Government

Conservation Commission Chair Proposes Solution To Build Up ‘Land Acquisition Fund’

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The chair of the Conservation Commission this week proposed a new way for the town to help build up its reserve fund for acquiring land to preserve as open space. The Town Council created the Land Acquisition Fund in 2017, prompted by Aquarion’s effort to subdivide and sell a 19-acre parcel at the end of Indian Waters Drive. 

Since then, the Fund has accumulated just $150,000, Conservation Commission Chair Chris Schipper told the Board of Finance during its regular meeting Tuesday night. “We looked at 11 years of conveyance fees,” Schipper said during the meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. He added: “The town can charge a 25 basis point real estate sales conveyance fee through a Connecticut statute that allows it. And the intention, the legislative intention of that statute was the town would use those monies to preserve open space for future generations.

Affordable Housing Committee

Affordable Housing: Judge Grants ‘Co-Defendant’ Status to Developer in Moratorium Suit

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A state Superior Court Judge ruled Tuesday in favor of a local developer’s motion to intervene as co-defendant in the town’s affordable housing-related lawsuit against the state. Despite the town’s objections, Judge Ted O’Hanlan granted intervenor status to the companies that own properties in New Canaan where affordable housing developments are planned. Local developer Arnold Karp is principal at the ownership limited liability companies. 

“The court finds that intervenors have demonstrated a valid interest in intervention in this matter,” O’Hanlan wrote in his order, obtained by NewCanaanite.com. The town in December sued the Connecticut Department of Housing, appealing the state’s decision last fall to deny the town’s application for a “moratorium,” or four years of relief from the state statute that facilitated the affordable housing applications (that suit was dismissed). In June, the town sued again, objecting to a “declaratory ruling” from the state agency that bolstered its earlier denial. 

Attorneys representing Karp in August filed to become a co-defendant in the case, saying, in part, that he will be directly affected if the town is able to overturn the state’s denial of a “moratorium,” which would grant four years of relief from the state affordable housing law known by its statute number, 8-30g.

Government

 ’It’s Really Not OK’: Finance Board Chair Comes Down on Spending ‘Contingency’ on Police Station Renovation

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The chair of the Board of Finance this week called for the team overseeing the extensive renovation of the New Canaan Police Department to tighten its belt with respect to spending a total of $2.6 million budgeted for contingencies on the project. 

That figure—$700,000 in contingency for Shelton-based Turner Construction, which is providing construction services, plus $1.9 million for the town—only applies to the recently set $20 million guaranteed maximum price for the South Avenue project, not for the full $29 million price tag that also includes soft costs such as insurance and creating a temporary police headquarters, according to finance board Chair Todd Lavieri. “I really can’t impress upon you enough how important that is not to be spent,” Lavieri told members of the Police Department Building Committee during the Board’s special meeting, held Tuesday night at Town Hall and via videoconference

“We have to be careful that that’s not really kind of code for ‘it’s budgeted for’ ” he continued. “It’s not budgeted for .. and we can have this meeting again in October, and I can bring you the deck that we went through, and it was a $17 million renovation, and it’s now $29 million. I’ve just got to send the message: It’s not there to be spent.

Board of Finance

Moynihan: Town To Contribute Toward Land Trust’s Acquisition of Antique Valley Road House

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The town will contribute about $100,000 toward the purchase of an antique house on upper Valley Road that a prominent local nonprofit organization is in the process of purchasing, New Canaan’s highest elected official said. As he’d indicated last month, First Selectman Kevin Moynihan told the Board of Finance during its April 11 meeting that the New Canaan Land Trust “has succeeded in negotiating a purchase of the 1124 Valley Road house, which we’ve been trying to protect for the last four years.”

Referring to the public agency that has owned the four-acre property since 2006, Moynihan continued, “The First Taxing District of Norwalk is trying to improve relations with their neighbors, including the town of New Canaan, and they would like us to participate in their purchase on a 1-to-5 ratio. They’re getting an extra acre of open space to connect the two properties, the Brown Preserve of about 10 acres, and the two acres they’re purchasing. We have the Land Acquisition Fund for that purpose and I think the process is that the Board of Selectmen has to approve it. And they [Land Trust officials] may have to come through all the bodies.”

Asked what the town’s contribution to the sale would be, Moynihan said, “Probably less than $100,000.”

“I don’t want to announce their purchase price because they haven’t announced it,” he said during a general update to the Board.

Amy Murphy Carroll

‘This Is Disappointing’: Playhouse Renovation Estimate Up to $7.9 Million, Double Original Budget

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Due primarily to the unexpected expense of a new HVAC system, the widely anticipated renovation of the town-owned movie theater on Elm Street is now projected to cost about $7.9 million, more than twice the initial budget of $3.9 million, officials say. The town originally anticipated re-using the existing HVAC system in the Playhouse, and budgeted about $400,000 for that part of the project, but due to new Code requirements and the need for better air circulation, the cost has risen by nearly $2 million, to $2.3 million, according to Department of Public Works officials. In addition, the town and its contractors found, after starting the interior demolition of the 1923-built Playhouse, that more structural work was needed than they’d anticipated, Public Works Director Tiger Mann told the Board of Selectmen on Tuesday. “We noticed that during previous work in the building they actually did some damage to the structure itself, taking out some bearing items, some of the girders are separating, some of the areas that needed to be replaced were refashioned,” Mann said during the selectmen’s regular meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. 

“So the structural engineers mentioned things that we’ve got to do on the structural side to make the building whole again. And then, given the fact of, after the eight separate design iterations that we went through to try and fit everything into the building and make it compliant with current standards and make it accessible throughout.