On Wednesday February 21, State Senator Bob Duff will be hosting a forum along with 1000 Friends of Connecticut on the importance of ‘smart growth’ initiatives in the state. The 100 Friends of Connecticut group is an advocacy group focused on legislation in hartford. From their web site:

One way would be to advocate that regional planning agencies, which exist by statute, should be able enforce regional land-use plans. Another way is to put teeth (read enforcement) in the State Plan of Conservation and Development. Many are not even aware that the state issues such a document every five years, There are no enforcement provisions, nor does the state even have to abide by the plan

Smart growth, open space, affordable housing and road building don’t often mix well, and each represents a need of the region. Part of the problem in managing growth is that there are 169 different towns all vying for the magical mix of residential and commercial property tax interests. As long as there’s no regional form of government with accountability, these efforts to plan strategically will face an uphill battle.

But as they say in the precursor to Deal No Deal, Come on down to Community Room @ the Norwalk City Hall, 125 East Avenue, Norwalk. The forum will start at 7:00pm.