Norwich — With only a month to go before a make-or-break vote on a new version of the Town Plan, the Selectboard is asking the public to weigh in on the current draft during a hearing scheduled for Sunday.

Though town officials say the plan is designed to maintain the status quo, the process has become the focal point of a debate about how much development, and how much affordable housing, should be allowed or encouraged within the town’s borders.

“It’s really focused on keeping the sort of rural aspects of Norwich intact and minimizing any kind of commercialization,” Selectboard Chairman John Pepper said on Thursday. “Those are the main things. … We’re trying to not to make a lot of changes.”

Pepper said he hears broad agreement on the substantive issues — most people in the community, he said, want more affordable housing, and also want to ensure that the rural character of the town of 3,400 people is maintained.

“People agree that it shouldn’t be massive mega-developments,” Pepper said. “I have not seen one person who says we have to go really big on affordable housing or development of other kinds. I think there’s consensus in the community on that. It just hasn’t shown itself in a document that will be voted on.”

Pepper said that the unity of goals isn’t always reflected in the public conversation; he hears a note of suspicion that indicates a lack of trust.

“There’s skepticism,” he said. “I think there’s a number of people who don’t believe what I’m saying, because they think there are people who are out there to create large scale developments. I don’t see that, and I have a large, varying group of people that I talk to.”

One person who wants more out of the Town Plan is Stuart Richards, a former planning commission member who is the director of Norwich Affordable Housing.

“There are a number of omissions and a number of factual errors and a number of things that could be said more accurately and better,” said Richards, who has circulated a list of changes he would like to see incorporated into the draft.

Richards and a group of residents, some of whom live along the Route 5 South and River Road corridor, want more done to protect their vision of the town’s historical center, which is marked by modest development and green spaces. The group first mobilized in response to a proposed zoning change that would have allowed for increased development density in the two corridors.

Richards would like to see the town articulate a specific goal in terms of how much small-scale affordable housing it would like.

For example, one of his proposed changes would add language saying “there should be no more than 12 new residences built in any one year, with an exception for affordable housing/senior housing to allow up to 24 units in any one development.

But Jaci Allen, chairwoman of the Planning Commission, said it’s too late to make those types of changes to the document, because adding new language could threaten passage of the entire plan.

Under the Master Plan process, the Selectboard has until July 13 to approve the plan, so would need to incorporate any changes within the next two weeks to accommodate legal warning requirements.

The town has been without a Master Plan since the 2011 version expired in December of 2016; because a variety of grants require applicant communities to have a plan in place, the town has lost out on various funding opportunities over the last 18 months.

“I think it’s important for people to approve it,” Allen said. “We need a plan in place, and I think people should feel confident that the density of development is very low.”

Allen advised those who want changes to the Town Plan to wait until this version is adopted, and then propose amendments.

“There’s a lot of energy in the town around ideas for change that are surfacing,” she said. “I think that’s terrific. I think we should focus that energy on the next version of the plan. … New ideas seem to be popping up all the time.”

Richards’ recommended changes also would create an affordable housing trust funded in part by impact fees, and “constrain housing types and number of units to that which will have a neutral or positive effect on town and school taxes.”

The public hearing is scheduled for 3 p.m. on Sunday, June 10, at Tracy Hall in the downstairs meeting room. Pepper said he anticipates that the Selectboard will have a formal vote on a final version of the plan at a later date.

Matt Hongoltz-Hetling can be reached at mhonghet@vnews.com or 603-727-3211.