Amy Zabetakis

Proposed Brookwood Subdivision: Property Owner Presents Improvements to P&Z

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The owners of an approximately 32-acre property across the street from the Country Club of New Canaan, in seeking a nine-lot subdivision, plan to protect more open space than what’s required by local regulations, their attorney says. The owners of 82 Brookwood Lane—a limited liability company whose representatives, Jim Hoffman and Adam Sherer of property developer SPB Homes, attended the Jan. 28 Planning & Zoning Commission meeting—also have decreased the arc of a driveway coming off of Brookwood following feedback from the New Canaan fire marshal, are in discussion about helping firefighters by creating a “dry hydrant” using a pond on the property, and are looking for ways to improve the existing wetlands, according to their attorney, Amy Zabetakis of Rucci Law Group. “My clients and the team have spent months carefully designing this project to adhere to all of the zoning regulations, environmental standards, and meet the requirements of the subdivision regulations as well as the [Inland] Wetlands Commission’s,” Zabetakis told P&Z during the appointed body’s regular meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. She continued: “We first started discussing the project with the town in August of last year before my clients completed the purchase of the property.

Amy Zabetakis

Town Committee Imposes 90-Day Demolition Delay on St. Aloysius-Owned House on Maple Street

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Though a representative of the building’s owner said the house at 30 Maple St. is structurally unsound, has no practical use for St. Aloysius Church, is to be razed to make way for an improved drop-off area for schoolchildren and isn’t the defining historic structure on the property, town officials last week voted unanimously to impose a 90-day demolition delay for the structure. The ca. 1906-built “Stick-style” building that fronts Maple Street between South Avenue and Park Street is to be demolished as part of St.

Government

P&Z Approves Special Permit for Osborn Lane Addition

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Saying the project was appropriate and inconspicuous, the Planning & Zoning Commission last week voted unanimously to allow the owners of an Osoborn Lane home to create a 1.5-story addition to their house. The 2,213-square-foot addition planned for 66 Osborn Lane will house an indoor pool, according to attorney Amy Zabetakis of Rucci Law Group, which has offices in Darien and New Canaan. “This is a nice property to do this on,” Zabetakis told members of P&Z at their regular meeting, held Jan. 26 via videoconference.”It’s a large lot, level. It’s at the end of a cul-de-sac.

Government

Second Neighbor Files Suit Following P&Z’s Conditioned Approval of Grace Farms Application

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A second set of Grace Farms neighbors this month filed a lawsuit seeking to reverse the town’s decision to grant the organization an amended zoning permit that allow for wide-ranging activities on its Lukes Wood Road campus. The New Canaan Planning & Zoning Commission’s heavily conditioned Sept. 26 approval of Grace Farms’ application was made “illegally, arbitrarily, and in an abuse of its discretion” in several ways, according to an appeal filed on behalf of Danita and Paul Ostling of Smith Ridge Road. The application did not conform to various requirements of the New Canaan Zoning Regulations, according a complaint filed Nov. 1 in state Superior Court in Stamford, including a section that outlines what is allowed by Special Permit in those regs (see page 42 here) and others that lay out the criteria and considerations for making a decision on such applications (page 170).

Around Town

23 New Canaanites Sue Water Company over Plan To Use Indian Waters Drive in Connection with Proposed Two-Lot Subdivision, Development

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Saying Aquarion has no legal right to use their street, 23 of Indian Waters Drive in New Canaan are collectively suing the water company as it pursues a plan to subdivide and develop a wooded parcel that includes use of the private road as an access way. The approximately 10-acre lot owned by Aquarion historically has been served by a driftway running from Weed Street to Frogtown Road, and Indian Waters Drive itself didn’t exist at the time a predecessor water company acquired the parcel in question 110 years ago, according to a complaint filed Oct. 17 in state Superior Court in Stamford. Those who own properties along Indian Waters Drive itself own portions of it up to the centerline, and those who own other homes on the road may pass and repasss it, according to the complaint, filed on the neighbors’ behalf by attorney Amy Zabetakis of Darien-based Rucci Law Group. Yet use of the road is deed-restricted to those property owners, the lawsuit said, so what Aquarion proposes to do “constitutes trespass on the Indian Waters Drive property owners’ property.”

“The Indian Waters property owners request that the court issue a declaratory judgment determining that Aquarion does not have the right to use Indian Waters Drive,” the complaint said.