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To my friends and neighbors,
For nearly a year, I have attempted to engage the TPZ and other town leaders in good faith regarding the Plan of Conservation and Development (POCD).
I am extremely concerned that major requirements from the State go unaddressed, from education to energ, and a lot more in between.
Like the environment and climate change. Not addressing the reality that Fairfield is literally in the first wave of rising seas to accommodate building is folly.
I was also proud to work 1:1 with Bill Gerber to develop the Affordable Homes plan, which is designed to facilitate home ownership for anyone in Fairfield.
As I’ve shown repeatedly, the maps are wrong: Route 1, Flood Zone, Neighborhoods, Open Space. ALL of these true maps of Fairfield have been replaced by inaccurate and downright false maps, starting with the very first figure in the state’s POCD.
I included my text to you below for your bedtime reading. It brings up a major point: the public has been virtually ignored. None of this starting years ago has been addressed, and now we are in a time crunch. We think we can have a Pilot POCD done by Thanksgiving and a revised one in time for American’s 250th bday next year.
On many occasions, I have shared my concerns about the plan's pro-development bias. To date, the fundamental flaws I have repeatedly raised remain unaddressed in the current draft. It is clear that public input is being treated as a procedural box to check rather than a guiding force.
Therefore, I have taken the time to thoroughly mark up the vendor's latest POCD draft. This annotated document, which I will provide separately, details its numerous falsehoods, flawed assumptions, and dangerous recommendations. My comments are not just criticisms; they are a point-by-point refutation of a plan that is illegitimate, non-representative of our town, and a direct threat to Fairfield's future.
Most of it is under the guise of affordable housing, which we address by striving to provide an affordable home that they own to anyone who needs one, especially our children: 30,000 in the next 20 years will graduate from high school; how can we provide them with a home in Fairfield (answer: Extended Family zoning to replace Multifamily zoning).
My primary objections, detailed in the annotated PDF, are summarized below:
• An Illegitimate Process and a Dystopian Vision: The current POCD is the product of an unacceptable process that began in 2000, when the state wanted to build around the new RR station. The POCD was vended out through the BRBC. This deliberately buried, trashed, and ignored the five authentic, town-written plans that mandated conservation over buildings. The result is a dystopian plan geared entirely toward high-density construction, with eight of the ten executive summary items focused on building. Fairfield has the right to use its plans. The state acted maliciously when it burned them to advance its plans to build. It is no different than the actions of King George on the colonies, and we react the same.
• A Foundation of Flawed Maps: The plan is built on a fantasy version of our town. It uses dangerously outdated flood maps, pre-dating 11 straight years of rising sea levels. It erases the historic Black Rock neighborhood and replaces it with a "fake 'Commerce Drive' district" to justify overdevelopment. It falsely redefines Fairfield as a 50% "Urban Core," suggesting residents must go to Easton to see open space.
• "Housing" vs. "Homes": The plan's relentless focus on "affordable housing" is a premise for building high-density rental units, which leads to a lower quality of life and denies citizens the American Dream. Our focus must be on guaranteeing affordable homes and the equity that comes with ownership.
In terms of building, it virtually ignores the fact that many planned new buildings are in the flood zone. We cannot permit this.
In place of this flawed document, I again submit the framework for a Fairfield-written plan, built on the mandate of our town elders and the expressed desires of our community. This is the "Utopia" we can and should build together.
A Better Path Forward: The Fairfield-Written Plan
1. Restore Our Authentic Plans: We must use the five recovered town plans (1947-1979) as our foundational guide, honoring their emphasis on conservation and responsible development.
2. Prioritize Health, Safety & Our Environment: Our first priority is the well-being of all residents. This includes securing permanent protection for our five miles of shoreline and waterways through a "Fairfield Beaches Park" and/or protection with Aspectuck Land Trust and/or a Long Island Sound National Wildlife Refuge. It means reopening and remediating thousands of acres of open space, from the landfill at Pine Creek to Oldfield Park.
3. Guarantee Affordable Home Ownership: We will remove the barriers to homeownership for our children, seniors, and local workers by adopting Extended Family Zoning, promoting ADUs/SCUs, and using innovative, low-cost solutions like intermodal container homes.
