Government

Board of Selectmen Considering Dissolving Utilities Commission

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Town officials say they’re considering dissolving the Utilities Commission, which has recently seen three resignations and currently lacks a quorum. During Tuesday’s Board of Selectmen meeting, First Selectman Kevin Moynihan floated the idea of dissolving the commission—which in recent years has worked on initiatives related to cellular coverage, natural gas and solar energy—and replacing it with a Selectmen’s Technology Advisory Committee, which would simply advise the board on technology initiatives. “Because of FOIA I can’t talk that much—outside of this meeting—but we’ve had three resignations on the Utilities Commission—which leaves us with not even a quorum,” Moynihan said during the special meeting, held at Town Hall. “They had to cancel their meeting last night—and I’ve been thinking about asking the Town Council to repeal the ordinance the created the Utilities Commission and replace it with a Selectmen’s Technology Advisory Committee.”

Moynihan said the main difference between the new Selectmen’s Technology Advisory Committee and the Utilities Commission is that the committee would simply advise the board on technology matters related to the town. “The Technology Advisory Committee would work on how the town can employ technology to provide better, more efficient services to our citizens,” he said, adding that he got the idea for the committee from a town resident a couple of months ago.

Government

Town Building Evaluation and Use Committee Unveils Its Recommendations [IUPDATED]

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Members of the Town Building Evaluation and Use Committee—which for the past eight months has been looking for ways to make more efficient and cost-effective use of town-owned facilities—presented its draft report to the Board of Selectmen on Tuesday. Among the recommendations included in the group’s massive 91-page report (available here in full) are moving the Board of Education offices from the current leased space on Locust Avenue to a town-owned facility—preferably the second floor of Waveny House or the main house at Irwin Park; using former Outback Teen Center building for an alternative high school program; renovating the Police Department building; razing the Richmond Hill garage; using the three-bay garage at Irwin Park as additional space for the Public Works Department; and developing policies for the storage of documents and other items in town buildings, among other recommendations. “The idea here is to look at where we might find some savings—or, if not, lower costs, moving forward—by optimizing the use of our buildings,” committee co-chair and Board of Finance member Amy Carroll said during the special meeting. “That’s what really drove this whole analysis. In tough times, [the Board of Finance] going to go through every department and say, ‘Please sharpen your pencils, what can we do better?’ It seems to me that from a town perspective, we should be saying, ‘How can we do better with our own buildings?’ ”

With regard to the general cost of the committee’s recommendations, which is still largely yet to be determined, Carroll said: “Yankee frugality is awesome—in that you don’t spend too much—but sometimes it might be penny wise and pound foolish.

Government

ZBA Grants Variance for Improvements at Brinkerhoff Avenue Home

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The Zoning Board of Appeals recently approved a variance paving the way for improvements to a single-family home located at 7 Brinkerhoff Ave. Mario Lopez of ML Builders, on behalf of homeowner Ed Ku, presented plans for improvements to the circa-1918 home during the ZBA’s most recent meeting on Nov. 6. Ku plans to change the pitch of the home’s roof from 7 feet to 14 feet and add a 56 sq. ft.

News

ZBA Green-Lights New Two-Family Home on East Avenue

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The Zoning Board of Appeals on Monday approved two variances allowing for the construction of a two-family home at 72 East Ave.—however, the project still needs approval from the Planning & Zoning Commission in order to move forward. William Panella plans to raze an existing 1,400-square-foot home on the property, where his late mother Mary had lived, and remove a non-compliant detached garage in the rear in order to build a new, residential style, two-family dwelling measuring about 4,000 square feet. However, in order to get a special permit for the project he needed relief from a requirement that the property have a minimum of 100 feet of frontage (it has only 93 feet) and that the site allow for a conceptual 100-foot diameter “circle” of open area where there is no building footprint (the “circle” is just short at 97 feet) —both of which were granted at the ZBA meeting. The application was continued from the board’s October meeting after some board members expressed concerns over the driveway shown in a preliminary site plan. The initial plan showed the driveway running from East Avenue all the way to the rear of the property, where it was to connect with the parking lot for a new residential and commercial development currently underway at 23 Vitti St.

Government

Committee Mulls Whether Town Should Continue As Owner of Playhouse

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Does it make sense for the town to continue to own the New Canaan Playhouse building downtown, especially considering that it needs more than $2 million in repairs? That’s a topic that members of the Town Building Evaluation & Use Committee broached during their most recent meeting at Town Hall. The town acquired the building at 89 Elm St.—which also includes street-level retail space and second-floor offices—in August 2007 for about $2.2 million. However, officials have been mulling in recent years whether it makes sense for the town to continue to lease the facility to BowTie Cinemas and have it operate as a private movie theater, considering the major capital investment needed to make it safe, structurally sound and ADA-compliant. The figure three years ago was pegged at $2.1 million (major line items at the 1923 building include partial roof and brick exterior replacement, elevator and ADA-compliant wheelchair access, new gutters and drainage system and new layout for its sprinkler system).