Government

‘It’s Awesome’: Parks Officials Support Waveny Park Conservancy’s Plan for a New Trail

By |

Parks officials on Wednesday night voted unanimously in favor of a private group’s plan to create a new trail in Waveny Park where walkers, joggers and others now are forced into the roadway for lack of one. As it is, the trail that snakes alongside the Waveny Road from the South Avenue entrance ends at a traffic triangle where the Carriage Barn driveway comes into it. Under a proposal from the Waveny Park Conservancy, a new trail would climb the hill up toward the main parking lots in front of Waveny House, according to Keith Simpson, a local landscape architect who sits on the nonprofit organization’s board. “I am showing some additional trees because we want to do some additional trees, and if the budget allows, we would like to put some trees in and cut down some brush so that there is no doubt about it, people can see the trail from the road,” Simpson told members of the Park & Recreation Commission during their regular monthly meeting, held at Lapham Community Center. “Because we want them incentivized to get up and then that would presumably strengthen our hand and the police department’s hand to say we really, really want strollers and people with dogs off the road because we have created an 8-foot-wide trail for you.”

The commission voted 8-0 in favor of constructing the new trail (it needs selectmen, finance board and Town Council approval, and will be paid for entirely by the conservancy) as presented.

Government

‘This Is Really Exciting’: Conservancy Unveils Plan for Waveny Pond

By |

Members of the private nonprofit group that formed to recommend, fund and oversee improvements to a portion of the grounds at Waveny on Wednesday night unveiled a dramatic plan to create a more visible, functional and attractive pond at the foot of the sledding hill. The Waveny Park Conservancy is calling for new trails, stream system, fishing dock, bridges and wildlife lookout area as well as a full dredge, re-routing of a conspicuous utility line overhead, installation of underwater bubblers to prevent hypoxia, improved spillway and extensive landscaping around the pond, such as the removal of several trees in order to restore the area to the Lapham family’s original vision and create better sightlines toward the main house, according to Keith Simpson, New Canaan-based landscaped architect and member of the group. “A project such as this is a major construction project, no question about it,” Simpson told members of the Park & Recreation Commission during their regular meeting, held in the Douglass Room at Lapham Community Center. “We will be cordoning off a significant area, and we will be putting in erosion controls. All these things have to be done and they are costly.

Government

Mallozzi: Town To Halt Dumping of Dredged Material in Waveny Cornfields

By |

Though it’s saved money for New Canaan and even generated modest revenue, concerns about aesthetics and environment are prompting town officials to end the practice of dumping the organic material dredged from Mead and Mill Ponds in the southwest corner of Waveny. First Selectman Rob Mallozzi said his swift decision follows comments from residents that even though New Canaan is recouping some money from the dredged debris because it’s been sold to a local business that’s doing the considerable leg work of converting it into topsoil, “the wear and tear is not conducive to the ultimate goal of the preservation of that beautiful area of Waveny.”

Mallozzi had high praise for New Canaan’s Peter Lanni, who in past years has carted off the material from the area of Waveny known as the “cornfields,” and more recently has been working at screening and then carting off about 1,000 cubic yards of the debris, but said that on Thursday he informed the local man that “the town is not interested in continuing further.”

“He graciously understood and agreed to work with [the Department of Public Works] to grade and restore the area. We have 250 more [cubic] yards to go on the contract and then he will leave and we will no longer be using the cornfields for dumping grounds of any organic material that we dredge up or move out of other spots. And I did that after consultation with the Park & Recreation Commission and private citizens, and just the feeling we all have that it’s a beautiful area. We’re very appreciative of the work that Mr. Lanni did in removing it, but we’ll put it back the way it was over a couple of years and there will be no more dirt disturbance in that environment.”

The matter had emerged as a major talking point at the Park & Rec Commission’s meeting Wednesday.

Around Town

Waveny Park Conservancy Seeks To Raise $2 Million, Start Work on Grounds Next Spring

By |

Members of a group seeking to raise money for, recommend and help oversee yet-undetermined capital projects across a big chunk of Waveny Park said Wednesday night that they’re seeking to hit $2 million in order to “break ground” after prioritizing plans through the winter. Calling itself the ‘Waveny Park Conservancy,’ the group has “some money in the bank to get us going, and I think we have pretty reasonable ideas and prospects whereby we can raise this $2 million,” its chairman, Bob Seelert, told the Park & Recreation Commission. “I know a lot of people are trying to raise money for a lot of different things in town—this, that and the other thing—so I suppose there is competition for scarce resources,” he said at the commission’s meeting, held in the Douglass Room at Lapham Community Center. “But the reality is if you live in New Canaan, and you’ve been here a long period of time, if you ever have out-of-town guests into your home, you can do two things with them: You can take them down to Elm Street and bring them over to Waveny. And they all sit there and say, ‘Oh my god, what an iconic place this is, it’s a real gem, I wish I lived here.’ So we think there is enthusiasm for what it is we want to do because, in truth, it is for a really noble purpose.”

Inspired by the model of the Central Park Conservancy, the group incorporated on June 11 with the intention of helping Waveny “thrive in perpetuity” for all New Canaanites, according to Seelert, through a public-private partnership.