1124 Valley Road

Lawsuits: Three Property Owners Appeal Assessments

By |

The town last week received three lawsuits filed on behalf of three property owners appealing New Canaan’s decision to uphold assessments finalized during the recent revaluation. The owners of 90 Main Street and 18 Forest Street (a limited liability company whose principal is listed in state records as a Norwalk woman), 1124 Valley Road (the First Taxing District of Norwalk) and 61 Elm St. (an LLC controlled by a Manhattan man) each appealed before the New Canaan Board of Assessment Appeals in March what they determined to be “grossly excessive, disproportionate and unlawful” valuations, according to the suits, filed by attorney Frank Murphy of Norwalk’s Tierney, Zullo, Flaherty & Murphy PC. In each case, the Board upheld the assessments, the lawsuit said. The properties are well known to New Canaanites—90 Main St.

Government

Town Pursues Acquisition of Valley Road Property by Eminent Domain

By |

Reigniting an effort that dates back to this spring, New Canaan’s highest elected official said this week that the town is seeking to acquire a vacant antique home on Valley Road by eminent domain. The town, with a funding commitment from a local nonprofit organization, had offered to acquire the four-acre parcel at 1124 Valley Road, including a prominent red-painted house, for $1.2 million. But the property’s owner, Norwalk’s First Taxing District, rejected that offer. After applying for a demolition permit and then withdrawing it, the Taxing District later rejected the town’s offer to purchase just the house with .8 acres carved out around it, for $250,000—a figure New Canaan had arrived at following an appraisal of the property. Now, First Selectman Kevin Moynihan said, “We intend to proceed with our plan to acquire the property by our power of eminent domain.”

“They don’t need the property for water company purposes, they disrespect the house which is over 200 years old and various groups—the Historical Society, the Preservation Alliance—various town bodies want to see that house preserved and that neighborhood preserved,” Moynihan told members of local press during a media briefing Wednesday in his office at Town Hall.

Government

Valley Road Homeowners Reject Town’s Offer for Historic House

By |

The owners of an antique house on Valley Road have rejected the town’s offer to purchase the home and some of the land around it, officials said last week. 

Instead, the First Taxing District of the Norwalk Water Department will have a caretaker stay at the red-painted 18th Century house at 1124 Valley Road to use it as an “operational base” for work at the adjacent Grupes Reservoir, according to Conservation Commission member Chris Schipper. “They plan to use the house in connection with the water business, so they do not intend to sell it as this time, and I guess that from our perspective that simply defers a decision,” Schipper said during the Commission’s regular meeting, held Oct. 11 at Town Hall. “The only thing that we should be alert to, if they are not maintaining the property, is the risk of demolition by dereliction.”

He added: “The good news its is no longer on the demolition queue. The bad news is it is sort of in abeyance.