Government

Town Seeks Credits for EV and CHP Initiatives 

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The town is preparing to spend $35,000 with Deloitte Global to prepare documents to receive government credits and incentives related to the municipality’s electric vehicle and combined heat-and-power initiatives. 

The town stands to get back $100,000 to $131,000 for CHP initiatives and $7,500 per EV, according to Joe Zagarenski, senior engineer in the Department of Public Works. Deloitte “will prepare and help submit under the Internal Revenue Code, Section 48, for an investment tax credit for the CHP at Lapham [Community Center],” Zagarenski told the Board of Selectmen at its regular meeting Tuesday, held in Town Hall and via videoconference. He continued: “This requires them basically to submit a zero dollar tax return on behalf of the town, and then we get a credit against that for a certain percentage of what we spent on the CHP units. And then there’s a second effort that they will actually submit for commercial clean vehicle credits for our fleet of EVs. And these are just another incentive that’s out there that they’ll help us to obtain.”

First Selectman Dionna Carlson and Selectmen Steve Karl and Amy Murphy Carroll voted 3-0 in favor of the contract.

Government

Town: Aquarion To Shut Down South Avenue in July and August for Water Main Installation

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The water company is planning to shut down South Avenue during weekday work hours between Harrison Avenue and Farm Road in July and August as part of a multi-year water main installation that is cutting across New Canaan, officials say. A project that started three years ago, the installation of the 36-inch pipe has already seen road closures and detours in eastern New Canaan, where the main comes in from Wilton and ultimately will feed toward Stamford and Greenwich. Public Works Director Tiger Mann said during Tuesday’s Board of Selectmen meeting that his department is meeting this week with Aquarion to discuss bids for the job. 

Selectman Steve Karl, noting that New Canaan itself is not benefiting from the disruptive project, asked during the regular meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference: “They’re not planning on doing Farm Road during the school year, right?”

Mann said no, it should wrap up during the summer months. The discussion emerged while the selectmen were approving a separate contract for sidewalk work along South Avenue from Cherry Street to Surrey Road. The selectmen voted 3-0 to approve a pair of contracts—for $18,000 and $20,000—to get surveying and design work to replace pedestrian ramps, where needed, along that route.

Government

Selectmen OK Contract for Asbestos Removal in Waveny House Basement

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Town officials on Tuesday approved an approximately $27,000 contract with a Hartford-based company to remove asbestos from water pipes located in the basement of Waveny House. 

Bill Oestmann, buildings superintendent with the Department of Public Works, said the town is approaching the work as “a phased project because of the sensitivity and the age of the building and what we’re handling.”

“We don’t want to open up a big can of worms here,” Oestmann told members of the Board of Selectmen at their regular meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. 

First Selectman Dionna Carlson and Selectmen Steve Karl and Amy Murphy Carroll voted 3-0 in favor of a $27,300 contract with Haz-Pros Inc. 

Oestmann said the company will “come in and remove the asbestos piping and around the areas where we’re going to make the transition from all the new piping we’re putting in to all the elaborate piping going up to the bathrooms and what have you,” 

Each pipe is about 10 feet long and there are some 200 total feet of piping that require asbestos abatement, he said. “Once we get all that done and the pipes hooked up, the whole system will actually then be replaced and then we can take our time, sit back and say, ‘OK, how do we want to abate the rest of the basement?’ ” he said. “It buys us some time and we get what we need. We have all new water lines now.”

The abatement is one piece of approximately $200,000 in asbestos removal that officials anticipate at the iconic town-owned mansion in Waveny, officials said. 

The selectmen asked for clarification on the total feet of piping now requiring abatement (about 200) and whether the $200,000 budgeted for the overall project includes abatement as well as installation or just abatement (the latter). Asbestos does not have to be removed from pipes if it goes undisturbed in any new work, officials said.

Government

Neighbors: Proposed Subdivision Could ‘Irrevocably Alter’ Wetlands

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Neighbors opposing the proposed 9-lot subdivision of a Brookwood Lane estate say the activities that would come with redeveloping the approximately 31.8-acre estate likely will “unreasonably pollute, impair, or destroy the public trust in the natural resources of our state, specifically wetlands and watercourses.”

In a Dec. 13 petition for intervention filed by Spencer Grimes and Robert Fraiman Jr., neighbors of the site in question at 82 Brookwood Lane, say the activities will “irrevocably alter their [wetlands’ and watercourses’] health and hydrological functions, potential increase for flooding, modification in nutrient cycling, increased potential for pollution, and habitat degradation for wetland dependent wildlife.”

“Furthermore, the Application lacks critical components, such as comprehensive development plans for the nine lots, including but not limited to extent of impervious surfaces, associated stormwater management, clearing and grading plans with their associated erosion and sedimentation control plan, septic system plans, and mitigation plans for unavoidable impacts associated with lot and common driveway development, all of which are necessary to properly and comprehensively assess the extent of the impacts to the site’s wetland and watercourse resources and propose adequate mitigation measures for unavoidable impacts,” according to the intervenors’ petition, filed with the town’s Inland Wetlands Commission and director of Inland Wetlands. The intervenors also are two of 26 people who signed a formal petition calling for a public hearing on the project. At its Dec. 16 meeting, The Inland Wetlands Commission voted unanimously to hold a public hearing Jan.

Government

9-Lot Subdivision Proposed for Brookwood Lane

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The owners of a 31.8-acre estate near the Country Club of New Canaan are proposing to subdivide the parcel into nine lots. 

The property at 82 Brookwood Lane is located in the two-acre zone. Four of the nine new lots would be “accessed off of Brookwood Lane” directly while the other five would be “accessed off of a new shared driveway off of Brookwood Lane,” under a proposal filed with Planning & Zoning. “This proposal is only an application for the subdivision feasibility,” according to a narrative filed on behalf of the property’s owner, a Stamford-based limited liability company. “No site development is being proposed at this time other than the construction of the new shared driveway.”

The proposal “is an appropriate plan of development for the property and the neighborhood,” the narrative said

Purchased for $10,750,000 in October, the property is owned by Brookwood Hills LLC. According to Connecticut Secretary of the State records, the LLC was formed in September and its managing principal is James Hoffman.