Tonight (Thursday, Oct. 19 at 7 p.m.), the Planning and Zoning Commission will host a special meeting and present both the Greater Wilton Center Area Master Plan and the zoning changes being proposed as a result of its findings.
GOOD Morning Wilton has covered the master plan process extensively over the last 22 months, including recent concerns over the public participation process leading up to this evening’s hearing. Today’s article will focus on the substance of the master plan and zoning changes. Past coverage on GMW can be viewed using our Master Plan tag.
What is “Greater Wilton Center”?
First identified during the Plan of Conservation and Development Process in 2019, Greater Wilton Center for the purposes of this analysis includes both Wilton Center “proper” (the downtown neighborhood that runs roughly from the intersection of Ridgefield Rd. and Center St./Old Ridgefield Rd. down to Wolfpit Rd.) as well as the nearby portions of Danbury Rd./Route 7 from Wolfpit Rd. up past the intersection with Pimpewaug Rd.
The Master Plan provides a map of the area showing redevelopment projects currently underway and sites projected for future redevelopment.
What Feedback Did Residents and Stakeholders Share Back in 2022?
In spring 2022, BFJ Planning and the subcommittee held a public hearing with Wilton residents, conducted an outreach session with a group of Wilton High School students, and met with major property owners of sites within the Greater Wilton Center area.
In a series of live polls conducted during the public hearing, Wilton residents expressed an interest in greater pedestrian walkability, filling existing vacant storefronts, and creating more entertainment venues. The votes overwhelmingly favored limiting new construction to three stories within Wilton Center and three- to four stories along Danbury Rd. Adding new housing ranked second to last in the audience’s priorities for both Wilton Center and Danbury Rd., with only “all of the above” ranking below it.
Speaking in their own words, 17 members of the public testified about their priorities for a master plan. Improvements to the public realm dominated these comments, with residents expressing support for an amphitheater on Schenck’s Island, space for annual arts and music festivals, a pedestrian river walk along the Norwalk River, and a significantly expanded farmers market similar to the one put on by Westport. Complaints about Wilton’s disconnected sidewalk paths and the lack of signage along Danbury Rd./Route 7 to direct traffic towards the village also came up frequently.
A full summary of the presentation and public feedback and comments can be found in GMW’s original coverage of the hearing.
In their own zoom session with the consultants, the Executive Board and student government of Wilton High School also called for better sidewalks and pedestrian paths, more entertainment programming, and a river walk. The students also specifically favored more “beautification” efforts, like flowers, public art, and better open spaces for public use.
The discussion with property owners on the other hand was grounded in economic and marketing realities. The owners cited high rents and taxes, challenging zoning rules, and a complex approval process for new development as factors that have held back Wilton Center’s growth. They called for greater density, especially more residential development, to support local retail and street life.
Further details on these outreach discussions can be found on page 11 of the Master Plan. BFJ Planning also took into account feedback shared during the town’s public process for the 2019 POCD.
What is a zoning overlay?
As a conclusion to the master plan process, P&Z has proposed four sets of regulatory changes to update the zoning in Greater Wilton Center. In all four instances, the new zoning rules are structured as an overlay, meaning that they provide a new set of zoning rules that property owners can opt into when redeveloping sites in the area, but they do not eliminate the existing zoning.
The advantage of an overlay is that the existing zoning remains in place. Property owners effectively have two design and development routes they can choose from: the traditional, more formulaic, and in many ways more restrictive zoning structure currently in place; or the more progressive (in a planning — not political — sense) overlay option, which allows larger, more dense development in exchange for providing certain amenities. That list of incentivizing amenities was created by the consultants in conjunction with the subcommittee and includes goals like requiring a higher percentage of residential units to be made affordable, preserving historic structures on site, and building in accordance with sustainable/green standards.
The disadvantage of an overlay is also the fact that the existing zoning remains in place — and therefore, needs to be kept updated. Last month, P&Z approved a text amendment to allow dancing on the first floor of buildings in Wilton Center, a use that had previously been prohibited. Commissioner Chris Pagliaro posed that the Commission or P&Z staff should look into the rest of the Wilton Center zoning prohibitions in case other changes should be reconsidered as well. Despite being weeks away from introducing a new, more modern zoning code for the area, the Commission still needed to tweak the original zoning, since it will survive beyond this potential update. This periodic maintenance of the downtown’s aging zoning code will need to continue regardless of whether the new zoning overlay passes.
The overlay may also contribute to one of the criticisms of the town’s zoning map that was identified in the initial analysis by BFJ in the earliest discussions back in 2022: Wilton Center and nearby Danbury Rd. are currently governed by a patchwork of seven different zoning codes. Rather than reigning in and rationalizing this zoning map, the overlay proposals would add four additional zoning districts to the area for a total of 11 sets of zoning rules operating in a 0.64 square mile area.
The two maps below, outline the existing “patchwork” of zoning districts (left) and the four new zoning overlays that will be added on top of them (right).
What are the Zoning Changes Proposed for Wilton Center?
The new zoning would allow residential buildings up to four stories or 48-54 feet tall “as of right,” meaning projects up to this height that otherwise conform to zoning would not require review and permission from P&Z. It would also allow buildings up to five stories, for a total height of 58-64 feet, as a bonus in exchange for what the proposed code calls “exceptional public benefits.” The draft zoning document offers the following examples: providing 12% of units as affordable housing (rather than the requirement of 10%), preserving important historical structures, incorporating new civic spaces, and meeting greater sustainability and green building goals.
This fifth-story bonus would need to be approved by P&Z. These top floors would also be smaller in size and scale to minimize the visual impact from ground level—fifth stories would be limited to 25% of the square footage of the floor below and would be set back further from the street.
