Join us! RSVP today! Northwest Hills COG’s “5th Thursdays Forums” for Land Use Boards & Commissions. The special topic for this forum will be “The Art of Planning our “Main Streets” and Supporting Local Businesses”.

The forum will be held Thursday, July 31st at 6:30pm (ice cream & lemonade at West Cornwall’s covered bridge) 7pm meeting begins at the Wish House Art Gallery (details below).

Where: The Wish House Souterrain Art Gallery, 413 Sharon Goshen Turnpike, West Cornwall (cross the 150 yr. old covered bridge from Rt.7 into Cornwall and the Gallery will be on your right after the train tracks.)

To RSVP: Please call or email Jocelyn 860-868-7341 More details: Come celebrate summer and “Main Street” planning efforts with us at the Cornwall covered bridge on Thursday, July 31. We will meet at the covered bridge at 6:30pm (for networking and river gazing) with ice cream & lemonade provided by the Wandering Moose Café and then take a short walk up West Cornwall’s Main Street to the Wish House Gallery by 7pm for the main event. (Note: in the event of rain we will just meet at the Wish House Gallery at 6:30pm.)

This “5th Thursdays” Forum will include: 1) a roundtable discussion to hear news and updates from local land use commissions (like all 5th Thursday forums), 2) a presentation on ways that local land use boards and commissions can help support local businesses and vibrant “Main Streets” including some case study examples from towns in the region, and 3) an opportunity for attendees to provide input on the draft NHCOG Infrastructure Plan for retaining and attracting businesses to our region and to learn about the data and information on your town available in this Plan.

SAVE THE DATE: The next 5th Thursday Forum is October 30th topics will include what control local land use boards can have over cell tower locations with guest speakers Acting Executive Director of the Connecticut Siting Council (confirmed) and Tom McGowan, Planning Consultant/Guru for many NWCT towns. This was a topic of much interest from attendees at the last 5th Thursdays Forum and many towns are trying to figure out how to best deal with the siting of cell towers.