Regional Plan of Conservation and Development, 2006-2015

Regional Plan of Conservation and Development, 2006-2015Chapter 1 – IntroductionConnecticut’s South Western Region (“theRegion”) comprises the Fairfield County municipalitiesof Darien, Greenwich, New Canaan, Norwalk,Stamford, Weston, Westport and Wilton. The formalassociation of these eight cities and towns wasinaugurated in 1962 with the formation of the SouthWestern Regional Planning Agency (SWRPA), one ofConnecticut’s 15 regional planning organizations.The Region – which forms the panhandle ofConnecticut – contains 225 square-miles of land areaon the northwestern shore of Long Island Sound. TheRegion is bordered to the west and northwest byWestchester County in New York State, and thenortheastern and eastern boundaries are the GreaterDanbury and Greater Bridgeport regions, respectively.In 2000, the population of the South Western Regionwas nearly 354,000.The Region is economically tied to the New Yorkmetropolitan area, of which it is an integral part. Forexample, more than 32,000 of the Region’s residentsworked in New York State in 2000, while nearly 27,000New Yorkers (as well as nearly 2,000 residents of NewJersey) worked in the Region (Census 2000). Thecultural and entertainment attractions of New YorkCity – which are easily accessible via MTA Metro-NorthRailroad – are visited frequently by the Region’sresidents. New York City newspapers, radio andtelevision stations serve the Region, and theoverwhelming majority of its residents’ loyalties are toNew York sports teams.Despite the Region’s inclusion in the New Yorkmetropolitan area, it strongly embraces its NewEngland identity. The Region’s land-use patterns arestill influenced by its Colonial founders, who built theirCongregational churches and established villagegreens in what remain today as the town centers. Fortwo centuries the Region’s primary thoroughfare wasthe Boston Post Road, which was designated as U.S.Route 1 early in the 20th Century. The Coastal FairfieldCounty Convention and Visitors Bureau emphasizesthe Region’s “New England charm” in its marketingcampaigns, and local telephone directories contain alarge number of listings with business namescontaining “New England.”Of course, the Region has its own distinctcharacter. It is one of the premier suburban corporatecenters in America and is home to companies likePitney Bowes, UBS, Xerox and many others. Over thepast three decades, the Region’s employment baseshifted further from manufacturing to white collarindustries with the growth in the number of nationaland international corporate facilities located in theRegion. This – combined with its proximity toManhattan, attractive communities, excellent schoolsand the cachet associated with living in Lower FairfieldCounty – has made the Region one of the mostdesirable and expensive suburbs in the country.Unfortunately, this has also led to the middle classbeing essentially priced out of the housing market inthe Region’s six towns and, to a lesser extent, in itstwo cities, resulting in more of the Region’s workersmoving increasingly farther away to find affordablehousing. This, in turn, requires people to commutelonger distances, exacerbating the significant trafficcongestion problem for which the Region has longbeen known. These issues, as well as others, areaddressed in more depth later in this Plan.Regional PlanningBinney Park, GreenwichConnecticut holds dear its long tradition of “homerule,” including as it applies to planning and zoning.With few exceptions, the state’s cities and towns aresolely responsible for making land-use decisionswithin their boundaries and the overwhelming majorityof the time they use this authority with great care. Ofcourse, home rule, by its nature, does not lend itself tointermunicipal cooperation and oftentimes can workagainst it when local land-use decisions negativelyimpact an adjacent municipality, or the Region as awhole.As a result of the abolition of county government inthe 1950s, Connecticut created planning regions toaddress issues that extend beyond the boundaries ofany single municipality and to identify potential1