Arnold Karp

P&Z, Merritt Village Developer Reach Accord on More Robust Landscaping To Hide Retaining Walls

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The developer of a widely discussed 110-unit condo-and-apartment complex to go up on the edge of downtown New Canaan is earning praise from town officials after agreeing to pursue a more robust landscaping plan that will effectively hide a series of retaining walls that some have criticized as unattractive. The retaining walls fronting Park Street will see a combination of plants that will hang down over a lower wall—itself to receive a treatment that will develop moss and so break up its monochromatic appearance—and ivies that will grow up other walls, as well as junipers and other trees, according to Arnold Karp of Karp Associates, developer of Merritt Village. “What we are going to look at it is things that cascade down over the wall that is against the sidewalk and things that will grow up on what is the second wall,” Karp said Tuesday night during a regular meeting of the Planning & Zoning Commission, held at Town Hall. 

“There has been some confusion about those walls. Those walls have always been in the design. The only change was that after the hearing was closed, one of the 65 conditions was that we put in a sidewalk, but it was always considered that we would leave space, so there was always a question about the height on those walls.

Government

‘They Missed It’: P&Z, ‘Merritt Village’ Developer at Odds

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The developer of an apartment-and-condo complex on the edge of downtown New Canaan is at odds with municipal officials about whether he’s building what they approved. 

Though members of the Planning & Zoning Commission have said that at some point a set of plans for Merritt Village specified that retaining walls would be finished with a “fieldstone veneer,” local builder Arnold Karp of property owner M2 Partners said final approved plans make no such specification. 

“They are making it seem that we didn’t follow plans,” Karp told NewCanaanite.com in an interview after Tuesday night’s regular meeting of P&Z. “The truth is that plans in Town Hall, stamped and approved, did not show a fieldstone veneer. They are going to something prior to that.”

He referred to a set of plans submitted to the Commission and town planner in August of 2016, five months before P&Z approved the 110-unit complex at Park and Maple Streets. According to Karp, an updated final set of plans went into the town the following month, prior to when the public hearing on the Merritt application closed. 

Officials appear not to be able to find those plans, he said. “The best I can say is they missed it,” he said.

Arnold Karp

Neighbor of Merritt Village Retaining Wall to P&Z: ‘It Doesn’t Bother Us’ and ‘Let Them Finish’

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The owner of the home directly opposite Park Street from the divisive and thus-far standalone retaining wall at the Merritt Village site is pushing back on criticism of its appearance. David Prutting in a letter to the Planning & Zoning Commission said he and his wife are “happy it’s nearly done” and, referring to the town body’s request for a fieldstone finish on the retaining wall, that “the thought of the 3-month-long installation of a 4-inch veneer is not welcome.”

“Besides, who gets to decide the aesthetic choice of the veneer?” Prutting said in his letter to P&Z, received Jan. 3 by the town. “Drive along Park Street and beyond and you will view many different looks, from a ‘pile of rocks’ ready to tumble, to flat and round looks, many very unattractive, at least to me. As I often tell our clients, stonework is like portrait painting—some can look really good or really bad.”

The appearance of the wall in October immediately became a flashpoint for some area residents, including passersby and critics of the 110-unit Merritt Village condo-and-apartment complex that P&Z approved more than two years ago.

Arnold Karp

‘Merritt Village’ Developer to P&Z: We’re Building What You Approved

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The widely discussed retaining walls built at the Merritt Village construction site on Park Street are consistent with approved plans, and criticisms from detractors are misguided, according to the project’s developer. In a reply letter to the Planning & Zoning Commission, Arnold Karp of property owner M2 Partners said he disagrees that the walls “are not in keeping with the spirit of the descriptions and drawings of the application for this project.”

Referring to a Nov. 20 letter from P&Z, Karp acknowledged that submitted and approved plans made no specific reference to “faux stone” in retaining walls, yet they also make no reference to “fieldstone.”

“In fact, the Conditions of Approval only seem to reference any materials at all in one or two instances, and certainly not pertaining to the insignificant retaining walls,” Karp wrote in his reply letter, received Dec. 24 at Town Hall. 

“The approval for this project included the imposition of conditions regarding the use of plant screening along Park Street, but nothing regarding the retaining walls. In reviewing the images presented to the Commission during the hearings and the application, the wall construction in place seems to mirror them.

Around Town

Did You Hear … ?

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The town on Dec. 21 issued a building permit to M2 Partners and Arnold Karp for the four buildings that will comprise Merritt Village. The permit is for “construction of new multifamily residential units” with 173 underground and 31 surface parking spaces. The units will come to a total of 167,746 square feet and will cost about $16.8 million to build, according to the permit. Its issuance came days after the Planning & Zoning Commission discussed withholding the permit itself until concerns regarding Park Street-facing retaining walls are addressed.