Government

Historic District Officials File Blight Complaint in Connection with Dilapidated 1780-Built Main Street Home

By |

The volunteers that oversee New Canaan’s historic district—roughly the area around God’s Acre—are calling on town officials to consider a blight citation for a neglected antique home on Main Street. Tied up in lawsuits and foreclosure proceedings that recently became even more complicated due to a procedural error in court, the 1780-built Greek Revival-style house at 4 Main St. has been vacant for at least three years, officials say. At their most recent meeting, members of the Historic District Commission voted to contact New Canaan’s building official, invoking the town’s Blight Abatement and Prevention Ordinance. According to a letter that the commission’s secretary, Terry Spring, filed at Town Hall, the property “has been of concern to the Commission for some time and we note that there has been no improvement in the deteriorating condition of the historic house and grounds.”

“We note the property appears abandoned, the exterior building condition shows general damage and dilapidation of the structure.

News

‘Responsive in Words But Not in Action’: Neighbors, Officials Eye Long-Neglected Richmond Hill Road Properties

By |

Town officials say they’ve fielded multiple complaints of blight on two conspicuous, adjacent Richmond Hill Road properties marked by peeling and dilapidated structures, unkempt yards, garbage and general disarray. Owned by New Canaan resident Sam Zendehrouh, the eyesores include a neglected 1820-built home and freestanding garage at 39 Richmond Hill Road and vacant, overgrown lot at 45 Richmond Hill Road where a house that had been constructed the same year came down in 2011. Neighbors in letters to New Canaan Town Building Official Brian Platz have said the remaining house has a hole in its clearly deteriorating roof and that after rainstorms, Zendehrouh himself has been seen dumping buckets of water out of the structure and siphoning rainwater out of the second floor. Asked about the situation, Platz said that the owner “has not been very responsive.”

“He has been responsive in words but not in action,” Platz said. “This is not fair to any of the residents of New Canaan, but especially to the immediate neighbors who have had to live next to that for many years.

News

After Years of Tie-Up After Divorce, Woodridge Circle Property To Go To Public Auction

By |

A court has ordered that a long-vacant New Canaan home go to auction this month, bringing to a close what court documents show to be a bitter years-long fight following a divorce. Cited for blight last summer, the fair market value of the 5-bedroom Colonial and 2.05-acre property at 4 Woodridge Circle is $1,365,000, according to an April 29 appraisal ordered by state Superior Court in Stamford. An inspection will be held there at 9 a.m. on Saturday, June 18, with a live auction to follow at 10 a.m. The committee attorney appointed to oversee the public auction sale is Joseph DaSilva Jr. of Norwalk-based DePanfilis & Vallerie LLC. It’s encumbered by two liens—a mortgage and home equity line totaling nearly $1.3 million, court records show—and hasn’t been lived in for more than two years. The appraiser’s notes list front porch damage, cracked dining room window, broken shutters, exterior siding damage, basement ceiling damage, broken basement window and mold in a bath and basement.

Around Town

East Avenue Woman, 72, Addresses Neighbor’s Unexpected Blight Complaint

By |

An East Avenue woman, 72, said repairmen are close to mending a broken fence that prompted a neighbor she’s never met to file a blight complaint which also finds fault with “all sorts of stuff” that became visible in the yard after January’s wind storms brought it down. Jacqueline Owolo (née Walker) of 125 East Ave.— a New Canaan High School graduate known to scores of locals through her work as a nurse at Waveny Care Center and as a member of the Community Baptist Church—said a single section of the fence came down “and it pulled down another part.”

The replacement fencing has been delivered and the son of a family friend is stepping in to install it, said Owolo, a mother of two and grandmother of three whose own son lives in California. A neighbor across Summer Street on April 26 filed a blight complaint saying “3 panels of fence has been torn down since wind storm in January 2016” and “Coat hangers and plastic tape used to repair and failed.”

“Yard and home is not maintained,” said the complaint, obtained by NewCanaanite.com following a formal request. “Yard is littered with stuff. All sorts of stuff!

News

Cited for Blight, Woodridge Circle Property Owner Could Face Thousands of Dollars in Fines

By |

A neglected Woodridge Circle property faces thousands of dollars in fines, as nearly six months have passed since town officials notified its owner that he has run afoul of New Canaan’s blight ordinance. According to a July 1, 2015 “Notice of Violation” obtained by NewCanaanite.com, the 2.05-acre property and 1958-built Colonial at 4 Woodridge Circle meet at least two sections town’s definition of blight:

“Seriously damaged, missing or loose siding, gutters, leaders, shingles or roofing”; and

“Unkempt yards or overgrown lawn grass or weeds.”

Officials in the New Canaan Building Department say they’ve received no communication from the property’s owner, though the Notice of Violation was delivered by registered mail. According to tax records, the property is owned by Stephen Perry. The original notice states that Perry had 14 days “to abate all noted conditions of blight at which time I will issue a citation.”

“If you should fail to abate these conditions after being issued a citation, fines may be imposed in the amount of $100 per day that any conditions of blight remain,” the notice said. Had fines started to accrue straightaway—and town officials in the past have made them retroactive—Perry as of now would incur more than $17,000 in fines.