4. Re-establish Local Control & Good Governance: We must restore true local control by creating an independent Town Services department, restoring the Department of Ecology, and replacing the 10 gerrymandered RTM districts with representation for Fairfield's 24+ true neighborhoods. This exactly aligns with the Parks & Recreation Department change to Community Services. That budget should triple, with a mandate for them to protect the outdoors.
The problem is The people of Fairfield deserve a plan that is written by them and for them. This is our last chance to get it right.
I will provide you with the fully annotated ("shredded") PDF of the vendor's plan under separate cover. For your convenience, I have included the text of my previous emails at the bottom of this message to document my consistent and unheeded efforts to contribute to this process.
Thank you for your time and service to our town.
Regards,
Matthew Hallock
(203) 394-7238
Here, again, is a narrative outline of a Plan for Fairfield: https://new.express.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:US:ecd2f715-b1df-5ab4-bb3b-fa133ed1925d?invite=true&accept=true&promoid=Z2G1FQKR&mv=other.
As many of you know, last year, multiple town leaders informally started a draft of a Fairfield-written Plan of Conservation & Development (POCD). This was in response to the state/vendor-drafted Plan, which was found wanting in many areas (and I’m being soft), specifically it being a roadmap to build. While helping, I found a gold mine at the Fairfield Museum library: five Town Plans, written by the town elders in 1947, 1948, 1960, 1976, and 1979. They are awesome and timeless. There are links in an article called Town Plans & Maps Found In History Museum Library I wrote, published here. It is our right to use these Plans & Maps, esp. In context of the state-written ones. The outline I wrote stands on the shoulders of them. My goal is help us get back on path and write a plan worthy of our leadership position. Not too long ago, we were on the cover of Money magazine as one of the best towns in America. I think we can get back there, but nobody hands you leadership, you have to show vision and set an example for others to model. Here are the big 3 takeaways: Guaranteed home ownership to all who live and work in Fairfield // Preservation of nearly 1000 acres of open space along 5 miles of shoreline // ZERO new buildings, even those approved, with rollback of zoning code to 1976 plan: i.e., 2.5 story buildings.
What happened? Loss of local control. In the 80s and 90s, the following were eliminated in Fairfield: Planning Director and Assistant Planning Director; Director of Conservation, the entire Department of Ecology (as it was then called), and more. We lost all our intellectual capital and guardians of the outdoors. Most importantly, we lost our independence, and the current structure is an agent of the state.
Starting in 2000, The writing of the POCD was vended out through Bridgeport to an out-of-town vendor. However, in an unacceptable act, the state/vendor buried our foundation plans and maps, as they mandated conservation over buildings. The entire piece was regeared toward development. The versions written in 2016 and the current draft put us on the same path. The major trouble with these plans is that they answer to the wrong people. It is dystopian, filled with increased density, greater heights, made-up neighborhoods, incorrect drawings, reduced setbacks, etc. Almost all of the items in the executive summary are to build.
They disregard the desires of the town. I was at the public hearing several years ago and there is a photo of me in my running shorts as I jogged there in the evening. They took a voice of the opposition (me), who was not shy in calling their work baloney and non-representative of the town's demands for conservation and no more buildings, as an example of listening to the community. They ignored the town.
Guarantee of home ownership. Fairfield helps people achieve the American Dream with home ownership, not renting. Nearly 30,000 young residents will graduate from our high schools in the next twenty years. One of the major problems they face is that they grew up in Fairfield but can’t now afford to live here. We seek to adopt Extended Family zoning instead of Multifamily zoning to provide a path for home ownership to our future. You can buy a self-contained unit for less than the cost of renting with no mortgage or down payment. Extended family zoning gives homeowners the ability to expand and even add new homes to their plot with expansions, in-law apartments, ADU's, bungalows out back, etc. You can buy a home on Amazon now for under $20,000.
We will work with employees to help their staff BUY homes, not rent.
Renting is a threat to the health & safety of occupants, as well as other residents in Fairfield. They have lower quality of lives, and impact everyone’s health & safety as a whole as well.
