News

Neighbors Oppose Planned Freestanding 3-Car Garage at Michigan and Lukes Wood Roads

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Saying a plan to erect a freestanding, three-bay garage near the corner of Michigan and Lukes Wood Roads lacks specifics on use and lighting, isn’t in keeping with the neighborhood and whose proposed driveway could present a safety hazard on a blind curve, nearby property owners told planning officials last week that they’re adamantly opposed to it. Marty Yudkovitz of 440 Michigan Road told the Planning & Zoning Commission at its regular meeting on April 28 that, if approved as originally submitted, the proposed 24-by-30-foot garage at 81 Lukes Wood Road would appear to the world to be located in his own front yard, diminishing his property’s value. Though it seemed a straightforward proposal at first, “the more we looked at it, it raised just a lot of red flags,” Yudkovitz told the commission at its meeting, held in the Sturgess Room at the New Canaan Nature Center. The first of those flags emerged about one year ago when a new, driveway-width wooden gate appeared one day cut into a longstanding stone wall along Michigan Road, he said. “We didn’t know whether permission was needed, we don’t know if permission was received—it doesn’t seem to have been,” Yudkovitz said.

Government

Field Club: Provision Restricting Weekend Construction Work Unfair

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Calling a rule that no noise-making construction work can take place on weekends at the New Canaan Field Club unfair, burdensome and likely not enforceable, an attorney representing the club on Tuesday night urged planning officials to do away with the requirement. The Planning & Zoning Commission made the weekend restriction a condition of approval in green-lighting the expansion of a pool pavilion at the club six months ago. Glen Drive area neighbors concerned about noise, visibility and real estate values had fought against the project, which P&Z ultimately approved on 16 conditions. The last of those goes beyond even the town’s own noise ordinance, David Rucci of Main Street’s Lampert, Toohey & Rucci LLC told the commission at its regular monthly meeting. “We do not think that it is really a fair burden to put on us in this particular application,” Rucci said during a public hearing, held in the Sturgess Room at the New Canaan Nature Center.

Government

Report Questions Proposed 15,000-S.F. Manmade Pond on Weed; Public Hearing Set for April 27

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A peer review of a dramatic plan to landscape extensively a Weed Street property is raising questions about a proposed 15,000-square-foot manmade pond. The review, from Riverside-based D’Andrea Surveying & Engineering, focuses on site development and drainage management plans at 384 and 386 Weed St., a combined 7-acre parcel. “What is the purpose of the pond and the justification for having to significantly alter over 50,000 square feet of wooded, moderate to steep slopes in order to create the 15,000-square-foot artificial pond?” Leonard D’Andrea writes in the peer review. “There is very little design information provided for the proper construction of an artificial pond with an area of moderate slopes and below an area of steep slopes. The pond would contain about 5 feet of water.

Around Town

Did You Hear … ?

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The all-volunteer Youth Sports Committee—a Board of Selectmen-appointed group formed to help with the important work of overseeing the private organizations that run youth sports in New Canaan—is getting better at filing meeting minutes. A look at records at the Town Clerk’s office shows that minutes from the Sept. 15 meeting were received on Oct. 3—though that’s not within the legally required seven days, it’s a significant improvement for the committee, which filed its Feb. 6 meeting minutes on Aug.

Government

Use of Planned New Space a Major Concern for New Canaan Field Club’s Neighbors

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Though the New Canaan Field Club has followed town officials’ instructions in supplying more details about noise and screening, Glen Drive and Smith Ridge Road neighbors remain concerned about the impact of a proposed building expansion. Many of those concerns, raised at Wednesday night’s Planning and Zoning Commission meeting, centered on what neighbors anticipate will be new, more frequent, visible and potentially loud uses of a planned additional floor and attendant outdoor deck of the pool pavilion. Kelly Hennigan of Glen Drive during a public hearing on the Field Club’s application described as “unsettling” the figure 298—that’s how many people would be allowed by fire code to occupy the proposed new floor and deck combined (229 inside and 69 outside). “We believe it is a change in the intensity of use of the facility and that it will negatively impact property values on Glen Drive,” said Hennigan, one of more than a dozen Field Club neighbors attending the meeting, held in the Douglas Room at Lapham Community Center. “We are very much concerned with the additional floor and adjoining deck and based on the capacity of being able to host 300 people,” she continued.