The Simsbury Planning Commission hosted an open house to collect resident priorities for implementing a village plan identified in the town's 2024 Plan of Conservation and Development, planning officials said.

Erin Leonard Smith, chair of the Planning Commission, opened the meeting and thanked residents and neighborhood association members for their participation in the planning process. Planning staff and their consultant, SLR, presented the draft implementation recommendations and invited attendees to prioritize items at four poster stations.

The meeting summarized outreach and analysis completed since August 2024, when SLR was selected to assist the town. Officials said the outreach included stakeholder meetings, a mailed community survey that drew 371 responses (approximately 20% of the village population as reported at the meeting), two community workshops in September 2024 and March 2025, planning commission meetings and a project website. Staff told attendees that SLR analyzed community input and identified four recurring topic areas: pedestrian experience and connectivity; roadway circulation and traffic; outdoor recreation and natural resources; and streetscape character and architectural aesthetics.

Planning staff presented the plan's recommended theme areas and example actions. Recommendations described at the meeting included updating major and minor gateway signage, improving streetscape aesthetics and wayfinding signage, preparing style guidelines (including consideration of historic architectural character), and exploring a village-district zoning regulation that could address parking and sustainability guidelines. For recreation, staff recommended more river access and viewpoints, expanded and better-connected trail networks, and upgrades to parks identified in the plan, including Terraceville Park and the Village Green. For multimodal connectivity and safety, recommendations included closing sidewalk gaps, adding or improving crosswalks, increasing ADA accessibility, exploring traffic-calming measures, preparing a traffic study for the village, and coordinating with the Connecticut Department of Transportation to evaluate and improve Route 315. For economic vitality, staff described zoning and marketing changes to promote local businesses, identification of public parking locations, and measures to expand recreational programming locally and regionally.

Bridal, a planning staff member, told the audience, “This document would not be what it is without your continued help and your support.” Staff distributed a packet containing the final draft report and asked attendees to place up to 10 star stickers at the posters to indicate their priorities. Final copies of the report were said to be available at the planning office.

Officials explicitly noted that the implementation phase did not include prioritized costs; the plan provides recommended actions but does not assign funding levels or firm timelines. Staff said the next procedural step is to update the implementation table in the plan study using public feedback from the open house, and that planning staff will work with other town departments and the Planning Commission to finalize priorities and sequencing.

The meeting did not include a formal vote on regulatory change or funding; no ordinance, zoning amendment, or budget appropriation was adopted at the session. Instead, the session functioned as a public engagement step in the plan's implementation process and as direction for staff to incorporate community priorities into the implementation table.

Looking ahead, staff said further steps will likely include preparing any recommended zoning language (the plan references a potential village-district zoning regulation), conducting required technical studies (for example, a traffic study), and coordinating with state transportation officials on Route 315 improvements. Dates for those next steps and any required public hearings or formal votes were not specified at the meeting.