The owners of a commercial property that backs up to The Playhouse parking lot and a staircase that leads to an alley running along the eastern side of the movie theater are asking to be included in any discussions of improvements there.
With the widely anticipated Playhouse project weeks from completion—town officials have targeted the month of May—Terry Spring, a managing member of Cody Real Estate LLC, said she’s “particularly interested in future plans for this alley as it is such an important town right-of-way between parking lots, Elm Street and potentially our property.”
“We have a significant interest in this town right-of-way and have not been contacted by the town to review details before the matter is voted on,” Spring said in a letter that was read into the record during the March 19 Board of Selectmen meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference.
She continued: “We are concerned in connection with the final location and use of the garbage compactor recently located nearby at the top of the stairs to the alley, bordering our rear property line. We ask respectfully if your vote on these two items can be delayed until we have the opportunity to sit down with the town to look over the plans for the use of this of this alley, which we are glad to see underway but have not yet had an opportunity to consider any negative effects it might have on our property.”
Spring specifically referred to two items on the agenda for the selectmen meeting. One of them, an approximately $7,500 contract with a local architecture firm for “additional structural engineering services for steel connections at the Playhouse Theater” was removed from the agenda.
The selectmen did approve an approximately $9,000 contract for the other item, which will see a New Canaan-based company install a concrete sidewalk in the alley on the other (western) side of the Playhouse.
Public Works Director Tiger Mann did address Spring’s concerns during the meeting, saying that the town will visit with her once it has its plans for the alley near her property line (the one that runs next to Le Pain Quotidien).
“There is the idea to put in a ramp that will lead down from the back of the Playhouse, own the sidewalk, redo the sidewalk itself and then relocate the compactor to a different portion of the Playhouse Lot,” Mann said. “At that point in time, we’ll sit with her. Once they’re finalized, we’ll sit with Terry and go over any of her concerns that she might have.”
First Selectman Dionna Carlson and Selectmen Steve Karl and Amy Murphy Carroll voted in favor of the $9,100 contract with Peter Lanni Inc. for the sidewalk work on the alley that runs between the Playhouse and the new Blackbird restaurant, next to Solé.
The town is already in conversation with the owners of those restaurants regarding the alley.
According to Mann, the Board of Selectmen granted an easement for the alley, and the sidewalk installation is part of the easement work. Hussey Bros. has already come in to address drainage in the alley and put in the base material to ensure that the grades are correct at each doorway around that narrow alley.
“This is to now simply put the concrete over the top of it,” Mann said.
With a very good price of $14 per square foot, the town should take advantage of Lanni’s services, he said.
Asked whether the town likes his work, Mann said yes, “he’s done very nice work.”
The alley is also very important in that it must be ADA-compliant and all the grades must match each doorway.
The 1923-built Playhouse has undergone extensive work since it became available to a new tenant in late-2020, when Bow Tie Cinemas terminated its lease. The town had approved a series of contracts to ready the Playhouse in time for a reopening in 2023—the movie theater’s centennial (the former first selectman during an election run-up two years ago setting an even more aggressive goal)—though that date has since been pushed back.