If you are one of the Essex residents who enjoy walking, “pramming”, running or cycling around the Croft Estate on Riverview Street and Foxboro Road, you will be pleased to learn of a unique opportunity to explore the estate from the other side of the white fence. At 11 AM on Saturday March 3rd, the Essex Planning Commission will hold a Special Meeting/Site Visit to better inform its members of the property and the details of the proposed seven-lot subdivision. The public is invited to attend. This will be a great chance to see the 1870 house from the waterside and to get a closer look at the Windmill.

While Essex residents are invited to attend, we are NOT invited to participate. We do not have to follow the Commissioners around but if we do, we must not physically or vocally interfere with discussions amongst themselves or with the developer’s representatives. In general, we should keep our eyes and ears open and our mouths closed. However, when the meeting is clearly breaking up, we may address FACTUAL QUESTIONS to the Commission’s Chairman, Dr. Thomas Danyliw. OPINIONS and COMMENTS on the proposed subdivision must be reserved for the public hearing at the March 8th meeting of the Planning Commission (7:30 PM at Town Hall).

The Essex Subdivision Regulations authorize the Commission to require some 20% of the area of a subdivision to be reserved as “open space”. Since the waterfront of the Croft Estate lies within the Essex Coastal Management Area, section 5.8.3 of the Subdivision Regulations allows the Commission to require “such open space in the form of public access to and along the waterfront”. Please take advantage of your visit to form an opinion as to whether this would be a good thing for Essex.

Stuart Warner

Essex, CT