Dan Radman

P&Z Commissioner: Merritt Village Retaining Walls Should Be ‘Stained’

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Saying a more robust landscaping plan will only hide the widely discussed retaining walls built along Park Street for part of the year, one member of the Planning & Zoning Commission is urging town officials to have the developer “stain” the stamped-concrete walls so they’re more aesthetically pleasing year-round. Though the developers of a new condo-and-apartment complex that includes the retaining walls are offering to put in English ivy designed to help hide them, that plant “will take many years to grow to a mature enough state to be effective,” according to P&Z Commissioner Dan Radman. “The majority of the remaining plantings that are proposed—trees and low ornamental plantings in the ‘planting zone’ between the lower concrete wall and upper concrete wall—are deciduous and will be barren between October and April, 6-7 months out of the year,” Radman said in a Feb. 28 letter to Town Planner Lynn Brooks Avni. “This will leave the uniform grey stamped-concrete faux-stone wall exposed and will have the majority of mass of these huge retaining walls fully visible half of the year.”

The letter came in two days after P&Z said it had made progress with the builders of Merritt Village on fuller landscaping as well as a plan to develop moss on the walls themselves.

Around Town

P&Z Votes 7-1 To Approve Downtown Pocket Park as Site of Summer Theatre of New Canaan 2019 Season

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Saying they understood it was a risk in some ways and imposing several conditions to help mitigate them, members of the Planning & Zoning Commission on Tuesday night voted 7-1 to approve the Summer Theatre of New Canaan’s application to set up for its 2019 season in a pocket park downtown. Summer Theatre, or ‘STONC,’ will set up its 60-by-90-foot amphitheater-style tent on a .19-acre parcel known as “Christine’s Garden” on the corner of South Avenue and Maple Street, owned by New Canaan Library. 

P&Z Chairman John Goodwin said he recognized that STONC’s plan, which includes locating the 200-person tent as well as trailers, port-o-potties, and a covered box office on and around the library property, with parking to be located in the Center School lot, was “aggressive.”

“And I would also argue that we allow certain other activities in certain other places in town where we are giving them a fair amount of latitude,” Goodwin said during the public hearing, held at Town Hall. “This is not the first time. But I also feel that this is potentially a big positive to the town by moving it downtown. If it logistically works, I think it’s way better than it is out in Waveny.

Arnold Karp

P&Z, Merritt Village Developer Reach Accord on More Robust Landscaping To Hide Retaining Walls

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The developer of a widely discussed 110-unit condo-and-apartment complex to go up on the edge of downtown New Canaan is earning praise from town officials after agreeing to pursue a more robust landscaping plan that will effectively hide a series of retaining walls that some have criticized as unattractive. The retaining walls fronting Park Street will see a combination of plants that will hang down over a lower wall—itself to receive a treatment that will develop moss and so break up its monochromatic appearance—and ivies that will grow up other walls, as well as junipers and other trees, according to Arnold Karp of Karp Associates, developer of Merritt Village. “What we are going to look at it is things that cascade down over the wall that is against the sidewalk and things that will grow up on what is the second wall,” Karp said Tuesday night during a regular meeting of the Planning & Zoning Commission, held at Town Hall. 

“There has been some confusion about those walls. Those walls have always been in the design. The only change was that after the hearing was closed, one of the 65 conditions was that we put in a sidewalk, but it was always considered that we would leave space, so there was always a question about the height on those walls.

Arnold Karp

P&Z Looks Into Withholding Building Permits for ‘Merritt Village’ Until Retaining Wall Concerns Are Addressed

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Saying a local builder has been slow to address concerns regarding a widely discussed retaining wall that’s taking shape at the edge of downtown New Canaan, officials on Tuesday night called for the town attorney to issue an opinion on whether building permits for a major project can be withheld. Merritt Village developer Arnold Karp has not responded to the Planning & Zoning Commission’s assertion that a faux stone retaining wall appearing above Park Street will not be sufficiently screened by landscaping and therefore must get a fieldstone veneer, members of the appointed body said during their regular meeting. “There are still permits to be issued, and I think at a minimum, we have to make sure” that Karp adheres to what P&Z approved for the 110-unit project, Commission Chairman John Goodwin said at the meeting, held in Town Hall. He added that Town Attorney Ira Bloom already has been apprised of the situation and “I think we should have further discussions with attorney Bloom as to what our recourse is here, because I for one am extremely unhappy about this.”

“We all know the visibility of this project,” Goodwin said. “I think this entire Commission is unhappy with what is going on right now.

Government

P&Z To Merritt Village Builder: We Thought the Retaining Walls Would Have Different Materials

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Saying they’re disappointed that the materials they thought a local builder would be using for a retaining wall are not what has materialized along Park Street, members of the Planning & Zoning Commission on Tuesday night asked the developer of Merritt Village whether similar “faux-looking” structures could be expected. 

Weeks after addressing the matter of the retaining wall with New Canaan’s legislative body, Arnold Karp of Karp Associates came before P&Z to during the appointed group’s regular meeting. 

According to Karp, a second retaining wall above and behind the one that’s caused so much fuss is to be built, and there’s also one that curves around where motorists will enter Merritt Village from Park Street. 

Even so, Karp said, the retaining walls will be capped and partially hidden by plantings, and the buildings themselves—which feature natural stone and cedar shingles—will be the focal point for passersby. “I have to get a little more of the project on down the line before I have 18,000 architects who live in town telling me how it is going to look,” Karp told the Commission during its meeting, held at Town Hall. 

As P&Z itself includes architects Laszlo Papp, Dan Radman and Kent Turner, Karp added, “I wasn’t counting anybody on the commission in the 18,000,” drawing laughter from the room. Radman said, “But it’s only these three that you have to worry about.”

Merritt Village, a 110-unit apartment and condo complex approved by P&Z two years ago, following several months of hearings and a record-high number of conditions, is still about 18 months away from completion. 

Even so, Chairman John Goodman said that P&Z has received “a fair amount of feedback from the community” regarding the retaining wall, and therefore asked Karp and Karp Associates COO Paul Stone to address the matter. 

Karp said he takes P&Z’s comments to heart. 

“It’s not like I’m going to build this and disappear,” Karp said. “I’m here for the duration.”

Speaking of the retaining wall in its current state, he added: “We are looking at something that against this backdrop is very noticeable. They are not finished.