Around Town

Months After Neighbors Object and Town Imposes Delay, Colonial Court Homeowners Pick up Demolition Permit

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The owners of a widely discussed 1933-built home on Colonial Court on Tuesday paid for and picked up a permit to demolish the structure, following objections from neighbors, a town-imposed delay and talks with an appointed government body that encourages preservation of significant local buildings. Members of the Historical Review Committee opened talks with Michelle Cardone, whose elderly mother Sandra owns the home at 9 Colonial Court, after an application to demolish the house was filed last October with the New Canaan Building Department. 

The next month, after several neighbors voiced concerns about the proposed demolition, the Committee imposed a 90-day delay on the demo, as allowed by local ordinance. 

Michelle Cardone said at the time that her mother, who purchased the house in 2018, now requires single-floor living, and that they had consulted with architects about ways the home could be preserved in a remodeling versus building anew on the .3-acre parcel. In January, as the end date of the demo delay neared, Committee members suggested renovation projects that preserved the original house. 

Yet the permit was issued this week to Sandra Cardone, with Wilton’s Brian Smith listed as contractor and Canaan Construction Ltd listed as applicant. The permit cost $565 and the demolition will cost an estimated $30,000, it said. Sandra Cardone purchased the 2,444-square-foot house for $1,285,000 in November 2018, tax records show.

Government

Colonial Court Homeowner Working with Officials on Possible Preservation of Prominent House

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The owner of a Colonial Court home that’s slated for demolition is reviewing alternatives brought forward by a town committee that encourages preservation of significant local buildings, according to her daughter. Michelle Cardone, whose elderly mother Sandra owns the 1933-built home at 9 Colonial Court and now requires single-floor living, said when asked about plans for the house, “We also have a new architect reviewing all the plans as well as our specific needs to determine whether there is any way to save any part of the existing house and incorporate it into our plans.”

“He has experience with older homes,” Michelle Cardone told NewCanaanite.com in an email. “The Historical Review Committee and all our neighbors have also been made aware of this status.”

Michelle Cardone is expected to attend a meeting of the Committee at 9 a.m. Thursday. Members of the Committee started talks with the Cardones after the application to demolish the house was filed Oct. 21 with the New Canaan Building Department. 

The Committee on Nov.

Government

Demolition Delay on Colonial Court Home Ends Jan. 19

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The planned demolition of a fieldstone-clad house on Colonial Court that some in town have called architecturally significant is slated to go forward Jan. 19, according to the most publicly available information. 

Though town officials on Nov. 12 imposed a 90-day delay on the demolition of the 1933-built house at 9 Colonial Court, that delay lifts Jan. 19. 

Following the Historical Review Committee’s 4-0 vote to delay demolition in hopes of preserving the two-story, three-bedroom house at the end of the cul-de-sac, which runs west off of South Avenue near the downtown, the appointed body’s chair, Mark Markiewicz emailed the owner’s daughter to thank her for “participating in our endeavor,” according to a Nov. 15 email.

Government

Town Delays Demo of Colonial Court Home After Neighbors, Preservationists Object 

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Saying the structure is architecturally significant, members of a town committee last week imposed a 90-day delay on the planned demolition of a 1933-built fieldstone-clad house on Colonial Court. 

The Historical Review Committee voted 4-0 to impose the delay on 9 Colonial Court, a two-story, three-bedroom house at the end of the cul-de-sac, which runs west off of South Avenue near the downtown. 

Under the Town Code, if the town building official receives a written objection to demolition within 15 days of public notice, the matter is referred to the appointed Committee to determine whether the structure is “of an age, style, condition or character that is of historical, architectural or cultural significance to the Town of New Canaan”—and if it is, a delay of up to 90 days can be imposed on demolition. Committee member Marty Skrelunas said the house in question here meets the criteria and is “worthy of conversation before any dramatic change takes place.”

“The street itself, as pointed out by the neighbors, is truly one of the last intact streets in New Canaan,” he said. “And it was certainly designed and built around a certain design criteria. That’s readily apparent. And while I also understand that the house can be replaced, that’s perfectly legitimate if that does happen, I would urge that if there is a delay, time is spent to understand the scale, the setback and other qualities that that anchor of a house has, to respect the scale and dignity of the neighborhood.”

Skrelunas added that “there are certain design solutions that can make the house much larger, that can meet the needs of the current owner, but I do think those design needs can also address the scale and character of the neighborhood.”

“It does maintain a good, uniform setback along the street, and building height, and the trend of new houses of coursed is to raise every floor by a foot or two,” he said.

Andrew Melillo

‘I Will Not Enforce That’: Committee, Building Official at Odds Over Demolition Notice [CORRECTED]

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[Note: This article has been corrected to reflect a 4-1 vote, not a 5-0 vote as originally reported.]

Saying those seeking to raze a derelict greenhouse followed the process outlined in a local ordinance, New Canaan’s town building official last week told members of an appointed municipal body that he wouldn’t enforce their request to re-notice the structure. According to some members of the Historical Review Committee, the sign affixed to a ca.-1900 greenhouse at the New Canaan Nature Center failed to meet a requirement that it be posted “in a conspicuous location of the property on which the structure is situated” and that it’s “visible from the nearest public street or other accessway adjoining the property.”

Committee member Ed Vollmer said during the appointed body’s April 16 meeting that “there are people who are unhappy with what is going on and the destruction of the greenhouse because it is considered a historic building.”

Under local ordinance, if a letter objecting to a planned demolition is received within 15 days of publication of the notice in a newspaper, then the Committee may decide to impose a delay period of up to 90 days. In this case, however, the Nature Center’s notice was published Feb. 6, meaning the objection period expired Feb. 21—four days before a New Canaan woman filed her letter, which was therefore rejected by Town Building Official Brian Platz.