Aaron LaTourette

Selectmen Call for Cost Breakdown on Library’s ‘Legacy Building’ Project

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The Board of Selectmen on Tuesday called for a cost breakdown of the estimated $1.5 million that New Canaan Library officials have said they need now in order to move and secure the original 1913 library within their downtown campus next spring. In a similar presentation to one they’d made to the Board of Finance last month, library officials told the selectmen that fundraising and construction for a new approximately $40 million facility are going very well. It’s on track to open to the public Feb. 1, 2023, according to library Board of Trustees member Ian Hobbs and Executive Director Lisa Oldham. Yet a separate preservation project approved by the Planning & Zoning Commission in December, to relocate the 1,200-square-foot, “legacy” building about 80 feet to the western property line—making space for a planned green—will cost about $2.5 million all-in, Hobbs and Oldham said.

David Rucci

Waveny To Propose Smaller Building on Oenoke Ridge with Increased Setbacks

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In response to comments from planning officials and concerns from some neighbors, Waveny LifeCare Network is reducing the size of a proposed residential retirement complex on Oenoke Ridge by 10,000 square feet aboveground, according to an attorney representing the nonprofit organization. The setback from Oenoke Ridge itself will be increased from 25 to 60 feet, attorney David Rucci of New Canaan-based Lampert, Toohey & Rucci LLP said in a Dec. 12 letter to the Planning & Zoning Commission, and the setback from the Heritage Hill property line increased from 25 to 35 feet. Also, the number of units will be reduced from 70 to 66—a reduction of 34% from an original proposal of 100—and the length of the building will be reduced by 30 feet, among other changes (see below), Rucci said in the letter, available in the public file at Town Hall. “In addition, affordability is of great concern to us as well,” Rucci said in the letter.

David Rucci

St. Mark’s: We’re Not Ready Yet To Support ‘The Oenoke’ Senior Housing Complex

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Though supportive of Waveny LifeCare Network and of expanding local housing options for seniors, a representative from one prominent Oenoke Ridge neighbor of a proposed housing complex said the organization is not yet ready to support the project. Though Waveny asked St. Mark’s Episcopal Church for a letter of support to include in its Aug. 28 application to the Planning & Zoning Commission, the church has “some significant concerns about the CCRC project and numerous unanswered questions,” Director of Operations Jill Sautkulis said in a letter to the town planner. 

The letter, sent Aug. 22, is included in the public file for The Oenoke, a proposed 70-unit senior housing complex that would face Oenoke Ridge from part of a combined 3.5-acre parcel south of the May Fair field.

Government

Seminary Street Homeowners Seek To Rebuild Multifamily Structure

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Saying the structure’s foundation has been compromised, the owners of an 1810-built, multifamily dwelling on Seminary Street are seeking permission to rebuild the residence. Plans for 70 Seminary St. call for demolition of the existing structure and creation of a detached two-family dwelling, according to a Special Permit application filed on behalf of property owners Amy Zinser and Robert Trudel by attorney David Rucci of New Canaan-based Lampert Toohey & Rucci LLC. “The proposed site development will be attractive and consistent with the development in the neighborhood,” Rucci said in a statement that formed part of the application to the Planning & Zoning Commission. “Each unit will have approximately 2,300 square feet of living area, one car garage and open space.

Charlie Schmidt

P&Z Calls for More Details on Oenoke Ridge Road Residential Retirement Building

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Town officials on Tuesday night called for those proposing a new residential retirement building on Oenoke Ridge Road to include details in making their formal application later this summer in areas such as building materials, colors, elevations, lighting, noise-generators, sustainability and renderings such as a 3-D computerized model that will provide a sense of scale. Members of the Planning & Zoning Commission during their regular meeting also asked representatives for Waveny LifeCare Network to provide details on landscaping materials and retaining walls. Commissioner John Kriz said he was concerned that “The Oenoke”—a 70-unit building of one- and two-bedroom apartments that residents would buy into as part of New Canaan’s “Continuing Care Retirement Community”—would loom over its neighbors and “cast a shadow,” and asked that Waveny “be sensitive” to the historic nature of the abutting New Canaan Historical Society property as well as the “well-attended” St. Mark’s Church on the northern side. Kriz asked that the architects use fieldstone “as opposed to something else,” for example, and avoid using aluminum siding.