The Board of Education plans to install New Canaan’s first-ever “alternative high school” on the second floor of the downtown building its administration currently occupies, though town officials on Tuesday night raised concerns that required zoning approvals for such a program have not yet been obtained.
39 Locust Ave. Credit: Michael Dinan
Specifically, the Board of Ed needs approval for a site plan in order to move forward with the program on the second floor of 39 Locust Ave., members of the Planning & Zoning Commission said during their regular meeting.
Though school starts Thursday, the Board of Ed “missed a deadline” to get on the agenda for this week’s meeting, according to P&Z Chairman John Goodwin.
“I think when they make the site plan application in September we will learn more,” Goodwin said at the meeting, held at Town Hall. “What is unfortunate is that they are going ahead and doing this without the site plan approval. So my question to them next month is, why did they miss the deadline?”
No Board of Ed members or district administrators attended the meeting.
Described at length during the last budget season, the alternative high school is designed to serve students facing specific health challenges such as anxiety, depression and mood and eating disorders. Some students who would be good fits for it currently attend the larger high school on Farm Road, which isn’t ideal, administrators have said, while others attend school out-of-district.
After New Canaan’s funding bodies in January scuttled a proposal to locate the program at the former Outback Teen Center, district officials vowed to find another home for it. Yet the full Board of Ed in the intervening months appears not to have discussed the program at its public meetings, and the alternative high school appears nowhere on committee agendas of the board.
On Aug. 16, the owner of 39 Locust Ave. applied to the town for a building permit to do about $40,000 of work at the building. “The space will be used for the alternate high school location for the New Canaan Public Schools,” the application said. “At present time occupancy is nine students and three staff members.”
The Building Department flagged the application and will not issue the building permit until P&Z approves a site plan, according to Town Planner Lynn Brooks Avni. The Board of Ed had hired a consultant to ensure the space met safety, fire and ADA codes, and submitted a formal site plan application on Monday, Brooks Avni said. The space on the second floor of the building at the corner of Forest Street and Locust Avenue had been occupied in the past by a travel agency, she said.
During the P&Z meeting, commissioners raised a number of questions, including whether to issue a cease-and-desist order and what sort of rules are required for spaces that serve public school students.
Commissioner Dan Radman said the district “can’t use the space as it is because it violates the zoning use.”
“They want to improve it. I mean the Board of Ed more than anyone else in town—with the discussion on where they’re going to live and how much space they need and everything that’s gone on the last five years with this building [Town Hall] being built—know better than anyone the procedures.”
The building is located in the Business C zone, according to tax records. That means a site plan application is needed for what the Board of Ed wants, under the New Canaan Zoning Regulations, Brooks Avni said.
In addition to the district’s administrative offices, the LAUNCH special education program is operated out of 39 Locust Ave., on the ground floor.