Conceptually, the zoning changes proposed for Wilton Center introduce the model of form-based zoning. A form-based code, as opposed to a more conventional zoning model like the one currently in place, focuses on the physical shape of new developments and their relationship to the public realm (meaning, sidewalks, parks, and other shared spaces).
Form-based codes tend to encourage mixed uses (where residential and commercial spaces are co-located together) and walkability. The alternate strategy would have been for BFJ to simply update Wilton Center’s existing, more traditional zoning code. The current code, which is a Euclidean zoning model, has resulted in an almost exclusively commercial downtown that perpetuates a car-focused perspective that separates shops from the street with large parking lots and pays little attention to pedestrian connectivity.
Over time, the visible impacts of the new zoning overlay for Wilton Center, if passed, would be a more mixed-use downtown, with infill housing, commercial, and amenity space intermingled. The streetscape would have a more varied look, thanks to new street frontage options like arcades, pergolas, porches, and other design alternatives. It also would deliver a significant increase in multi-family residential development within the downtown (an earlier draft of the master plan, posted online in late September 2023, listed 1,200 additional units of housing in Wilton Center as its goal. The total has since been eliminated in favor of language simply calling for “additional” housing).
While the form-based code does what it can to incentivize property owners to build in conjunction with the town’s vision, it cannot proactively deliver large-scale public realm improvements like the ones identified during the March 2022 public hearing. From sidewalks to bridge and road design, to even the Town Green, Wilton must contend with the reality that much of the physical space that could potentially contribute to this is owned by private property owners or tenants on long-term leases. Public space programming, such as farmers markets, festivals, and other gathering opportunities also cannot be zoned into existence. What zoning can control is the height, bulk, shape, landscaping, and function of individual buildings and spaces.
Further details on the proposed zoning changes for Wilton Center can be found in the draft text shared on the Master Plan website.
What Are the Zoning Changes Proposed for Danbury Rd. near Wilton Center?
Zoning changes along Danbury Rd. are more straightforward. Along Danbury Rd., the subcommittee landed on a plan to subdivide the area into three separate overlay districts, reflecting the different development ecosystems already in place.
The Danbury Rd. East Overlay is designed to encourage multifamily residential development but at a “neighborhood-scale.” The townhouses proposed for the former Baptist Church at 254 Danbury Rd. is one such example. In this area, building height would be limited to three stories or 39 feet, to fit with the area’s more residential scale.
The Danbury Rd. West Overlay is designed to encourage a car-oriented business corridor. Here the goal is to encourage new retail and restaurants, with better connectivity for driving between different sites (rather than having to re-enter Danbury Rd./Route 7 to move from one destination to the next. Here, heights up to four stories or 48 feet would be allowed.
The Danbury Rd. Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) Overlay is designed to encourage large-scale multi-family development, given the area’s proximity to the Wilton train station. This area would allow greater density and heights up to five stories or 64 feet.
Further details on the proposed zoning changes along Danbury Rd. can be found at the links below:
- OL-1 Danbury Road East Overlay District
- OL-2 Danbury Road West Overlay District
- OL-3 Danbury Road TOD Overlay District
What Happens Next?
Tonight’s public hearing will begin at 7 p.m. and will be held on Zoom. An agenda and link to the meeting can be found on the town website.
As outlined in our coverage yesterday, open questions remain about the process for this evening, the ability of the public to shape the master plan and zoning proposals at this late stage, which elements of these proposals are subject to a vote, and in what order they will be adopted. P&Z Chair Rick Tomasetti told the Commission on Sept. 28 that the goal is to finish the process ahead of the new Planning & Zoning Commission being seated (on Dec. 1) following the Nov. 7 municipal elections.
The zoning focusing on density will likely have the desired effect of increasing local traffic in the town center, but it will not address the larger issue of making the town a destination of choice for residents in surrounding communities. I’m afraid design choices made in the past will continue to prevent meaningful improvements in that regard. Specifically, the issue I have not seen in any discussion on this is Stop & Shop. If you can imagine the area without that building and very large parking lot then you can imagine a way to create additional traffic and boutique shop opportunities that might go a long way toward a more attractive town. A big store like Stop & Shop doesn’t belong in town. It should be out on Route 7 somewhere. Until that specific issue from the past is addressed it’s hard to see the town becoming much more than it is now. Absent such large scale changes, the amphitheater, river walk, and other beautification efforts would be welcome additions to the town. Most Wilton residents probably don’t have the level of expertise needed to make meaningful contributions to ideas related to zoning changes. But the effort to envision a more attractive and inviting town center is something we should all be part of.
The person making the comment on Stop and Shop must be related to Village Market owners.
If you want to diversify the residential properties you need another option to the other market in town.
The big parking lot serves the shops, restaurants, and Stop and Shop.
It had been difficult to fill the stores that are there because of high taxes and difficult zoning laws. Mixed use is a good idea but for economic reasons the buildings must be higher than three stories.
A well designed town cannot be only recreation and arts. It must have an economic design to promote business.
For the record, Dwight Moody is not related to the owners of Village Market, nor is he involved with Village Market, or representing Village Market in any way, shape, or form. Village Market has made no public comments on any of the plans regarding Wilton Center, and if we do, it will come straight from us.
Polling people attending a zoning hearing is crazy unrepresentative lol. No way around it, if you want a real sample you’ve got to get a broader audience than the small group of people who show up to such things.
So the top priority of people polled in 2022 was 3 story height limits…and the new zoning changes allow 5 story buildings? How does that make any sense? To say that it’s not really 4 or 5 stories because the top floors are set back a little bit is disingenuous. Also, I find it very hard to understand and interpret these maps…though perhaps that is the point.