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

Town Attorney’s Advice on Medical Marijuana Dispensaries’ Plans: Wait and See

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Though local planning officials may want to position New Canaan so that the town can control whether a medical marijuana dispensary can set up shop here can do so, the best strategy for now may be to deal with an application if and when it arrives, the town attorney has said. Connecticut has licenses six dispensaries in the state so far—including one in Fairfield County (Bethel)—and in each case the municipality where they’re located readily agreed to the new business’s arrival, Town Attorney Ira Bloom said at the Oct. 28 meeting of the Planning & Zoning Commission. Though there is no indication that the state will grant more licenses any time soon, “that could happen at any point in time,” Bloom said at the meeting, held in the Sturgess Room of the New Canaan Nature Center. “So I think so some degree we are in a wait-and-see period in the state of Connecticut, in trying to assess what is going to happen, whether more licenses are granted or there is a change to the law or whatever,” Bloom said.

Business

Cross and Vitti Streets: ‘Ripe for Change’

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Calling the area of Cross and Vitti Streets a largely neglected section of downtown New Canaan that has potential to serve the community better, officials on Tuesday sketched out a plan to re-imagine its use, density and streetscape, possibly even introducing a newly defined business zone. As it is now, most of the businesses on either side of Cross and Vitti are part of “Business Zone B”—a designation that allows for heavier-duty commercial use such as for garden supplies, hardware and lumber. But the way the area has developed—in some ways, as a kind of industrial park within New Canaan, with repair shops, car washes and print businesses—may not be just how it would be mapped out given a choice now, Town Planner Steve Kleppin said at a subcommittee meeting of the Planning & Zoning Commission. “It’s ripe for change,” Kleppin said during the meeting, held in the Sturgess Room of the New Canaan Nature Center. “It’s the one area that I don’t know if there is anything that couldn’t change over there at some point in time, and there’s already talk of some new development over there, so I think it’s a good idea for us to be out front and really decide how do we want this area to look in the future, what’s the potential of it.”

Kleppin said he has money in the budget now to bring in a planning/design consultant to sketch out some designs and then oversee a series of public meetings and workshops for feedback from residents.