I just spent 2 years in Norwalk and loved it, but OP specifically wants out of the city and the worst traffic in the whole state is 7/15/95 right around Norwalk, and 7/84 in Danbury. Mystic is not cheap, Blackrock is getting up there too. ETA: not a whole lot of open space in Norwalk outside of Silvermine, Danbury has a little more.