Planning Board Preparing to Review Master Plan

The New Milford Planning Board is gearing up for its 10-year review of the master plan due for completion in 2014. Master plans chart the course between where a municipality is and where it envisions itself in the future. Unlike a blueprint that is fixed, master plans are flexible guidelines that are adaptable to change.

Master plans designate the permitted uses of land based on mapped zones which separate one set of land uses from another. In reviewing the master plan, zoning can be amended to reflect potential changes in land-use.

During Tuesday's meeting, Mayor Ann Subrizi informed the Planning Board of Brunetti's proposal to rehabilitate, replace and extensively repair approximately 750 units in Brookchester that front Boulevard. In the course of these preliminary discussions, Brunetti said that he could cover New Milford's entire COAH obligation as it exists today --14 units as defined by the Fair Housing Council for the third round.

Since the Brookchester property is zoned C-Garden apartments, Subrizi recommended that the board, along with the borough planner, review Brookchester's zoning and consider amending it.

Brunetti, second generation owner of the 70-year old garden apartment complex, will give a presentation laying out his plans for what he intends the design of these units to look like at the May 29 meeting of the Mayor and Council.

Planning Board Chairman Angelo DeCarlo said that until Brunetti comes forth with a rendering of the design and how it will impact town's infrastructure, services and schools, it is all just conceptual. In the meantime, the board will begin the process of the master plan review and start discussing it at their next meeting on May 21.

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