, asert that projects like Watersedge are first steps in breaking down the "alarming" disparity between the decaying, poor, crowded, and dirty cities and the pleasant, clean, affluent and open suburbs.

Mr. Gold and his associates at Garden Cities feel that the suburbs have to open up, so that the Bridgeports, New Havens, Hartfords and New Yorks do not suffocate any more than they have. Moral Duty Mr. Gold implies it is a moral duty of the suburbs to open up their doors by relaxing zoning laws and allowing "Planned Unit Developments." "A decent society cannot tolerate Shermans, New Fairfields, and Eastons, walled off from the rest of the world," he said. Gold claims that every that Gordon Cities is trying to do in New Fairfield has been recommended by almost every Presidential commission on land use going back to the Johnson administration.

Mr. Gold himself served as a technical consultant on some of these commissions. Mr. Gold said of the citizens of New Fairfield, "I don't know what those people think up there; we arc not flaming leftists and we are not trying to rip anybody off we are trying to build a community that is ecologically sound, and that has good economic housing." Turning to the arguments of the townspeople, it should be noted that many phone convex sations and on the spot interviews with local residents revealed that they were not in great disagreement with many of the general objectives of Mr. Gold and his associates.

But these same persons have many concerns, many emotional, on the basis of which they question the Tightness of putting Watersedge in New Fairfield and Sherman. Too Fast Growth One of the most common reasons given by local citizens for their opposition was that the Watersedge project would represent "too fast a growth for the town." Many feel that despite the many services that the developers say they are going to set up in the project, the advent of 8,000 new residents (which will almost double the present town population) is simply going to force the town to greatly increase the amount of public services and facilities. This may mean widening local roads to handle new traffic, building bigger parking lots, setting up new traffic intersections and lights, increasing the size of the police force, and so on. Residents also point to the fact that the narrow state highway, 39, which is the only main road going by the projects area would be much too small to handle the new rush of traffic that Watersedge would create. Furthermore, local citizens, are not encouraged by the developers' attitude so far on the highway matter, which was stated by Attorney Walter who said "unfortunately we are not the highway department; it is not our job to build new roads for those towns." Naturally the possibility that the town will have to greatly upgrade its facilities carries with it the spectre of much higher taxation.

Dealing with this question, the New Fairfield Development company has produced a "fiscal impact study," on the effect of the project on the towns of Sherman and New Fairfield. This study projects that in the first four years the two towns will be indeed losing money on, Watersedge, and probably have to raise taxes. After four years, however, the towns will begin receiving more money from the property taxes on Watersedge than it will be expending for all services. Even among the residents who know this, however, there is a feeling that such a big project is going to cost a lot more and involve a lot more than the developers think. As one man from Ball Pond Estates said, "This town has been expanding rapidly enough as it is, and the town has just been able to keep pace with this size development coming in, there is just no way that the town can prepare itself to handle the new situation." Ignorance about the project' and rumor are also playing roles in creating opposition to the housing plan.

One Sherman resident said he was against it because he had heard the developers were "going to" ship in large groups of poor blacks from a city who would be totally unacclimated to the rigors or style of country living. Just because they are getting cheap housing doesn't mean they are going to like it," he said. The developers have never said in fact they were going to move blacks or others from the inner cities to Watersedge. However, the announcement that the housing was partially for low-income groups apparently made certain citizens here gain the impression that a racial "transplant" was going to lake place. Another commonly expressed fear is that if New Fairfield or Sherman were to allow one PUD, like Watersedge, it would alien the "floodgates" and other PUDs would have to be allowed and the would be systematically built up, even though the developments would at least be planned within certain areas.

This fear of allowing a PUD (which Connecticut General Statutes have declared as only optional for towns to adopt as part of their zoning laws) is heightened by the common knowledge that the developers from Garden Cities and a related affiliate. Suburban Action Institute, both of North Tarry- town, N.Y., have been fighting' what they term "exclusionary" zoning laws in several other towns in Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey. Some, people fear that 'the. developers and their partners at SAI are out to break down suburban zoning laws completely, although Garden Cities president Gold denies this emphatically. Also many residents, especially those 1 who be near to the development a because the project and its numerous residents may upset the peaceful and orderly atmosphere of their life-style and their community.

For instance, a resident from Candlewood Hills, a small and old development adjacent to the Watersedge property expressed his opposition this way: "I know one way in which this development will not work at all. The people in this area will be bitter at the newcomers. We have been here for years and gradually we all have gotten to know each other and make our small community work smoothly. We have been able to keep our relationships and understandings good because the growth has been slow. "My God, if you put 50 million people suddenly next door, this will make a mess out of our surroundings more cars, more noise, danger for our children, terrible traffic I'm not against the idea of low income housing, but you don't do it at the expense of the people already here," he said.

There is also considerable other opposition to the development on technical questions whether, for instance, Lake Candlewood will not become inevitably polluted with all the extra people and their boats on it; whether the proposed sewer pipe to run under the lake to New Milford won't break and pollute the water; the builder's promises so far on helping the town bear new education costs will be fulfilled; and so on. But aside from the concerns over technical details, human emotions and foibles the fears, the resentments, ig- norances, and the natural desire to keep what you love the way it always has been are playing a major role in the opposition of the citizens of these two towns to the Watersedge project. The developers of Watersedge are faced with this problem: even if they win the legal battle in. the court they will have to build their project amid townspeople who may be in no mood to be cooperative, and may evert be hostile. If the planners of Watersedge are to succeed their venture, then, they may have to try in as many ways as possible to convince the local residents of their sincerity, the quality of their project, and precisely how the development will not have tho negative effect on the towns that local residents think it will have.

They may have to try to communicate and not attack. In this regard it might be better for Mr. Gold, instead of suggesting that the residents of New Fairfield are racists, for him and the others at Garden Cities Develop- mwit Corporation to set up open meetings with local citizens so they can answer and discuss their program,.