Government

P&Z Denies Grace Farms’ Bid To Host Other Organizations’ Sports Programs

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Saying it would be a slap in the faces of concerned neighbors and citing the awkward timing of the request, officials on Monday night turned down Grace Farms’ bid to host other organizations’ multiple youth and adult sports activities in its own gymnasium over the next six months. Grace Farms already had applied to amend its operating permit in order to allow for wide-ranging activities that have been taking place on its Lukes Wood Road campus, and OK’ing the use of its gym by other organizations—in this case, the New Canaan YMCA and St. Luke’s School—would be very bad timing because that application is pending, according to members of the Planning & Zoning Commission. Though P&Z may, under Grace Farms’ current permit, make special allowances for such a use, “if there was ever a time you would not want to do it, it is now, while we are considering altering a special permit for Grace Farms,” P&Z commissioner Jack Flinn said during the group’s special meeting, held at Town Hall. “I think it is not incidental.

Government

‘It Seems Like the Ancillary Uses Have Taken Over’: Town To Investigate Claims That Grace Farms Has Run Afoul of Permitted Uses

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New Canaan’s senior zoning enforcement officer will find out whether Grace Farms is exceeding the permitted use of its property—as suspected by some local planning officials and asserted by several neighbors—and, depending on the organization’s response, kick-start a process to resolve what has quickly become a sensitive and closely followed matter now before the town. What will result from Town Planner Steve Kleppin’s investigation is unclear—whether Grace Farms works with its neighbors on a mutually agreeable plan, seeks to modify its operating permit, faces fines or a cease-and-desist order, denies claims that it’s overstepping or changes its activities to conform to what’s been approved, officials said Tuesday night. For Kleppin, the situation is unique in that “it’s not like I’m investigating a complaint that somebody built a shed in their backyard and I go out and see the shed and say, ‘Here’s the shed.’ ”

“The only tricky thing is that if I start an enforcement action—I could do a simple letter stating that in my opinion you have exceeded [certain] conditions based upon this action and this action at an event held [on such-and-such a date],” Kleppin told members of the Planning & Zoning Commission during their regular meeting, held at Town Hall. “To proceed along that track and ultimately, if I were to issue, for example, a cease-and-desist order or proceed with another enforcement action, they can take an appeal to my determination to the Zoning Board of appeals. At which point, you [P&Z] are no longer in the process.

Government

‘This Is Not a Penal Colony’: P&Z Turns Down Clapboard Hill Road Man’s Bid For Higher Fence To Keep Kids In

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Calling a Clapboard Hill Road man’s reasoning faulty, planning officials on Tuesday denied his bid to erect a 6-foot-high driveway gate and adjoining fence. Roy Savelli of 100 Clapboard Hill Road told members of the Planning & Zoning Commission that the higher-than-allowed gate and fencing would prevent his three young daughters from climbing over and toward the road at a blind curve. Commissioner Laszlo Papp told Savelli that he had a beautiful family “and I certainly appreciate that you are trying to protect them as much as you can.”

“On the other hand, I am somewhat puzzled by your reasoning,” Papp said at the meeting, held at Town Hall. “I have lived here for 60-something years and many generations grow up with no fencing at all. This fencing is a new phenomenon in New Canaan.

Government

P&Z To Cyclists Group Proposing Donated Road Safety Signs: No Thank You

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Calling the design of a proposed sign urging motorists to give cyclists a 3-foot berth ineffective and overly promotional, town officials say they’ll pass on a private group’s offer to supply the signs for free. The Planning & Zoning Commission at its most recent meeting voted 6-0 to forego the offer from the Sound Cyclists Bicycle Club. Commissioner Elizabeth DeLuca, head of the group’s sign subcommittee, told officials from the club that “we are not OK with your sign because it is not effective, it is not visible” and that Town Attorney Ira Bloom had advised against posting publicly a sign that includes the name of a private group. “Ira recommended that there be no group name on the sign,” DeLuca said at the July 28 meeting, held in the Sturgess Room at New Canaan Nature Center. Technically speaking, P&Z’s “No” vote is a sense of the commission rather than a hard denial to the cycling group, which includes some 40 New Canaanites, its officials say.

Government

Planning Officials Flag Safety Concern in Traffic Circulation at Proposed Post Office

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Planning officials said Monday night that they’re concerned that a plan to allow one-way entrance circulation on the east side of a proposed new Post Office on Locust Avenue with two-way traffic on the west side—as opposed to, say, a single entrance on one side of the building and exit on the other—will create safety hazards that could create liability problems for the town. Specifically, Town Planner Steve Kleppin and members of the Planning & Zoning Commission say, two-way circulation could confuse drivers and lead to motorists traveling in opposite directions suddenly and unexpectedly looking each other somewhere on the property at 18-26 Locust Ave., not to mention motor vehicle backup, since there’s no turnaround space, and cars backing up into pedestrians’ paths. Designating spaces directly behind the proposed building for Post Office workers and those expected to work in second-floor office space “would leave spaces on the west side of the building for patrons of the Post Office,” Kleppin said at a special meeting of the commission, held in the Douglass Room at Lapham Community Center. “And if that was the case, then they [Post Office officials] wouldn’t need two-way on the west side, because those spaces north and south abutting the building would be occupied by stationary employees, as opposed to others coming in and out,” Kleppin said. The owner of 18 Locust Ave.