Charlie Schmidt

P&Z Calls for More Details on Oenoke Ridge Road Residential Retirement Building

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Town officials on Tuesday night called for those proposing a new residential retirement building on Oenoke Ridge Road to include details in making their formal application later this summer in areas such as building materials, colors, elevations, lighting, noise-generators, sustainability and renderings such as a 3-D computerized model that will provide a sense of scale. Members of the Planning & Zoning Commission during their regular meeting also asked representatives for Waveny LifeCare Network to provide details on landscaping materials and retaining walls. Commissioner John Kriz said he was concerned that “The Oenoke”—a 70-unit building of one- and two-bedroom apartments that residents would buy into as part of New Canaan’s “Continuing Care Retirement Community”—would loom over its neighbors and “cast a shadow,” and asked that Waveny “be sensitive” to the historic nature of the abutting New Canaan Historical Society property as well as the “well-attended” St. Mark’s Church on the northern side. Kriz asked that the architects use fieldstone “as opposed to something else,” for example, and avoid using aluminum siding.

Government

Neighbor Objects To Proposed Barn on Oenoke Ridge Road

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Saying they’re worried about property values, smells, insects and wildlife, the owners of an Oenoke Ridge Road home are objecting to a neighbor’s application to build an approximately 2,000-square-foot, single story barn that would house rescued pigs, sheep and goats. The barn at 1770 Oenoke Ridge Road and its “let-out pens”—an apparent reference to an area out front of the barn that would be enclosed by pasture fencing—would be a “substantial detriment to the neighborhood,” according to a letter submitted to the Planning & Zoning Commission by David and Rosie Albright of 1752 Oenoke Ridge Road. “We believe that this proposed variance would have serious negative implications to property values, potentially negatively affect he well water/drinking water systems, and have detrimental impacts on the overall living environment of the immediate neighborhood,” the Albrights wrote. “Regarding the overall living environment, we are specifically concerned about the impacts on air quality due to odors from the animals themselves, manure and manure dumpster, insect control, as well as the let-out pens being constructed in the front yard, in very close proximity to our property. Further, we strongly believe that the aesthetics of let-out pens for such animals positioned in their front yard and visible from Oenoke Ridge will have a negative impact on the surrounding properties.”

Under the New Canaan Zoning Regulations, a homeowner may apply for a special permit to allow accessory buildings that cover more than 1,000 feet.

Around Town

Did You Hear … ?

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TV’s original home improvement show has a webcam on the God’s Acre Greek Revival that made headlines this week when town officials voiced support for a sensitive restoration and rebuilding project. The antique at 4 Main St. is the 2019 “Idea House” for “This Old House” and will track developments there. ***

The peacock seen wandering around Wahackme Road on Monday afternoon is back home, according to police. The exotic bird’s Ponus Ridge owner saw an article about it, and the peacock was located and returned to its pen with three others.

David Rucci

Editorial: P&Z and Downtown New Canaan

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We commend the New Canaan Planning & Zoning Commission for its responsiveness, diligence and care in updating the rules that say what types of businesses can occupy street-level commercial space in the downtown. More than one year in the making and with contributions from individuals within and outside the appointed body, P&Z’s work culminated in two changes recently that commercial property owners are hailing as proactive and timely. First, following several months of discussions, P&Z voted unanimously in April to update the New Canaan Zoning Regulations so that service businesses in the “Retail A” zone—the very heart of the downtown, including Elm and Main Streets—may occupy first-floor spaces so long as there’s a retail component facing the street. The idea for the text change came to the Commission because P&Z actively sought ways it could help the downtown. Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Tucker Murphy advised a P&Z committee led by Secretary Jean Grzelecki, and the Zoning Regulations amendment went into effect in May.

Business

‘We Need To Do Everything We Can’: P&Z Approves First-Floor Office Use for ‘Second Ring’ of Downtown New Canaan

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Municipal officials last week unanimously approved changes to the New Canaan Zoning Regulations that are designed to help commercial property owners, downtown retailers and the wider community. 

The Planning & Zoning Commission voted 9-0 in favor of text changes to the regulations that re-establish first floor office use in the “Business A” zone with site plan review. The Business A zone includes nearly all of the two-way stretch of Elm Street in New Canaan, parts of Grove Street, all of Pine Street and commercial lots on both sides of Cherry Street as it curls past Cross Street, almost to Locust Avenue (see map here). As local land use attorney David Rucci of New Canaan-based Lampert, Toohey & Rucci LLC said in applying to the Commission for the text changes (on behalf of the the new owners of the former Beval Saddlery building on Pine Street), though the Business A zone was created in 1985—at a time when the owner of the Lumberyard site was considering building an office park—more than half of it serves first-floor general office use on a legally nonconforming basis. Re-establishing first-floor office use will help the zone become more viable for both the owners of buildings, some of which are vacant, and the town, he said. “The office use itself is actually already occurring,” Rucci said at the Commission’s regular meeting, held Nov.