2. Listening to Connecticut
"Countless residents have come to see their towns at a crossroads. So is the state."
"Sprawl diminishes open lands that support agriculture, water supplies, wildlife habitat and the character of the Connecticut countryside. It isolates poor and senior citizens, and limits housing variety…"
Relentless, helter-skelter development is chewing up CT landscape,
The Hartford Courant, editorial, October 10, 2005.
"It’s great to live in Connecticut; we have a quality of life that is the envy of much of America…but that quality of life is threatened…
"As we held public hearings in municipalities across the state, we heard from Nutmeggers...We noted that expensive infrastructure is crumbling and going unused in our core cities while being rebuilt at great expense in formerly rural areas. Connecticut is losing open space at a rate twice the national average…
"Growth management should come from the bottom up, not the top down…now is the time for a bold agenda for transportation and land use in Connecticut."
Groundwork’s Been Laid For Smarter Growth,
The Hartford Courant, July 9, 2006.
By Lewis J. Wallace, Jr.
Chairman, Planning & Development Committee
Connecticut General Assembly
"A wide variety of recent reports, polls and policy documents agree that Connecticut is at a crossroads...
"The overriding conclusion is that Connecticut must improve how it manages its public resources if it hopes to…maintain its quality of life. All types of communities—central cities, fully-developed suburbs, newly developing suburbs, and even affluent areas—are hurt by the way Connecticut is growing…Current land use, zoning and tax laws encourage sprawl, traffic, pollution, and poor planning, and contribute to increased segregation of poor people and racial minorities in a few towns and cities."
Connecticut’s Future: An Emerging Consensus
CenterEdge Project, Office of Urban Affairs,
Archdiocese of Hartford
"The most significant threats to Connecticut’s land and waterscapes include habitat loss, degradation and fragmentation from development; changes in land use; and competition from invasive species.
"Other threats include insufficient scientific knowledge regarding wildlife and their habitats (distribution, abundance, and condition); the lack of landscape-level conservation; insufficient resources to maintain or enhance wildlife habitat; and public indifference toward conservation."
Connecticut Comprehensive Wildlife Conservation Strategy, November, 2005.
State of Connecticut, Department of Environmental Protection
"Granby faces the challenge of maintaining its rural character, charm, tradition, and values, while providing cultural, recreational, housing, educational, commercial and employment opportunities.
"The Town’s farmlands and open spaces offer an inviting atmosphere and a source of fruits and vegetables. Viewing the livestock, smelling manure, experiencing the changing scenery of the fields...is a treasure that will be missed if it is allowed to disappear.
"We look to the sky when we hear the geese and spot the "V" pattern of their flight. We stop and listen to the chant of the morning dove, the hoot of the owl and the melodies of the songbirds. We clean up the mess made by the bears and raccoons and hang our bird feeders a bit higher. We catch and release, turn rocks in search of salamanders and shriek at the movement of a snake. We choose to make our home among the wildlife and we are the better for it."
A Plan of Conservation and Development,
February, 2005. Town of Granby
Next: The Promise of Community-based Environmental Management
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