The owners of a commercial property that backs up to The Playhouse parking lot and a staircase that leads to an alley running along the eastern side of the movie theater are asking to be included in any discussions of improvements there. With the widely anticipated Playhouse project weeks from completion—town officials have targeted the month of May—Terry Spring, a managing member of Cody Real Estate LLC, said she’s “particularly interested in future plans for this alley as it is such an important town right-of-way between parking lots, Elm Street and potentially our property.”
“We have a significant interest in this town right-of-way and have not been contacted by the town to review details before the matter is voted on,” Spring said in a letter that was read into the record during the March 19 Board of Selectmen meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. She continued: “We are concerned in connection with the final location and use of the garbage compactor recently located nearby at the top of the stairs to the alley, bordering our rear property line. We ask respectfully if your vote on these two items can be delayed until we have the opportunity to sit down with the town to look over the plans for the use of this of this alley, which we are glad to see underway but have not yet had an opportunity to consider any negative effects it might have on our property.”
Spring specifically referred to two items on the agenda for the selectmen meeting. One of them, an approximately $7,500 contract with a local architecture firm for “additional structural engineering services for steel connections at the Playhouse Theater” was removed from the agenda.
The selectmen did approve an approximately $9,000 contract for the other item, which will see a New Canaan-based company install a concrete sidewalk in the alley on the other (western) side of the Playhouse.
