P&Z Approves 110 Units for Proposed ‘Merritt Village’ Development

With mixed feelings and in the most heavily conditioned approval in memory, the Planning & Zoning Commission on Tuesday night voted unanimously in favor of allowing up to 110 units for the planned redevelopment of the Merritt Apartments property on the edge of downtown New Canaan. Though the proposed ‘Merritt Village’ complex came down in the total number of units since an application was filed in June—from 123 as originally planned and 116 as later offered—some parts of its townhouse-style buildings will reach four stories. Despite multiple adjustments from the applicant, M2 Partners LLC, which brought down the height of the development in some of its most conspicuous street-facing areas, the new allowable height—which is to be specific to the Merritt Village development—concerned much of the commission. “I am not happy with it,” P&Z Commissioner Jack Flinn said of the decision. “I really, really wanted to see it stay at the 3-story level and not break the 4-story ceiling with this.

P&Z Denies Grace Farms’ Bid To Host Other Organizations’ Sports Programs

Saying it would be a slap in the faces of concerned neighbors and citing the awkward timing of the request, officials on Monday night turned down Grace Farms’ bid to host other organizations’ multiple youth and adult sports activities in its own gymnasium over the next six months. Grace Farms already had applied to amend its operating permit in order to allow for wide-ranging activities that have been taking place on its Lukes Wood Road campus, and OK’ing the use of its gym by other organizations—in this case, the New Canaan YMCA and St. Luke’s School—would be very bad timing because that application is pending, according to members of the Planning & Zoning Commission. Though P&Z may, under Grace Farms’ current permit, make special allowances for such a use, “if there was ever a time you would not want to do it, it is now, while we are considering altering a special permit for Grace Farms,” P&Z commissioner Jack Flinn said during the group’s special meeting, held at Town Hall. “I think it is not incidental.

‘It’s Barbie Pink’: Town Officials Require Different Color in Sign for Historic House

Saying they wanted to support a New Canaan couple’s efforts to preserve a historic 18th Century home that narrowly avoided the wrecking ball this past summer, planning officials last week took the unusual step of OK’ing a sign to be planted out front of the property on condition that it’s a different color than originally presented. Despite concerns that the sign to be installed at 8 Ferris Hill Road (in the manner of a demolition sign) also is too large—and strong feelings about the specific language chosen for it—members of the Planning & Zoning unanimously approved it at their regular meeting Tuesday. The sign “is just too big and the color seems wholly inconsistent with the historic house,” P&Z commissioner John Kriz said during the meeting, held at Town Hall. “It’s Barbie pink.”

Homeowner Tom Nissley, who with his wife acquired the home and 2.14-acre property for $1.5 million in June, tax records show, explained that the intention is to have the color of the sign match the shingles on the house. “I had to try to reproduce a color that doesn’t exist on the computer and that is how you got this color,” Nissley said.

‘I’m Just Worried About the Scale’: P&Z Raises Concerns About Proposed Mixed-Use Building on Park Street

Though a proposed new mixed-use building on Park Street meets New Canaan’s development guidelines generally in terms of planning for housing and streetscapes, it could dramatically alter an important vista downtown if it’s located too close to the road, officials say. Replacing the small 1.5-story house at 121 Park St. with a two-story retail-and-residential structure that sits just five feet off of the sidewalk may not work “if you look at any context of the elevation looking down that street,” according to Planning & Zoning Commissioner Dan Radman, an architect. “All of us drive down that street multiple times a day—you are going to have a 2.5-story structure right at the corner of that transformer, looming over Park Street,” Radman said during the group’s regular monthly meeting, held March 29 at Town Hall. “That creates a condition going southbound on Park Street which has a very will create a very large impression on the street, in particular because you have a got a new structure existing past [Mrs. Green’s] by about eight or 10 feet.

Owners of Historic, Prominent New Canaan Home Seek Subdivision That Would Protect It

The longtime owners of an iconic and prominent New Canaan house—a home that historians say was the first in town to be lighted by gas, in the 1870s—are seeking special permission to subdivide their 1.8-acre lot in order to preserve the historic structure. Under the New Canaan Zoning Regulations, there isn’t quite enough buildable land at 528 Main St. to carve out a second parcel within the lot that includes the stately white mid-Victorian-style villa home that historians date to about 1852. Yet by expanding a section of the zoning regulations that deals with historic preservation—specifically, to offer some relief from density requirements, as that relief exists now for dimensions and total area—New Canaan could “allow for preservation of a special and significant dwelling and a piece of our history that would otherwise be lost,” according to Michael Sweeney, an attorney with Stamford-based Carmody, Torrance, Sandak & Hennessey LLP. The homes owners for 18 years, Thomas and Marianne Reifenheiser (it’s been in the family since 1946) “have tried to sell the property over the past seven or eight years, and really without success,” Sweeney told members of the Planning & Zoning Commission during their Nov.