a zoning department with one simple rule, no military activity excluding the United States Army. The law was adopted December 14 and the Bund stopped work and eventually sold the land. Southbury was a rural farming town for most of its history. However, with the development of the Interstate Highway System, that changed. With the opening of Interstate 84 through Southbury by 1963, the town gained easy access to New York and Hartford, also improving its access to Danbury and Waterbury. Heritage Village opened in 1967, on a site. In 1987, IBM built an extensive office and research building in Southbury, employing over 2,500 workers. Southbury transitioned from a primarily rural community into the varied town it is today, with the commercial downtown and residential neighborhoods sharing the town with farming communities and extended rural acreage. Today, Southbury has approximately 17% open space, with a goal of 20%. In the early 1990s, Southbury was the subject of a lawsuit by the Golden Hill Paugussett Indian Nation. The 100-member tribe sought to take the land of roughly 1,200 property holders in the town. The lawsuit was thrown out in 1993 based on the fact that the man who brought the suit was not a chieftain, contrary to his claims, and had no standing to bring the suit. Geography According to the US Census Bureau, Southbury has a total area of , of which is land and , or 2.69%, is water. Towns that border Southbury are Middlebury to the northeast, Oxford to the east and southeast, Newtown to the southwest, Bridgewater to the west, and Roxbury and Woodbury to the north. South Britain and Southford are included in the incorporated township of Southbury. Demographics As of the 2000 census, there were 18,567 people comprising 7,225 households, including 4,833 families residing in Southbury. The population density was . There were 7,799 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the town was 97.34% White, 0.45% African American, 0.08% Native American, 1.15% Asian, 0.01% Pacific Islander, 0.35% from other races, and 0.62% from multiple races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.59% of the population. Of Southbury's 7,225 households, 29.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 59.8% were married couples living together, 5.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 33.1% were non-families. About 29.8% of all households were made up of