More than two dozen neighbors of a closely watched Weed Street property have signed a petition that’s prompted a public hearing on an application that calls for subdivision.
Here’s part of the application that came into Inland Wetlands for the new accessway to three lots at a Weed Street property where one now exists.
Plans call for the 9-acre property to be divided into three lots, according to an application for a new accessway to the additional would-be houses. The Inland Wetlands Commission formally received the application for the Weed Street property last week and set an Oct. 20 hearing date.
Among the 27 neighbors who signed the petition is a family with property that abuts the eastern edge of the Weed Street property, located near the intersection at Wahackme.
In an email to town officials, Mathew and Saranne Warner of 83 Gerrish Lane said they’re concerned about a conduit—not mentioned in reports from the accessway applicant, Coastal Construction Group of Westport—that runs from a street at the Weed Street property, beneath their yard.
“We’re concerned that the conduit will not withstand additional water flow and would like to request that this be addressed along with other potential affects the development will have on our property specifically,” they said.
Detail of the “Classified Open Space” map from the South Western Regional Planning Agency (http://bit.ly/1nQG3dO). The striped property on the left is Irwin. Catty-corner are two pieces of open space, the northern one of which is just about 425 feet from the corner of the shoehorn-shaped property, which is comprised of both New Canaan Land Trust and New Canaan Nature Center property. Credit: SWRPA
The site plan to subdivide includes a conservation easement along the northern edge of the property that open space advocates are eager to obtain. About 425 feet long, the strip of land is the final, critical piece of a would-be “greenway”—a walk-able route off of Weed Street that ultimately could connect through the woods, via New Canaan Land Trust property, to the back of the New Canaan Nature Center’s land. In effect, and especially with the completion of a sidewalk from the top of Elm Street to Irwin Park, New Canaanites would have a safe, traversable loop that connects Oenoke Ridge Road and Weed Street—say, a walk from God’s Acre, up Oenoke and through the Nature Center to Irwin and back downtown again by way of Elm Street.
A plan to subdivide would allow the town to require an open space set-aside of up to 10 percent, as per town regulations. It isn’t clear whether there’s another good way to obtain the necessary strip of land to connect the two land trust properties that abut the Weed Street property.