Alice Dew, Director of Planning and Zoning
New to the Ridgefield Town Hall as of January 2022 is Alice Dew. When Richard Baldelli, former Planning and Zoning director retired after five years as department head, and 30 years as the zoning enforcement officer, Alice took his place.
Alice was well prepared for her new job. With six years as Brookfield, Connecticut’s land use coordinator, Alice oversaw the planning and zoning commission as well as the day-to-day operations of the zoning board of appeals, the inlands/wetlands board, the building department and health department. Alice knows how to work cooperatively with other departments.
Alice also partnered with the land use director and Brookfield’s Economic and Community Development Commission on the redevelopment of the Four Corners in town (Intersection of Rt. 7 and Rt. 25). Serving on the town’s Conservations Commission for twenty years, Alice will continue to serve on this Brookfield committee.
Finding Ridgefield to be a lovely town with many resources, Alice is excited about her new position. She realizes that the job will be a challenge, but she feels she is well prepared. Some of her goals, in addition to new projects in the works, will be improved customer service, more community engagement, efficiency, sustainability, and accountability. Alice is fortunate to be working with four new commission members with backgrounds in critical areas: the law, civil engineering, sustainability, and an architect.
The mainstays of Alice’s job will be addressing affordable housing, approval or rejection of applications for condos and other buildings, looking out for watershed areas, examination of issues of eminent domain, areas for composting, solar panels, adherence to state and town statues and guidelines regarding plot lines and placement of buildings. Alice knows that the face of Ridgefield will constantly be changing, and her job is to provide the necessary leadership in order to help keep the town’s character while still making economic progress.
To prepare Alice for her position in land usage, she received her undergraduate degree from the University of Maine in Orono, Maine. She was a forestry land management major. She also has a degree from Norwalk Community College in Construction Management and Project Engineering.
The first career move for Alice was with the U.S. Forestry Service. She was a harvest inspector for the U.S. Forest Service in North Fork, California. The job involved helicopter logging operations during the black beetle epidemic in the Sierra National Forest near Yosemite. On weekends Alice also had a lookout position at Shuteye Mountain near-by. Alice’s next position was with a solar instillation company.
Alice’s love of the land and water carries over into her personal life. She loves to hike, camp and be in the wilderness. Her favorite areas to hike, canoe and camp are in all parts of Maine and in the Adirondacks. She particularly likes the St. Regis area in New York state. For skiing she likes to go to the Laureation Mountains in Canada. For a two-week challenge, Alice with only a backpack and tent, lived off the land and alone in the forests of California. To relax Alice will usually knit, read and take a leisurely walk.
Alice is married and has two grown sons. One is an engineer with Sikorsky (now Lockheed Martin). Her other son works for Amazon in the web design department. Being a grandmother is a very special part of Alice’s life.
Ready for a new challenge, Alice sees she has a lot to learn, but also a lot to give. She has an outgoing, warm personality, and is there to help the public in any way that she can.