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DPW: Playhouse, Park Streets Lots To Be Repaved Next Month

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Town officials say they’re expecting to repave two municipal lots in downtown New Canaan next month. The Park Street (free for three hours) and Playhouse Lots are out to bid now and work is expected to start around March 15 “when the weather clears,” according to Public Works Director Tiger Mann. “And I can pave those lots in conjunction with finishing touches on the allée ramp, we’re doing final pour today,” Mann said during a Town Council and Board of Finance Infrastructure & Utilities Subcommittee meeting, held Monday at Town Hall and via videoconference. He referred to a new ramp in the recently renovated alley between The Playhouse and Le Pain Quotidien. Mann added: “All we’re waiting on is for it [the concrete] to be cured and then we’ll put the railing up and we can open it up temporarily while we finish the parking lots.

Around Town

Waveny Playground Equipment To Appear This Month; Facility on Track for Spring Opening

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Town officials say they’re planning to start installing new playground equipment at Waveny at the end of this month, though the widely anticipated facility won’t be ready for public use until the spring. That’s because the Poured-In-Place rubber surface that will anchor the children’s playground “has to go in during certain temperatures,” according to Public Works Director Tiger Mann. “What we don’t want to do is put the [playground] units out there and then people are going to want to go use them, so it’s an attractive nuisance where we’re stuck,” Mann said during a Town Council and Board of Finance Infrastructure & Utilities Subcommittee meeting, held Monday at Town Hall and via videoconference. 

He continued: “We’re balancing a point of when to put them [the play structures] in the ground and then come back with the Poured-In-Place surface. And our thought is at the end of February it’s going to take us two or three weeks to put it all in the ground and then by mid-March we should have favorable temperatures to then put the Poured-In-Place surface in. Everything is here, ready to go.

Government

‘We Do Not Get the Advertiser These Days’: Parking Ticket Appeals

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The Parking Commission recently received the following written appeals from motorists ticketed in New Canaan. ***

“Didn’t realize town Hall was open when I parked otherwise would never have parked there @ 7:30 AM. [A parking enforcement officer] saw me park there. She could have yelled and told me no parking, instead I got a ticket.”

—$30 for Town Hall lot parking when not in Town Hall, issued at 7:50 a.m. on Jan. 12

***

“I am appealing the ticket because I was at work with a client and unable to get back to my vehicle in time.

News

New Construction Planned for Ponus Ridge

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The New Canaan Building Department this week received an application for a 7,000-square-foot home on a vacant lot on the west side of town. The six-bedroom house planned for 1211 Ponus Ridge will include five full bathrooms, two half-baths, four fireplaces and three-bay garage, according to a building permit application. It will cost $1.5 million to build, the application said. The contractor on the job is the owner. The home is owned by a limited liability company whose principals include the head of New Canaan-based Woodcrest Homes.

Eric Thunem

Town Council Committee Nears Proposed Ordinance Banning Summer Use of Gas-Powered Leaf Blowers

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A committee of New Canaan’s legislative body is working to move a proposed ordinance for a seasonal ban on gas-powered leaf blowers to the full Town Council. Amid several differences of opinion, members of the group’s Bylaws & Ordinances Committee last week homed in on a draft version of what would be a new local law if the Town Council—following a future public hearing—votes in favor. As it stands, the proposed ordinance calls for a ban on the use of gas-powered leaf blowers from Memorial Day to Labor Day, with some exemptions (see below), as well as a ban on electric leaf blowers during the same summer period outside of 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays and 12 to 4 p.m. on weekends. The exemptions that the Committee is considering in the use of gas-powered leaf blowers during the summer period—there’s no limit outside of those approximately three months—include for emergency and safety purposes, storm cleanup or snow removal, Department of Public Works use and/or public utility companies clearing debris that affects essential services. 

The Committee also is weighing an allowance for property owners using leaf blowers for a very short period of time to clear “hard surfaces” such as sports courts, decks and walkways. Committee members in favor of the draft ordinance point to a desire for more quiet in the summer as well as the environmental and public health benefits of reducing the use of gas-powered leaf blowers.