Editing Washington, Connecticut (section)

===Conservation focus===
Successive generations of Washington residents have actively supported land conservation efforts, and their gifts of property and conservation easements to local land trusts have yielded large tracts of permanent open space.<ref name="auto"/>

The town's strong conservation ethic is also evident in its land-use policies, which strictly limit new development. Washington was one of the first Connecticut municipalities to establish zoning regulations, which were enacted in 1939,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.washingtonct.org/zoning.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=June 20, 2010 |archive-date=January 24, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110124123549/http://www.washingtonct.org/zoning.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref> The town's contemporary land-use policies are substantially natural resource-based, and they have been expressly conceived to maintain the community's rural character.<ref name="auto2">{{cite web |url=http://www.washingtonct.org/pocd1.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=June 20, 2010 |archive-date=July 19, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110719174715/http://www.washingtonct.org/pocd1.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref> Washington is one of only two municipalities in Connecticut to base permissible residential density on the soils composition of land parcels, and it was one of the first Connecticut towns to adopt net-density subdivision regulations, which render [[wetlands]], [[flood plains]], and steep slopes ineligible for satisfying the minimum acreage requirements for creating new building lots<ref name="auto2"/> Consequently, even large tracts of land may not qualify for subdivision. Washington's inland wetlands regulations are similarly rigorous<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.washingtonct.org/iwcregs.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=June 23, 2010 |archive-date=April 10, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110410181550/http://www.washingtonct.org/iwcregs.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Development proposals seen as posing a threat to the town's natural resources or rural character typically elicit controversy and often result in litigation, which is quietly underwritten by Washington's deep-pocketed and well-connected residents.<ref>{{Cite news|first=Lisa |last=Prevost |title=Anti-Inn? How About 33 Homes? |date=February 13, 2009 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/15/realestate/15wczo.html |work=The New York Times |access-date=October 1, 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.washingtonct.org/notices.html |title=Public & Legal Notices - Washington, Connecticut |access-date=June 20, 2010 |archive-date=January 26, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100126001940/http://www.washingtonct.org/notices.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>