WILTON – Residents are invited to voice their thoughts and hopes on what they would like to see the town become in the next 20 years.

The Comprehensive Plan Committee will hold the first of several public meetings from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday, May 12, at Academy Hill School cafeteria.

“I’m really hoping folks will come,” said Paul Montague, Wilton’s code enforcement officer. “The cafeteria can hold quite a few people and they can come and go as they need to.”

What the committee is hoping to get from people, he said, is their input on what they want the town to become in the next few years.

“To help them help us, there will be several habitat maps with wetland areas and environmentally special areas but the maps also show town-owned properties and aerial photos,” Montague said.

They can be used as an overlay, he said, to see where future development should go as well as what areas to protect.

The committee will also be looking for what town services they think Wilton needs and whether there are historic buildings to preserve.

Following a few opening remarks, he said, the committee has questions within 11 topic areas such as water or natural resources to provoke response and prompt discussion. The questions are geared toward helping people get a feel for what’s important for them and to spark a general conversation over the future of the town, Montague said.

The last time the comprehensive plan was reviewed was in 1995. Prior to the start of the Comprehensive Plan Committee’s work three months ago, he said, a committee undertook an investigative look to see if the 1995 plan should be updated or redone. Enough has changed, he said, that they decided to redo the whole thing, a project that will probably take at least two years.

The comprehensive plan is the underlining foundation of the zoning ordinance and many state guidelines have changed. The plan isn’t going to change the zoning ordinance but the work will give others, such as the planning board, recommendations as to what should be done when to complete goals, he said.

The committee has eight members but there are a couple open positions. Some had initially signed up but then realized they couldn’t complete the commitment, he said. The group meets on the second and fourth Thursdays of the month at 7 p.m. at the town office. Anyone interested in serving on the committee should contact the town office.