The state Superior Court judge assigned to the closely followed affordable housing appeal at Weed and Elm Streets recently was assigned a criminal case that has pushed back the New Canaan decision a further month, officials say.
The parties in the case—the town and developer Arnold Karp—had been expecting to get a decision this week from Judge Edward O’Hanlan on the proposed 120-unit development at 751 Weed St. but “it has now been delayed till May 7th,” according to First Selectman Dionna Carlson.
“The judge on this case was assigned a criminal case, and so he’s even more backlogged,” Carlson told members of the Board of Finance during their regular meeting Tuesday night.
In fact, Carlson said, O’Hanlan got so backed up that the state assigned another affordable housing appeal—a 93-unit development proposed for Hill Street—to a different judge, Carlson said. According to Connecticut Judicial Branch records, Judge Stephen Frazzini is now assigned to the case. He scheduled a site visit to the proposed Hill Street development location on Tuesday, court records show.
With Hill Street, the developer is appealing decisions made by the Inland Wetlands Commission as well as the Planning & Zoning Commission, Carlson said during the meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference.
Carlson’s comments came during a general town update to the finance board.
Under the state law known by its statute number, 8-30g, in towns where less than 10% of all housing stock qualifies as affordable, developers who propose projects where a certain number of units are set aside to rent at affordable rates may appeal to the state after a local Planning & Zoning Commission denies their applications. New Canaan had earned four years of relief from the law in 2017, but that “moratorium” lapsed in July 2021, and before the town could secure a new one last summer, three such applications came in—at Weed and Elm, Hill Street and Main Street.
O’Hanlon himself already denied an application to build 20 units at the “Red Cross building” property at 51 Main St., citing “public interest in the historic value of the property” among other reasons (it’s in New Canaan’s Historic District).
The town has sufficient “carryover” from affordable units that the Housing Authority developed at Canaan Parish and Millport Apartments to qualify for another moratorium in 2028, but will need to build or acquire more in order to get one in 2032, town officials have said.