Canaan Parish

Officials Cut Ribbon on New Building at Canaan Parish

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The NewCanaanite.com Summer Internship Program is sponsored by Carriage Barn Arts Center. Town and state officials on Tuesday cut the ribbon on a newly constructed affordable housing building at Route 123 and Lakeview Avenue. The 40-unit Canaan Parish apartment complex—a joint effort of the town (which owns the land), New Canaan Neighborhoods, Inc. (which owns the building) and developer Heritage Housing, Inc.—represents “phase 2” of a lengthy $46 million remodeling at the town-owned property, the first half of which was completed in 2021. 

New Canaan Housing Authority Chair Scott Hobbs told the 50-plus attendees at the ribbon-cutting ceremony that he’d hoped in the past the new building would help address some of the affordable housing issues the town has faced in recent years. However, during his address, Hobbs said that was no longer the case. “I do feel compelled to discuss what I consider to be an injustice,” he said.

Dionna Carlson

Election 2023: Republican Candidates for First Selectman Debate West School Cell Tower Plan [UPDATED]

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[Note: This article has been updated with a comment from St. Luke’s School.]

Bringing back a proposal to erect a cell tower behind West School when it was “roundly criticized by residents and parents” more than five years ago is “an unbelievably bad waste of time, money and effort,” according to one Republican candidate for New Canaan’s highest elected office. There are alternative technologies such as satellite and distributed antenna systems or “DAS,” and public safety has already been addressed because all elementary schools have antenna systems, Dionna Carlson said during a GOP debate last week. “So if there’s an emergency at West School or in the West School area, they can connect to our emergency service providers,” Carlson said at the Republican Town Committee’s July 18 debate, held at the Carriage Barn Arts Center. “I was on the Board of Education when those antennas were put up and redone,” she continued.

Dionna Carlson

Election 2023: Republican Candidates for First Selectman Debate Affordable Housing Strategies

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New Canaan missed out on a chance to find an additional four years of relief from a state affordable housing law because the town wasn’t prepared, according to one Republican seeking party backing for the municipality’s highest elected office. 

The town’s moratorium under the widely discussed law known by its statute number, 8-30g, “lapsed” because “frankly, I don’t think we were prepared to file that moratorium, which I’m really concerned about,” Kimberly Norton said during a debate with fellow GOP first selectman candidates Dionna Carlson and incumbent Kevin Moynihan last week. “It’s a very long process,” Norton continued at the July 18 debate, organized and moderated by the Republican Town Committee and held at Carriage Barn Arts Center. “It could have been ready to go. It could have been in the pipeline.”

Though the press was barred from attending the debate, a video of the first selectman debate was posted Thursday to YouTube. In addition to affordable housing, topics included dysfunction on the Board of Selectmen and improving cell service in New Canaan.

Board of Selectmen

‘I’m Still Not Getting Answers’: Selectman Williams Pushes Moynihan Again on Broker Fees Collected in Town Property Deals

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Saying the town appears to be pursuing yet another property acquisition, Selectmen Nick Williams last week pressed New Canaan’s highest-elected official again on what money is exchanged for brokers in such deals. Addressing First Selectman during the July 11 Board of Selectmen meeting, Williams said, “It’s come to my attention that there might be another acquisition that we’re considering, which you have not apprised me of, or I believe Selectman [Kathleen] Corbet.”

Referring to a local property owner, Don Corbo, Williams added, “The same person who you mentioned by name at our last meeting—I didn’t mention this person’s name—but I just happened to be at Town Hall the week before last and this person was coming out of a meeting with you and Stevie Karl and a few others. And it just strikes me: Why is this person constantly popping up in real estate transactions in town? And I know this same person was intimately involved with the desired sale—I think on your part—of the Police Department building. And you said to me many times, ‘I really want to sell the building.’ It wasn’t about the Police Department or where to put it so much as ‘I really want to sell the building.’ And this individual was the same person that you mentioned in our last meeting was involved in that process… What is the process by which this town, with you in control of this town, buys and sells real estate?”

Moynihan declined to respond to Williams, saying he would “be happy to take that up when Kathleen [Corbet] is here.” 

The comments came during a section of the meeting dedicated to general matters before the town.

Government

Selectmen Appoint New Town Planner

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The Board of Selectmen on Tuesday approved an appointment to one of New Canaan’s most nuanced and closely watched positions. Sarah Carey, promoted earlier this year to assistant town planner, will assume the job of town planner and senior enforcement officer following a 2-0 vote by the Board. “She has done an amazing job as our assistant town planner,” the town’s human resources director, Cheryl Pickering Jones, said at the selectmen’s meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. “She has cleaned up permits, works well with residents, staff, commissioners,” Pickering Jones said. “[Planning & Zoning Commission Chair] Dan Radman is fully on board with us putting her into a permanent position.