Danbury leaders want a downtown cooling and shading plan, more trees to save city’s green character
DANBURY — The city still has plenty of trees despite losing 1,300 acres of forest to development over the last 30 years, but Danbury will need better planning if it wants to keep its green character into the next decade, leaders stressed this week.
“Danbury for many years had a considerable urban forest where the roads were all lined with trees that could be up to 200 years at maturity, but over the last 100 years they have been cut down because one of the largest liabilities the city has is people tripping and falling on our sidewalks,” said Timothy Nolan, the superintendent of Danbury’s Public Works Department, which includes the city’s Forestry Division. “Every tree that comes down has such an incredible impact on what the city looks like.”
Nolan’s comments were more than a nostalgic plea for way the way things used to be in Danbury generations ago. A plan to plant more trees along the Main Street corridor and other pedestrian areas in the downtown would be a key component of an urban cooling and shading strategy that could be implemented within the next decade.
A cooling and shading strategy can reduce what the federal Environmental Protection Agency calls “urban heat islands” — dense pockets of buildings and pavement that retain heat, increasing air-cooling costs, pollution levels and heat-related illnesses.
“The downtown needs more tree canopy to get a little shade on the sidewalk and make places place for people to get out of the sun,” said Francisco Gomes, the lead consultant hired by Danbury to guide a task force of city leaders who are developing a master plan for the next 10 years. “This is an environmental issue being faced in a lot of cities, and the issue is the heat in the summer.”
The status of trees in Danbury — and the need to plan for their growth and management — was discussed during a Zoom meeting earlier this week about the city’s environmental resources, including its open spaces.
Gomes noted that across Danbury’s 28,000 acres, 9,000 acres are developed, and 10,000 acres are forested.
“You have roughly the same amount of development area as you do forest, which very healthy for a city,” Gomes told the master plan task force during the Tuesday meeting. “You have a really interesting dichotomy where you have a downtown that is fairly intensely developed… and then you are surrounded by forests.”
The problem, leaders said, is that Danbury’s Forest Division has been reduced to cutting down nuisance trees and doesn’t have the resources to monitor forests for invasive species and disease.
“One idea might be to get a division of volunteers — like a civilian army — to get together in an organized [way] and go out once a quarter to check these areas,” said Helen Hoffstaetter, a member of the city’s Planning Commission and a master plan task force member. “That would augment the number of people we have and could help.”
The task force discussion comes at a time when leaders are preparing a public outreach campaign to get input about priorities for the next decade.
An online questionnaire in English, Spanish and Portuguese was expected to be launched by Friday, and city planning officials were planning to highlight the task force’s work at the CityCenter Farmer’s Market at Danbury’s Railway Museum on Friday and again on Oct. 15. An outreach effort about the master plan was also being planned at Danbury High School to get teenagers’ input.
Focus groups are also being scheduled in October and November to get residents’ feedback about key elements of the master plan, such as housing, transportation, open space and economic development.
The task force hopes to have a new master plan drafted by next summer, to present at a public hearing.
“We’re nearing the end of the discovery process, and soon we’re going to pivot to develop the plan, coming up with needs, goals and a strategy,” Gomes said.
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