Milton planners debate comprehensive plan

The Milton Planning and Zoning Commission held its first workshop on updating the town’s comprehensive development plan March 20, and some of the proposed changes have already rankled one of Milton’s existing committees.

The commission is undertaking a plan to hold a series of workshops that will discuss revisions to the plan chapter by chapter. The first meeting was on chapters two, four and six, which dealt with the town’s history and historic preservation. 

In the updated plan, the commission discussed the possibility of condensing those three chapters into one, and devoting the focus of the plan to policy and land-use goals. The commission is mandated by the state to address certain items such as zoning and affordable housing. As this is a 10-year update of the plan, the intent is to do a substantial revision, but the commission will base that revision off the 2018 version.

The March 20 workshop started with a presentation from Dorothy Morris of the Office of State Planning Coordination, who laid out the state’s expectations for the plan. She said the plan serves as the law for the town’s future land use, laying out the rules, goals and implementation strategies. 

“It is like your constitution,” Morris said. “It’s what you want your town to look like 10 years from now and how you’re going to get there.”

Besides issues such as land use, infrastructure and affordable housing, Morris said the plan will also need to address climate and the town’s ability to bounce back from natural disasters or large storms. She said the guidance for how those issues need to be addressed is still being worked on – they do not take effect until November 2026 – but they will need to be addressed. Morris said her office will be available to help guide the commission through the plan revision.

The discussion then moved to the first proposed revisions to the plan, taking the three chapters on history of the town and historic preservation, and narrowing them into one chapter. 

Chair Richard Trask said, “It doesn’t all need to be there.” 

That created some conflict with members of the town’s historic preservation commission, which didn’t necessarily object to paring down the section on town history, but wanted to see the plan address preservation of historic architecture styles within the historic district. 

Trask said the plan wasn’t about details but rather an overview, and suggested the commission go over the chapters, mark them up and send them to Project Coordinator Tom Quass.

Historic preservation Chair William Pritchett said the commission could do that, but also provide context and comments regarding historic preservation that would inform the rest of the plan. But then the planning and zoning commission went ahead and began marking up the chapters line by line anyway, to the consternation of the historic preservation members, who expected a more collaborative process. Trask said nothing is being written at this point and asked the commission to send its proposed markup. At that point, the commission members left the meeting. 

Milton resident Al Benson questioned the commission holding the workshops in the afternoon during the weekday when a lot of Miltonians are at work and cannot participate. Quass said when the meetings are held does depend on when the space at Milton library is available, and the meetings are available for livestreaming, with the login information found on the agendas. He said citizens can sign up to receive the agendas in advance through the town website. 

The second workshop on the comprehensive plan will be held Saturday, April 24, and it will cover sections related to the Broadkill River, environmental protection and open space. A time has not yet been set.