Seniors: each neighborhood is responsible for building model communities and options to allow seniors to stay in the communities where they have lived for years. There are many other uses: medical communities, incarcerated, formerly homeless, etc.
We are advocating ZERO new buildings with NONE of the current projects going through as is. We will roll back heights and setbacks to approved Plans. Discussion of reparations for buildings completed (lowering, removal of floors, underground parking, etc.) under 830-g guidelines that are not serving the needy population.
Reinforcement of the style and branding guidelines, esp. 2.5 story buildings. Builders have said for years that Fairfield doesn’t have any style or branding guidelines. We DO have standards, they were just buried by the state as it wasn’t what they wanted to do. We would like to reinstitute them.
Adoption of clean energy and environmentally aware construction practices: electric equipment, geo-thermal and other sustainable energy, etc.
“RE” is the architectural term of the world: renew, reduce, recycle, repurpose, etc. It is NOT new construction but adaptive reuse of what you’ve already built.
The POCD is much more than buildings. There are education, energy, and many other components that must be addressed.
No more dark money LLCs. We require full disclosure of all members of any organization, as well as the right to have conversations with their financial sources (banks). Developers must also show banks and/or funding agencies, as well as proof of insurance.
This is all a product of Bridgeport, actually. For context, see how the state has controlled them forever. The recent award of a $700 million contract (and to rewrite the POCD) is an example of this.
Thanks for everything,
Matthew Hallock
Hi -
I found five master plans (sometimes by different names) as I was researching Fairfield's current Plan for Conservation and Development. Please see below and google doc link here. They are remarkable - think of them as from the founding fathers of modern Fairfield. The plans, the projections, the deep dives into each neighborhood, the maps - they spent countless hours on them.
I did almost as much work, not just finding but reading them. I analyzed them page by page. I compared them to each other to find differences and read between the lines. I decoded the legends in the maps and the logic. These are the only and last documents produced internally (1947, 1948, 1960, 1976, 1979). Future editions (2000, 2016, 2024) were from vendors contracted by the state. The difference between the tranches is startling. We'd be foolish not to use them moving forward. It's a larger discussion on why the State shelved these to write their own, but that's what happened, to our detriment. As we revise key town documents, now is the time to make sure we are on the right path.
This is part of much larger stories I've been working on for several years. I'm going to go about it in a fun way make it interesting and engaging, but my intentions are to enact real change. The most important thing to me is to emphasize the positive. I believe Fairfield is a special, fantastic town, but also at risk of losing the qualities that make Fairfield what it is. The reasons why can pull us into the negative, which is not productive. The goal is to create a world we want to live in, and leave behind. Again, I want to emphasize that this is the name of permanently restoring Fairfield to its position as one of the top towns in the county, the state, and the country.
Thanks and I appreciate everything you do for our town. Our mascot, Solar the Spokespuppy, aka Solar the Spokesdog on YouTube and Go_Solar_Go on Instagram, hosts a nightly Ask Me Anything (AMA) at 6pm. Click here to join.
Fairfield’s Plans and Maps Found In Town’s History Museum Library
Trove of documents from town leaders convey the same message: preserve the fair fields of Fairfield. The beaches, rivers, hills and trees form the town’s singular, irreplaceable tapestry. Don’t break anything.
Pilot study and subsequent Plans were written internally; recent editions were compiled by state-issued vendors.
The resources and vision are a boon to Fairfield as it plans its goals and evolution
A newly assembled set of Fairfield town studies, plans, photos and maps tell a textured town story, with insights for even lifelong residents. Reflecting countless hours of work by the village elders of modern (post-WWII) Fairfield, the five-volume anthology is profound, providing POVs and insights that reach into every corner of Fairfield’s many neighborhoods. They paint a continually surprising portrait of who the town was and is, with remarkably prescient insights into its future. Goals are clearly defined, which raises interest in why some were met while others not.
