News

District: New Canaan’s 4th Overall SATs Ranking in CT Good to Know, Though Not a Full Picture

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Though New Canaan Public Schools administrators continuously seek to improve and it often is useful to compare data against other districts, it’s a mistake to put too much stock into a single data point—even if it’s something that speaks well of the district, such as the high school’s fourth-overall ranking for average SAT test scores from 2014, officials say. Any time a ranking system is used, a single narrow measure can supply a handy snapshot, “but it certainly can’t describe the totality of any enterprise,” Interim Superintendent of Schools Dr. Bryan Luizzi said Wednesday during the regular meeting of the Town Council. “And I would say education is probably one o the most difficult enterprises to quantify,” Luizzi said during the meeting, held in the Sturgess Room at the New Canaan Nature Center. According to state education department data compiled last week by the Hartford Courant, New Canaan High School ranked fourth in the state—as well as Fairfield County—in SAT score averages among public high schools from earlier this year. Schools in Fairfield County achieved the six highest in the state.

News

Open Space Advocates, Preservationists Eye 4.43-Acre Property with ca. 1750 Home That May Soon Hit the Market

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The owner of a ca. 1750 home on 4.43 acres on upper Valley Road says that the structure may soon go on the market—a noteworthy prospect for historic preservationists as well as the New Canaan Land Trust, which owns and maintains walking trails on an abutting property that also fronts the Grupes Reservoir. The first taxing district of Norwalk purchased 1124 Valley Road in February 2006 for $2.25 million, with the idea that it may move to that site an inconspicuous treatment plant now located near Silver Hill Hospital, according to James Fulton, the district’s attorney and owner of the parcel, as trustee. “We bought it and over the years, the more we considered it, we decided it probably wouldn’t be cost-effective to use it as part of the utility operation, which is why for years we’ve rented it out to residential tenants,” Fulton said. Though the district hasn’t made any firm decisions, “we are considering marketing the property for sale,” he added.

News

Bucking ‘In-Town’ Trend, Realtors Turn to New Canaan’s ‘Upper East Side’

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Kelly Kraus says that when she came to New Canaan in 1999, prospective homebuyers moving here overwhelmingly wanted homes on four-acre lots north of town. Then in 2004, the sale of a home at 110 South Ave. (and soon after, another on Brooks Road), kickstarted a trend of tearing down and building anew “in town”—call it above Farm Road to about St. Mark’s, and as wide as a walkable distance to the business district. Realtors hyper-focused on that geography—driven by the tastes of prospective residents as well as New Canaanites already here who were seeking to downsize to more manageable properties after, say, their kids moved out, Kraus said.

News

‘Dream Greenway’ in New Canaan Poised for Important Step

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The possibility of a “dream greenway” in New Canaan—essentially, a loop that would include a new walk through the woods between Weed Street and Oenoke Ridge Road—is poised to take a major step forward following an application formally received this week by town officials. A prospect that’s eagerly supported by both the New Canaan Land Trust and New Canaan Nature Center, including board President Skip Hobbs—a prospect, in fact, that includes land owned by each of those venerable nonprofit organizations—the greenway requires only a traversable 425-foot-long strip of land for completion (see map at right). That land is part of a private property on Weed Street, near the intersection at Wahackme. When that property, on the market for more than one year, recently received an accepted offer, advocates for the greenway—anticipating that its 9-acre lot likely would be subdivided—pointed out that in the case of subdivision, the town could take up to 10 percent of the property, as per New Canaan’s zoning regulations. This month, site plans for that subdivision emerged, including a conservation easement along the property’s northern edge—in other words, the very strip of land required to complete the greenway.

Government

Decision Nears on Old Norwalk Road Sidewalk Extension to Kiwanis

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Residents last week voiced support for a proposed, 825-foot sidewalk extension that would finish connecting Main Street and Kiwanis Park, saying it’s a much-needed safety measure for pedestrians already traveling in the roadway along the eastern leg of Old Norwalk Road. Kiwanis is a popular spot for kids with its playground, basketball courts, YMCA summer camp and preschool, making the sidewalk extension—from the Old Norwalk Road Bridge (over the Fivemile River), along the south side of the street—“essential,” Main Street resident Mary Flaherty said at the June 18 Town Council meeting. “As it stands now, it’s going to attract nuisance. It’s so close to the schools, you are going to have kids walking there no matter what you do,” Flaherty said during a public comment period at the meeting, held in the Sturgess Room at the New Canaan Nature Center’s Visitors Center. “And I see them now walking down, ducking around the bushes like this”—here she pretend-shuffled sideways—“so it is really just fabulous that this is before you and I encourage you to move it on its way as quickly as possible.”

“We’re kind of in a dangerous situation now, so the sooner the better,” Flaherty added.