Middletown holds comprehensive-plan visioning workshop; consultants present housing, demographic and flood-risk findings

Town of Middletown held a comprehensive-plan visioning workshop where planning consultants outlined draft findings on housing, population trends, open space and flood risk, and asked residents to identify five shared priorities to guide a 10-year plan that will inform future zoning and implementation steps.

Melissa Welch, chair of the comprehensive plan update committee, opened the workshop by thanking volunteers and committee members and asking residents to participate in shaping the town’s vision. "We're doing this because we care a lot about our town and its future direction," Welch said.

Consultants from Stantec and Community Scale presented the existing-conditions analysis that will underpin the update. Phil, Stantec’s project manager, summarized population findings, saying that after a dip around 2010 the town’s population has largely rebounded and "likely the population is going to keep growing," a trend consultants tied to activity at the naval station and projects involving NOAA and the U.S. Coast Guard. Phil said the plan will look about 10…