The owners of a property on the corner of Parish Road and Parish Lane are seeking permission from the town to build a new three-car garage on their 1.13-acre property.
11 Parish Road in New Canaan. Assessor photo
Under the New Canaan Zoning Regulations, the total allowable building lot at 11 Parish Lane is 3,717 square feet. The addition of the attached garage, planned together with modifications to an existing 3,374-square-foot home, requires a variance from the Zoning Board of Appeals.
“My client has been living at this home since 2016 and love the home and the neighborhood,” architect Dan Radman of New Canaan-based RADMAN Architects wrote on behalf of the homeowners in a Feb. 14 Statement of Hardship to the town.
“But their family is growing, with 2 young boys and a 3rd on the way,” he continued. “So, they are looking to modify the existing house and expand with a new attached 3-car garage. We are proposing to do a renovation where the existing 2-car garage will be converted into a family room and other misc. program space, and we are proposing to expand and build an attached 3-car garage with an accessory space on the second floor. In order to accomplish this expansion, we would need to exceed the allowable building coverage for our lot size. But our lot is an undersized, non-conforming lot of 1.133 acres in a 2-acre zone. If our lot was a confirming 2-acre size, the proposed expansion would be in compliance with allowable building coverage. We believe the proposed expansion and final design would be in keeping with the scale of most other homes in the neighborhood.”
Specifically, the applicants are seeking a variance to section 3.5.D.1 of the Zoning Regulations (see page 58 here). The total proposed building coverage is 4,525 square feet, which is 808 square feet over what’s allowable under the regulations.
The ZBA is scheduled to hear the matter during its regular meeting at 7 p.m. Monday.
The property in question had been purchased in 2016 for $1,250,000, tax records show.
Assistant Town Planner Sarah Carey in a pre-meeting memo to the ZBA noted that the request is 702 square feet “less than the maximum amount of coverage permitted on a two acre lot.”
“As the board reviews this application they must consider, is having an undersized lot enough of a hardship to justify this variance?” Carey wrote in the memo. “While the size of the home will be in keeping with other homes in the two acre zone, the applicant should explain why a combination of the 550 sq ft. of available coverage coupled with their ability to add 1-1.15 stories on many portions of the house is not a viable option. Financial and architectural hardships are not something the board can consider.”