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Saying they need more information, municipal officials this week postponed the approval of $250,000 in construction work at the Town Hall campus.
After the federal government cited the town for violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act—citing dozens of barriers to access at public facilities throughout New Canaan—the municipality and U.S. Department of Justice reached an agreement.
Part of that agreement calls for the town to improve access between Town Hall and Vine Cottage, where the New Canaan Department of Health is located.
An additional accessible route needs to be built, Public Works Director Tiger Mann said during Tuesday’s Board of Selectmen meeting, held at The Town Hall and via videoconference.
Mann said a site plan from local firm Architectural Preservation Studios would locate the new ramp on part of an existing staircase from the access road through the campus up to Vine Cottage.
“The far right side of the staircase will be separated, and that will become a ramp which will turn left towards the parking space,” Mann said. “We’ll remove one slot of the parking lot which will put us in the correct position to then head to the Vine Cottage.”
Installing the ramp will require removing part of the WPA-era retaining wall there, and is estimated to cost $258,583.11, including a 10% contingency, Mann said.
The selectmen, in putting off a decision on approving the contract with New Canaan-based Peter Lanni Inc., voiced concerns about the high expense and called for a thorough review of possible alternatives.
“We’ve turned down that kind of money to do work inside of the Vine Cottage,” Selectman Steve Karl said.
The project as presented raises issues of cost as well as historic preservation, Karl said.
First Selectman Dionna Carlson asked if a ramp would still be built if the staircase was never there.
Mann responded, “The architects would have still decided on the accessible route within the campus. When they looked at the project, they looked at Town Hall, the Vine Cottage and the [Town Hall] Annex as a total unit. Even if we didn’t have the staircase, we would need an accessible route to connect them.”
Under ADA, the ramp must be built so the pitch isn’t too steep, Mann said.
“We will make the turn onto the parking lot so it won’t exceed the maximum incline allowed for a ramp,” he said.
The selectmen agreed to go on a walkthrough with Mann and review possible alternative locations for the ramp prior to voting on a contract to create the ramp.
“We can certainly walk you through,” Mann told the selectmen. “We did look at multiple areas to satisfy this situation, but we have to have connectivity between Town Hall and the Vine Cottage—that’s in the settled agreement [with the DOJ].”