Business

YMCA Applies for Building Permit; Project Scope Reduced from Original

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The New Canaan YMCA has applied for a building permit application that, if approved, will allow the South Avenue facility to start work on a widely anticipated renovation and expansion. The project will see demolition of an existing family pool and pool building, interior renovations of the existing building locker rooms, a new café and office spaces, as a new pool building and family/recreation pools are built, according to an application filed Sept. 22 with the town. In all, 14,350 square feet of new construction is planned, the application said. The figure is down more than 40 percent from the 24,617 net increase in square footage that the Y had been seeking when the Planning & Zoning Commission approved its project (on 33 conditions) 18 months ago.

Government

New Canaan Y Expansion Approved on Conditions of BOE Vote, Membership Reports

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Saying school officials must formally vote on whether or not to lend a strip of Saxe property for large vehicles accessing a proposed construction site behind the New Canaan YMCA, the Planning and Zoning Commission on Tuesday approved the Y’s application for a special permit to expand. Forcing the Board of Education to take a definitive stance is one of 33 conditions that P&Z imposed on the closely monitored expansion project. “I have a lot of good friends on the Board of Education, but quite frankly they took the easy way out by narrowly defining what their mission is in this town,” P&Z member John Goodwin said at Tuesday’s meeting, held before about 40 people gathered in the Sturgess Room of the New Canaan Nature Center’s Visitors Center. “The YMCA provides a good number of educational programs, just like education system does. It’s been very clearly stated that, effectively, the YMCA is an extension of the school system—at a minimum, because they provide a venue for our swim meets.

News

School Board Supports Divisive Construction Vehicle Route

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Though it stopped short of casting an official vote, the Board of Education on Monday voiced support for a divisive, proposed construction vehicle route through the “South of the Y” neighborhood. The route has been proposed to provide access to a widely anticipated renovation at the New Canaan YMCA. The renovation itself would expand the Y’s swimming pools and parking lots. Planning officials are scheduled to take up the YMCA’s application on Tuesday. To get the work done, large construction vehicles need to get into and out of an area behind the YMCA through a proposed construction window of November 2014 through March 2015.