The latest effort to craft a new Plan of Conservation and Development for Guilford is an online survey created for residents to give feedback on how they would like the town to evolve. Following the turmoil surrounding the recent Costco proposal, town officials are hoping for a spirited response.

"The more people that participate the better. We want to get the best possible representation of the town," said Guilford Town Planner George Kral.

The survey consists of nine questions and is completely anonymous. It covers a range of topics, such as where in town the person lives, what top three places or activities he or she would like to see protected or preserved, and what types of new facilities should be in place. The survey is available online for the next six to eight weeks.

Plan of Conservation and Development Committee Co-Chair Mary Jo Kestner said this survey is vital to the creation of the new plan, which occurs every 10 years in accordance with Connecticut General Statute 8-24. Using the public's feedback, the committee hopes to have the new plan in place and approved by the Planning & Zoning Commission and the Board of Selectmen by 2012.

"We want to know what's important to residents. Our demographic is an aging population, so do we provide continuing education courses for second careers?" said Kestner. "We've found that Guilford residents living along the shoreline and residents living farther north have very different concerns and we want to hear from all of them."

The committee was formed in 2008 and has already surveyed 36 department heads and town boards and commissions in order to gain information on what issues are of top concern. In all, 22 survey responses were received, according to the committee's progress report published in June. A public forum was held in September 2009 and a series of three workshops was held between February and April of this year that covered topics such as what town residents want to preserve and protect, how growth should be guided, and what kind of facilities or services residents want or need.

"We typically had about 40 people at each workshop, but now we want to hear from the rest," said Kestner. "It's not always easy to give a suggestion or opinion in front of a whole group of people, so we thought having the survey online would be more comfortable and convenient."

Kestner said one of the benefits of having the survey online is that Zoomerang, the website hosting the survey, can ensure there are no multiple submissions from the same person by checking the IP addresses from respondents' computers.

"If we find out that certain groups don't have access to a computer or it proves inconvenient, we can certainly send a hard copy of the survey to them as well," said Kestner.

Kral said they did a similar survey when they were revising the plan for 2002, but it was in the form of a telephone poll that forced people to answer questions at a specific point in time. Kral said that having the survey online will allow people to take their time in responding.

"Our goal is to reach out to as many people as we can to express their thoughts on the future of the town," said Kral. "I am interested in hearing what everyone has to say."

To view the Plan of Conservation and Development Committee survey, visit www.zoomerang.com/Survey/WEB22BFPZWX9BZ. For more information, contact Mary Jo Kestner at mj@ck-architects.com.