WILTON – A public hearing followed by a special town meeting will be held 7 p.m. tonight, Dec. 16 at the Town Office in order to designate a section of the downtown as “slum and blight.” The designation would allow the town to apply for federal funds to make infrastructure improvements.
The proposed slum and blight designation for a section of town comes following a change in how the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development counts the number of low- to moderate-income households in towns. That given percentage is one of two triggers for applying for Community Development Block Grant funding. The switch to the American Community Survey, taken between 2000 and 2005, from the formerly used U.S. census results has meant that Wilton falls short by 2 percent in qualifying for the federal funding, Town Manager Rhonda Irish said earlier.
Wilton town officials intended to utilize a downtown plan and a newly-hired specialist in community and infrastructure development, Darryl Sterling, to leverage CDBG funding to make infrastructure improvements in the downtown and Wilton gateway areas. The only way to override the American Community Survey results is to conduct an income survey, something that would easily push Wilton out of the next year’s grant funding cycle and would be expensive to implement.
The only other option is to declare a section of town as “slum and blight” by voters at a town meeting in order to qualify for CDBG funding. That would require that 25 percent of existing buildings and public improvements in the designated area fall under the classification of “deteriorating.”
The area proposed for the slum and blight designation is along Depot Street, from Route 2 to the Academy Hill School and down Main Street, from Academy Hill School to Wilson Lake. The proposal includes properties such as the Forster Manufacturing building complex, as well as some insufficient or deteriorating infrastructure in the downtown, such as sidewalks. Irish noted that while many of the properties in the proposed district were not blighted, CDBG funds could only be utilized within the boundaries of the “slum and blight” area. Setting the boundaries at either end of the Depot Street-Main Street, the “L” allows for infrastructure improvements throughout the downtown area.
In the meantime, among the results of a survey administered last month by the Wilton Downtown Committee “appearance” was the most common answer residents gave as a “drawback to visiting Wilton’s downtown.”
Of the 204 respondents to the survey which asked residents what their reason for visiting and general perception of downtown Wilton was, 90 percent were residents of Wilton and the remainder were residents from neighboring towns.
While more than a third taking the survey said they visited the downtown more than once a week, 27 percent said it was at least once per day.
In answer to the question “Why do you come to downtown Wilton” this was the breakdown of answers (people could choose more than one option): grocery store: 66 percent; just driving through: 49 percent; Post Office: 45 percent; restaurant: 36 percent and the library: 20 percent.
The survey, created by committee member Angela McLeod, asked as a write-in question, “What do you see as a drawback to visiting Wilton’s downtown?”
“The biggest write-in trend for this question was under the general category of ‘appearance,'” McLeod reported after compiling the results. “People cited shabby/rundown appearance as a major deterrent. The second biggest trend was under the general category of “nothing to do.” The third biggest trend was under the general category of “problem with roads.” People frequently referred to the need for roads to be repaired and wanting to avoid the downtown due to bad roads.”
A regular selectboard meeting will follow the public hearing and special town meeting on Dec. 16.
All roads leading to downtown are in horrible shape, Old Rte 2, Depot St, and Main Street from Route 2. sidewalks on Depot street are dangerous, and hard to walk on..
I will be voting yes on declaring slum/blight
one thing to remember main street and old route 2 is a state road not a town road so it is up to the state to repair it
If I lived in Wilton, I would definitely not want my town to be known to have a slum and blight area. Don’t homeowners realize they are degrading their own properties. Wilton is a fine community. Maybe the roads and sidewalks need some improvements but is that enough to call it a slum? Think with a clear head before you vote.