They address the major issues still discussed today, such as health & safety; education; preserving aesthetic standards and resisting development; commerce & business; and caring for all residents, especially the most vulnerable. The emphasis is on empowering neighborhoods, as they form the community of Fairfield as a whole. Perhaps most importantly, there is a recognition that the keystone to everything is helping others achieve the American dream of home ownership.
The volumes are:
1947 Pilot Study, the seminal work upon which all others stand
1949 Town Plan, built upon the pilot study, the way it’s supposed to be
1960 Comprehensive Study, perhaps the most poetic
1976 Master Plan, with an irreplaceable trove of photos, maps and analysis
1979 Master Plan, issued just 3 years later. Why?
With the advantage of 20/20 hindsight, the 20/20 foresight of the village elders of modern Fairfield places them in the same breath as America's founding fathers. As Fairfield evolves and develops, this essential resource provides a mandate for future generations: to protect the essence of what makes Fairfield remarkable. These in-depth explorations of Fairfield allow even long-time residents to appreciate their town more profoundly, enriching their understanding of its history and significance.
7/30 publication: A Mandate to Fulfill Bill Gerber's Vision
An Open Letter to the Leaders and Residents of Fairfield
Tonight, the Charter Revision Commission (CRC) will hold a "special meeting." A look at their agenda reveals that they seek Board of Selectpeople approval of their "final" charter revision before hearing public comment. This comes on the heels of them already filing their report with the Town Clerk. This is all to fulfill a requirement sold as progressive public service.
These are not procedural errors; they are deliberate acts of a system designed to silence you. It is an insult to our democracy and a betrayal of the late First Selectman Bill Gerber's final vision. It is the culmination of a 50-year process, driven by the state and its pro-developer allies, to dismantle local control in our town. This document is our response. It is our audit, our indictment, and our insistence that we, the people, re-commission a new Charter Revision Commission to do the job right.
This charter is the result of a deliberate, state-led strategy to impose a developer-first agenda on our town, funneled through the Hartford-centric construction industry.
They Buried Our History: The citizen-led town plans of the 1970s, which championed environmental protection, were deliberately buried. In their place, we got a 2000 POCD written by the Bridgeport Regional Business Council—a plan that a town official admitted at the time was "not very good."
They Falsified Our Reality: They eliminated the historic neighborhood of Black Rock to create a fake "Commerce Drive" district to justify the new train station—the mustard seed of our overdevelopment problems.
They Ignored Our Voices: They took page after page of detailed input from the public, from town department heads, from Board of Education leaders and most importantly, from Bill Gerber himself. They ignored all of it and produced a cryptic two-page summary that addresses nothing of substance. Putting public input after the reports have been filed is a clear misinterpretation of the law and a profound disrespect for the town’s constituency.
They Ignored our Leader's Charge: In his final weeks, Bill Gerber made his powerful case for a new Town Manager system with Town Services supplied by empowering Fairfield’s 24+ neighborhoods. They hoped you would never see his final instructions for how to fix our town.
A Charter Written for Insiders, Not Residents
This failed process has produced a flawed document. JUST FOR INSTANCE:
It removes the residency requirement for the Town Attorney, a change that directly benefits the out-of-town lawyers who advised the commission. Yet the charter retains the requirement to have a town attorney and assistant attorney on staff. So we ignore our own rule to hire a who-knows-where vendor, who then eliminates the residency requirement. How does that benefit the town?
It extends the residency requirement for Police and Fire Chiefs to 35 miles, a specific change made with no public justification. Who told the CRC to do that?
The Mandate: We Must Fulfill Bill Gerber's Vision
Bill Gerber was elected by the people. We are now duty-bound to fulfill the vision he laid out. He saw the system was broken and had the courage to say so. He called for a new Town Manager system. He championed affordable homes, not just rental "housing." He knew we needed to empower our neighborhoods with real authority.
We cannot allow his vision to be buried along with the tape of his testimony.
We, the people, insist that the Board of Selectpersons Re-commission the Charter Revision Commission. We demand a new, transparent, citizen-led process that will build a charter for Fairfield's future, not one that protects the failures of the past. A charter that is written by us.
Thank you to my friends and neighbors,
Matthew Hallock, Fairfield, CT
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