News

Mixed-Use Redevelopment with 8 Residential Units Proposed for Vitti Street

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The owners of a long-disused lot on Vitti Street are seeking the town’s permission to create a new 2-story commercial building facing the sidewalk with an 8-unit residential structure behind it. A pair of vacant structures on the .56-acre lot at 23 Vitti St. would be demolished under plans filed Sept. 2 with Planning & Zoning. In their place, near the street, would go two-story, 8,600-square-foot commercial building that could be occupied by “primarily fitness/therapy and medical uses,” according to a special permit application filed on behalf of the property owner by New Canaan-based attorney David Rucci of Lampert Toohey & Rucci LLC.

Government

‘It Seems Like It’s Overkill’: P&Z Denies Application for Tall Pillars and Gate Proposed for Jonathan Road Driveway

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Calling the taller-than-allowed pillars and gate proposed for a second entrance to a home in northern New Canaan excessive, planning officials on Tuesday night rejected a homeowner’s application to install them. The Planning & Zoning Commission voted 7-2 to deny an application to allow 6-foot-high pillars and a slightly smaller gate at 76 Jonathan Road. That property had been purchased (the ranch-style home there razed) and combined earlier this year with 65 Barnegat Road, now a 9.2-acre parcel whose main driveway already has a similar set-up. Making the two entrances match is a major reason for the property owners’ application, according to the attorney who represented them at P&Z’s regularly monthly meeting, held in Town Hall. Yet there’s “no reason for it,” commissioner John Flinn said by way of making a motion to deny the application (P&Z members Dick Ward and Claire Tiscornia cast dissenting votes).

Around Town

‘Let’s Call This What It Really Is’: Neighbors Voice Concerns About Traffic, Expanded Use at Beautification League Property

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Saying they’re concerned about new traffic, safety hazards and uses that could result from replacing a nonprofit organization-owned private residence on Chichester Road with a type of clubhouse, neighbors last week voiced opposition to the New Canaan Beautification League’s plans. Though the new structure proposed for the 2.65-acre property at 89 Chichester Road—site of the Lee Garden, open to the public—is far smaller than the Colonial that stands there now, its proposed function as a place for league members to work, gather and use a restroom amounts to an increased use that will only grow with the group’s membership, next-door neighbor Lisa Mackenzie told members of the Planning & Zoning Commission at their April 26 meeting. “We believe it will have a negative impact on our neighborhood and particularly on our safety and property value,” Mackenzie said during a public hearing, held in the Town Meeting Room. “No offense to the league—they do wonderful, wonderful things—but let’s call this what it really is,” Mackenzie said, adding that she envisioned “strangers driving up and down, parking on our property, picking up and dropping off equipment, parking for meetings, making bathroom runs.”

“One could argue that the general public [at Lee Garden] should have access to a bathroom. So why not hide a seasonal port-a-john, near the existing central public parking lot, just as Irwin has done?

Government

Officials Weigh Request To Keep Taller-Than-Allowed Pillars, Gate on Lukes Wood Road

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Saying a Luke’s Wood Road property is unusual in that it abuts water company-owned land used by roving deer hunters and is restricted by wetlands, with a house that sits midway through an S-curve that attracts motorists who tend to pull over there and linger, the property’s owner is seeking approval for pillars and a gate whose height exceed what normally is allowed. The area of 309 Lukes Wood Road, which backs up to the Grace Community Church property, is typical of a 4-acre zone in New Canaan in that it is set in a wooded neighborhood where gates and pillars are common, local attorney David Rucci of Lampert Toohey & Rucci, LLC told the Planning & Zoning Commission at its regular meeting on Tuesday. Yet the road also is a very busy as a cut-through between Routes 123 and 124, and homeowners Aris and Patricia Kekedjian “have had issues with cars parking on the front of their property,” Rucci said, speaking on their behalf. “They have had issues with people lunching, and it just happens to be a place where you sort of pull off [of the road], and there is safety concern as well, with trying to get in and out of this driveway, at certain times,” Rucci told P&Z during a public hearing, held in the Sturgess Room at New Canaan Nature Center. Ultimately, and at the urging of P&Z Chairman John Goodwin, the commission decided to put off a formal vote on a special permit application for the proposed pillars and gate until the members of the group had a chance to view them in person.

Government

Officials Reject Request To Enclose Patio Behind Former Maples Inn Cottage

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Saying the redeveloped Maples Inn property already is well over coverage, town officials on Monday denied a request from the owner of a longstanding cottage there to enclose a patio out back. Property owner Harriet Plavoukos needed variances to three sections of the New Canaan Zoning Regulations in order to enclose the existing patio, which would add 320 square feet of coverage and is located 20.6 feet from the side property line in lieu of the required 25 feet. Zoning Board of Appeals member John Mahoney told the applicant during the group’s regular monthly meeting that though he understood the building was sited very close to the property line shared by the Roger Sherman Inn and also that the structure itself predates existing zoning regulations, “How is the desire to enclose that patio not a self created hardship versus the property itself is already well over and probably always has been? How is this not a self-created hardship?”

Noting that the total allowable coverage for the former Maples Inn lot if it were a single-family home would be 4,500 square feet and that as of now some 9,200 square feet of buildings are on the property (mostly in seven condominium units), Mahoney added: “So the coverage has gone in a direction away from even the original building there in terms of growing and now it’s going to grow further.” “I understand in terms of the setback, but I am struggling a little bit with why this is not a self-created hardship,” Mahoney said at the meeting, held in the Sturgess Room at the New Canaan Nature Center.