Andrew Melillo

Attorney: 1903 Deed Conveys God’s Acre to Congregational Church

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An attorney representing the Congregational Church of New Canaan is asking town officials to correct the municipal tax database by listing the church as owner of God’s Acre. The question of ownership emerged in 2020, when officials from the church said they would block a town-backed plan to install a permanent stone terrace directly opposite Park Street from its front door. 

Since then, led by First Selectman Kevin Moynihan, the municipal government has spent tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars in legal fees seeking to establish the town as the owner of the .65-acre parcel. Now, according to attorney John F.X. Peloso, Jr. of Stamford-based Robinson + Cole, property records have surfaced that clearly show that God’s Acre is a church-owned property. 

In March, Peloso and his team “consulted both the records of the Town Tax Assessor as well as those of the Tax Collector,” he wrote in an April 17 letter addressed to the New Canaan assessor. “Our online search revealed that, presently, there is no listing in either the Assessor’s or the Tax Collector’s database under the above criteria that identifies the record owner of the Property,” Peloso wrote in the letter, which was cited in a legal bill approved May 16 by the Board of Selectmen and obtained by NewCanaanite.com through a Freedom of Information Act request. Peloso adds that the chain of title points to two deeds, from January 26, 1773 (recorded in Norwalk Land Records) and December 29, 1903 (recorded in New Canaan Land Records). 

“As you will see, the 1903 deed conveys the Property to the Church,” he wrote in the letter.

Andrew Melillo

‘I Will Not Enforce That’: Committee, Building Official at Odds Over Demolition Notice [CORRECTED]

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[Note: This article has been corrected to reflect a 4-1 vote, not a 5-0 vote as originally reported.]

Saying those seeking to raze a derelict greenhouse followed the process outlined in a local ordinance, New Canaan’s town building official last week told members of an appointed municipal body that he wouldn’t enforce their request to re-notice the structure. According to some members of the Historical Review Committee, the sign affixed to a ca.-1900 greenhouse at the New Canaan Nature Center failed to meet a requirement that it be posted “in a conspicuous location of the property on which the structure is situated” and that it’s “visible from the nearest public street or other accessway adjoining the property.”

Committee member Ed Vollmer said during the appointed body’s April 16 meeting that “there are people who are unhappy with what is going on and the destruction of the greenhouse because it is considered a historic building.”

Under local ordinance, if a letter objecting to a planned demolition is received within 15 days of publication of the notice in a newspaper, then the Committee may decide to impose a delay period of up to 90 days. In this case, however, the Nature Center’s notice was published Feb. 6, meaning the objection period expired Feb. 21—four days before a New Canaan woman filed her letter, which was therefore rejected by Town Building Official Brian Platz.