Oh, no, it's a special meeting to order.

Uh first order business is public communications and petitions, uh five limit time limit for to discuss anything with or present anything to us that is not the matter of a public hearing tonight.

Mr.

Nye, do we have any online?

Uh no online.

And I should have said you need to read the part about the online part.

If there's anyone from the public who would like to address the commission, you may do so by raising your hand on your computer if your device has a microphone capability by selecting the participants icon on the zoom menu bar and then clicking raise hand or by dialing star nine on your phone.

When you were called on, you were prompted that you were now unmuted.

Please state your name and address.

For clear communication, we ask that you do not place the call and speaker phone.

So let's move on to communications petitions from members.

No, no.

Okay, public hearings.

We have one.

Um this is hereby given that this commission will hold public hearings during its hybrid virtual special meeting on February twenty-fourth, twenty twenty-six at seven PM to hear and consider the following item.

Proposed update to the plan of conservation and development, Windsor twenty thirty-five.

Excuse me.

Uh on February the eleventh and February eighteenth, twenty twenty-six.

Oh, you do?

Yeah.

I'm used to going you going last.

Um, I just do want to confirm uh for the record, uh, we do have uh Nita Mipps uh in attendance by Zoom tonight.

And we also have alternate commissioner Meg Harvey in attendance as well, it looks like we're here.

Good evening, members of the Planning and Zoning Commission.

For the record, I'm Todd Seeley, now a planner.

With me out here is Rory Jacobson, formerly FHI studio, but now is IMEG.

So she served as our project manager for the life of this project, and so she's here with me tonight to answer any questions that might come up with during the public hearing.

So give me one second and I will cue it up.

Perfect.

Okay.

So I'll just kind of quickly go through some slides.

I'm not gonna go through the full breadth of the POCD and touch on every topic or chapter.

Although, if there's anyone from the public or the commission uh that wants to kind of focus in on a specific topic or chapter, we'd be happy to do so with you during the hearing.

Um, but I just kind of want to give a high-level overview to sort of set the stage for the plan.

So the purpose of the plan is to provide the community with a long-range planning guidance while also meeting our statutory requirements and aligning with regional and state planning goals.

State law requires municipalities to update their POCD every 10 years in order to remain eligible for certain discretionary funding.

Uh it's important to emphasize that the POCD is not a regulatory document.

This is a policy document.

Uh, it helps to inform land use and zoning decisions, but it does not guarantee or approve any specific outcome.

Instead, it establishes a community vision and a set of guiding principles that help frame future decisions related to zoning, zoning amendments, and capital planning.

Ultimately, it helps ensure consistency as the town works towards its long-term goals, and it also serves as a snapshot of the community in time.

Over the past year, the town has implemented a comprehensive public engagement effort.

Uh, this included two public workshops, five topic-specific focus group meetings, interviews with key town departments and stakeholders, and an online survey that received more than 800 responses.

The consultant worked closely with town staff and a POCD advisory committee, uh, which included representatives from multiple boards and commissions to evaluate data and public input and to develop the draft chapters and recommendations.

In total, there were 11 advisory committee meetings held as part of this process.

And while we're getting into the POCD, I want to take a moment and kind of step back in time and look at our um 2015 POCD and touch upon some of the highlights and things that have been implemented since that document was adopted.

Um, since the adoption of the 2015 POCD, the town has made notable progress in several areas.

Uh this includes a significant amount of housing development, uh, including single-family homes, town homes, apartments, uh, as well as two mixed-use developments currently underway in Windsor Center.

Um during this period, the town also preserved a substantial amount of farmland and open space and achieved certification as a sustainable CT bronze community and invested in major upgrades to parks, playgrounds, and town facilities.

So one of the reasons I wanted to pull this up is because none of these specific things were mentioned in the 2015 POCD.

They were kind of given as generalities or broad goals that we were looking to achieve.

So when projects came up or opportunities for you know farmland preservation or open space preservation came up, you know, we were able to point to the POCD and find that it aligned with those goals in that 2015 POCD that you know potentially opened us up to some uh possible funding sources or major, you know, decision as commissioners, relatively easy.

Um that's the purpose of this document is to kind of help inform and accomplish some of these things that we have listed there.

So I kind of want to I was asking this question today.

What's changed since 2015?

And I don't want to recap historical event in detail, but you know, over the past several years we've experienced circumstances that cause many of us to rethink priorities as individuals, families, and communities.

And a question worth considering as we look back on this 2015 plan is whether our priorities as a community have changed.

And I'm gonna touch on that a little bit in the next slide as I kind of go through some of the T key takeaways from uh current this new plan that we have.

So several consistent themes emerged through public input.

Residents expressed a strong sense of community and value Windsor's diversity, small town character, and sense of belonging.