Mayor Calls for Economic Development Director

Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton called for a Charter School in Danbury to improve the quality of the city's education, the return of an economic development director and a government-wide effort to improve Main Street.

Boughton was speaking to the Greater Danbury Chamber of Commerce's Leadership luncheon for his annual State of the City address.

Boughton said that while campaigning for governor and lieutenant governor this year, he saw a charter school in Hartford and one in New Haven.

"I saw students who were excited and anxious to learn," Boughton said. "Why can't we offer the same learning experience to students in Danbury?"

Boughton acknowledged that with the economy in trouble, and the Board of Education's portion of the city budget expected to rise by about $5 million, the city may have a problem with these ideas. That means the city has to be creative with its budget, and perhaps to come up with a creative budget solution, a charter school might be a good idea.

"We can't afford to continue on the same path," Boughton said.

He then spoke about Main Street, which he said was in some ways successful and in some ways it needed work.

He said his new Main Street Renaissance Task Force study, which he released Friday, offered a vision statement that said, "The downtown will be the primary focus of City life, with a diversity of activities and thriving businesses, high quality housing, exceptional urban design, preservation of historic buildings, varied entertainment and a vibrant street life."

The 53-page plan included a number of objectives, including supporting colleges, churches and medical centers, improving nearby residential neigborhoods and fostering cooperation among businesses, merchants, property owners, developers, city government, and civic, religious and educational institutions.

In addition to hiring an economic development director, the mayor also called for amending downtown zoning and the permitting process to speed development. The new zone would prohibit residential units on the ground floor of a building on Main, White or West streets.

Another zoning change would be eliminating a restriction the city created downtown on nightclubs selling alcohol. The city had said monthly receipts could not show alcohol exceeding 40 percent of the value of the total receipts. The original goal of that rule was to encourage quality restaurants and to discourage nightclubs.

 (Editor's note: This is a complicated plan for downtown Danbury, and reading it and understanding it will take days. This is the first of several articles on this subject.)