Neighbor Objects To Proposed Wider Driveway for Undeveloped Parcel on Hill Street

A newly submitted plan to install a 16-foot-wide driveway to access an undeveloped 2.42-acre property in New Canaan that had been approved for a subdivision in 2014 will negatively affect the wetlands and watercourses that must be disturbed in order to create it, according to a consultant retained by one objecting neighbor. The driveway and utilities proposed for “Lot 72” on Hill Street will also harm an adjacent property “by modifying the naturally occurring drainage patterns in this area, thus increasing the potential for surface flooding on the adjacent properties,” Steven Trinkaus of Southbury-based Trinkaus Engineering LLC said in a Feb. 19 letter and report to the New Canaan Inland Wetlands Commission. “The driveway alignment as proposed is not adequate for the movement of emergency vehicles and should be denied on this basis alone. Additionally, there is a feasible and prudent alternative to the current proposal which is more environmentally friendly and less destructive to the wetland and adjacent upland areas.”

That alternative—described more fully below—would relocate the proposed driveway and change the infrastructure needed to address runoff.

New Construction on Putnam Road Sells for $3,165,000

The following property transfers were recorded the week of March 2 in the Town Clerk’s office. For more information on each property from the Office of the Assessor, click on the address. 704 Valley Road

$1,161,500 (recorded March 2)
Arthur & Mary Maguire to James Chan and Marina Myslivec

255 Brushy Ridge Road

$2,850,000 (recorded March 3)
Kenneth & Shelley Savoca to Keith & Gretchen Gertsen

57 Putnam Road

$3,165,000 (recorded March 3)
57 Putnam LLC to Mark Heron & Nora Petkovich

1 Bank St., Unit 7

Donna Madalon, trustee, to Elwood Davis, trustee
$890,000 (recorded March 3)

Lot 72, Hill Street (see info here)

$912,500 (recorded March 4)
Maryellen Mclean to Hill Street 72 LLC

22 Parish Lane

$2,228,655.98 (recorded March 5)
Kaeser Development LLC to Michael & Jaime Smith

Town Approves Two-Lot Subdivision of 4.76-Acre, Wooded Parcel on Hill Street

On conditions that one of the two homes planned for a thickly wooded property near Route 123 shift away from neighbors and that vegetation now screening those neighbors remains as a buffer, town planning officials last week approved the two-lot subdivision of a sloping 4.76-acre parcel on Hill Street. Early-stage plans call for two homes on “Lot 72” of Hill Street, a windy road of 10 modest houses and condos that runs just above and roughly parallel to Route 123 for about 500 feet. It dumps into Brushy Ridge Road. The short segment of Hill Street that gives access to the oversized parcel known as “Lot 72” is wedged between numbers 11 and 37 and includes wetlands almost immediately off the street. Officials this summer approved a driveway across those wetlands, though representatives for neighbors objected to the overall plan, saying new construction would exacerbate runoff, lower property values and do little for the area’s aesthetics.

Objection to Proposed Subdivision on ‘One of the Streets in New Canaan That Time Forgot’

Saying the proposed subdivision of a long-unused, sloping 4.76-acre lot on Hill Street will exacerbate runoff, lower property values and do nothing for the aesthetics of an already “forgotten” New Canaan neighborhood, an attorney for one neighbor is calling for a new engineering design and plans. Hill Street is windy road of 10 modest houses and condos that runs just above and roughly parallel to Route 123 for about 500 feet, just east of Brushy Ridge Road. Developers have put forward a plan to subdivide into two what is called “Lot 72”—a thickly wooded property located within the Fivemile River watershed that’s belonged to the same family since it was purchased for $19,500 in 1966, tax records show. Plans call for two single-family residences with a single, shared access driveway from Hill Street. The Inland Wetlands Commission on June 30 approved the driveway on several conditions.