Government

Historic District Commission: Proposed Redevelopment of Former Red Cross Property Not Appropriate

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Members of the appointed body that oversees New Canaan’s Historic District—roughly, 21 properties around and near God’s Acre—said last week that plans to redevelop the former Red Cross building property are not in line with the town’s guidelines for the area. Plans filed in May at 51 Main St. call for the ca. 1889 structure—long associated with its former owner, the Red Cross (developer Arnold Karp purchased it five years ago through a limited liability company)—to be moved closer to the road while building a multi-family residential structure with 20 apartments behind it, six of which would be rent-restricted as part of an 8-30g affordable housing application. The Historic District Commission during its Oct.

Around Town

Congregational Church, Town Find Contractor To Repair ‘Wayside Cross’ at God’s Acre

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The Congregational Church of New Canaan and town have agreed on a contractor to repair a damaged World War I monument on God’s Acre that was damaged during a police pursuit this past summer. The Wayside Cross (local history here) will be repaired by Lorton, Va.-based Rugo Stone, under a $31,166 contract that the Board of Selectmen is scheduled to take up at its regular meeting on Tuesday. The Rev. Dr. Stephen Chapin Garner, senior minister at the Congregational Church, told NewCanaanite.com in an email when asked about the monument’s status that “the church and town have been working really well together” to try and get it repaired in time for the Nov. 11 Veterans Day ceremony at God’s Acre. VFW Post 653 member John McLane, a U.S. Army captain in Vietnam, said that the Wayside Cross at God’s Acre “has been a memorial to those who have lost their lives serving this country since right after World War I.”

“Our New Canaan VFW Post holds a service there every Veterans Day,” McLane said.

Board of Finance

‘That’s In Motion’: Moynihan Lays Out Approvals Schedule for West School Cell Tower

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Though residents and town officials this summer called for more community input regarding the plan, First Selectman Kevin Moynihan on Tuesday laid out a schedule for municipal bodies to take up a proposed cell tower behind West School. Verizon “has come forward wanting to put a tower on the west side of town,” Moynihan told members of the Board of Finance at their regular meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. 

“Specifically, in the town property of the 47 acres on Ponus Ridge,” Moynihan continued, referring to 769 Ponus Ridge. “We are going to come back with two proposals and this will go to P&Z at the end of the month. One would be 1,000 feet behind West School. The other would be at the other end of the property at Llewelyn [Drive], which is a cul-de-sac, in the woods.

Berchem Moses

Op-Ed: ‘Unethical Conduct’ and ‘Flagrant Misstatements’ from Town Attorney’s Firm

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After watching Town Attorney Ira Bloom’s presentation to the Board of Selectman this past Tuesday, it is important to correct the record with respect to the 2021 FOIA complaint that I had lodged against the Town. 

The gravamen of my complaint related to 129 responsive public records that were withheld from production. To obtain access to those public records, I was required as a matter of administrative law to file a complaint with the FOI Commission and attend a public hearing. One of the principal outputs of that public hearing was the FOI Commission hearing officer ordering the Town to produce those withheld records for in camera review. After completing her independent review of those public records, as the New Canaanite has accurately reported, the hearing officer publicly issued a proposed final decision to the FOI Commission finding that the Town failed to prove that 15 of those 129 withheld records were exempt from public disclosure and that “[a]ccordingly, it is concluded that the respondents violated the FOI Act by withholding such records from the complainant.”
As the next step in the administrative law process to obtain those improperly withheld public records, I then attended a public hearing before the entire FOI Commission where the hearing officer’s proposed final decision was reviewed and discussed. During that public hearing, Attorney Nicholas Bamonte with Bercham Moses made a series of flagrant misstatements and mischaracterizations to the FOI Commission regarding the gravamen of my complaint, discussions with the FOI Ombudsman, and substance of the earlier FOI Commission hearing officer proceedings.

Berchem Moses

Objections Filed to Town’s Application for Relief from State Affordable Housing Law

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A prominent Connecticut attorney specializing in housing law last week filed comments with the state that are critical of New Canaan’s recent application for relief from a widely discussed affordable housing law. Raphael L. Podolsky of New Britain-based Connecticut Legal Services, who served on the first Blue Ribbon Commission on Housing from 1987 to 1989—the panel that drafted the proposal that was adopted in 1989 and codified as Section 8-30g of the Connecticut General Statutes—said New Canaan’s moratorium application has two major shortcomings. 
They are the counting of “holdover points” and “the subtraction for demolished affordable housing,” Podolsky wrote in an Aug. 31 letter to Connecticut Department of Housing Commissioner Seila Mosquera-Bruno. “I believe that New Canaan’s interpretation of the statute on these issues is contrary to the letter of the law and undercuts the underlying purpose of those sections of the statute,” Podolsky wrote in the letter, obtained by NewCanaanite.com. “In effect, it produces a moratorium when the required point minimum has not been achieved.