NewCanaanite.com recently received the following letter(s). Please email your letter to editor@newcanaanite.com to have it published here.
***
Dear Editor,
I find it revealing that in more than four hours of deliberations on St. Luke’s Parking Structure, not a single commissioner brought up the safety hazards of flooding our neighborhood’s curvy roads with teen drivers. Nor did a single commissioner voice concern over the hundreds of trips by cement trucks and construction vehicles driving down the Soundview Lane cul-de-sac where young children live and others in the neighborhood, ages 2 to 11, come to ride their scooters and bikes.
Just a thought.
Sarah Pierce
Sarah: You are correct and we thank you for leading the effort to protect our 4 acre residential zoning.
Much Information pertaining to the St Luke’s School Parking garage is grossly inaccurate.
Firstly it is not a ground level garage. It is a one story above ground level garage with the football field elevated as a roof above the garage. A huge difference in your story.
Second: This is not about fixing the football field. It is about adding 177 parking spaces so that juniors can drive and park at the school which they now cannot. You do not need an above ground parking garage with an elevated football field to fix a ground level football field. The school is using the football field as an excuse to expand.
Third: The Water District does not support the project and still has major concerns.
Fourth: St Luke’s School has purchased adjoining residential properties in their hidden plans to expand .
Fifth: St Luke’s school is in current violation of their many special permits. The New Canaan’s P&Z has erred in even addressing the current application, as you cannot submit a new application while you have open violations.
Sixth: St Luke’s School created the parking problem with over expansion. The Town of New Canaan’s has no obligation to change current zoning in a residential four acre zone to solve a self created problem.
Seventh: when I purchased my home in 1996 the St Luke’s School was a small footprint with adequate parking. In fact the football field was built without proper permits. P&Z wrongfully grand fathered a special permit after the fact.
Eighth: Since 1996 the school has erected. New field house – indoor athletic building, a new music center and theatre, new classrooms, far exceeding their footprint. The school knew they were in a residential zone and now want the zoning changed at the detriment of the surrounding residential zone.
Ninth: In other towns such as Greenwich this same type of school expansion in a residential zone has been turned down by Planning and Zoning. The schools have been told to and have built a second campus outside the residential zone in the commercial/school zone.
Roy A Abramowitz
581 Laurel Rd
New Canaan’s, CT 06840
646-250-7238
Thank you