Arnold Karp

Affordable Housing: State Issues ‘Declaratory Ruling’ Against the Town in Moratorium Application

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The state last week issued a ruling that bolsters its decision in October to deny the town’s application for four years of relief from a widely discussed affordable housing statute. The town had pushed back following the Connecticut Department of Housing’s denial of its application for a “moratorium” from the state law known by its statute number, 8-30g. The law allows developers who propose housing projects where at least 30% of units will be rented at affordable rates to get around local Planning & Zoning Commission decisions through an appeal process. 

The town had qualified for a four-year moratorium in 2017, with the denser redevelopment of New Canaan Housing Authority-owned apartments Millport Avenue, and hoped to qualify for another one, in part, through the redevelopment of the Canaan Parish complex at Lakeview Avenue and Route 123, which was partially completed in October 2021. 

Yet that project was delayed by financing difficulties and the COVID-19 pandemic, officials have said. In the months after the 2017-issued moratorium expired, the town received three such applications, at Weed and Elm Streets (120 units), Main Street (20 units) and Hill Street (93 units). Last July—more than one year after the 2017-issued moratorium expired—the town applied for another one.

Andrew Melillo

Attorney: 1903 Deed Conveys God’s Acre to Congregational Church

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An attorney representing the Congregational Church of New Canaan is asking town officials to correct the municipal tax database by listing the church as owner of God’s Acre. The question of ownership emerged in 2020, when officials from the church said they would block a town-backed plan to install a permanent stone terrace directly opposite Park Street from its front door. 

Since then, led by First Selectman Kevin Moynihan, the municipal government has spent tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars in legal fees seeking to establish the town as the owner of the .65-acre parcel. Now, according to attorney John F.X. Peloso, Jr. of Stamford-based Robinson + Cole, property records have surfaced that clearly show that God’s Acre is a church-owned property. 

In March, Peloso and his team “consulted both the records of the Town Tax Assessor as well as those of the Tax Collector,” he wrote in an April 17 letter addressed to the New Canaan assessor. “Our online search revealed that, presently, there is no listing in either the Assessor’s or the Tax Collector’s database under the above criteria that identifies the record owner of the Property,” Peloso wrote in the letter, which was cited in a legal bill approved May 16 by the Board of Selectmen and obtained by NewCanaanite.com through a Freedom of Information Act request. Peloso adds that the chain of title points to two deeds, from January 26, 1773 (recorded in Norwalk Land Records) and December 29, 1903 (recorded in New Canaan Land Records). 

“As you will see, the 1903 deed conveys the Property to the Church,” he wrote in the letter.

Chris Schipper

Selectmen Signal Support for $150,000 Town Contribution toward Land Trust Acquisition of Valley Road Property

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The Board of Selectmen on Tuesday signaled its support for a local nonprofit organization’s purchase of an antique house on Valley Road. Though the selectmen will wait for Conservation Commission approval before formally voting on the New Canaan Land Trust’s purchase of the ca. 1750-built home at 1124 Valley Road, the elected body voted 3-0 during its regular meeting to state its intent to support the purchase with a $150,000 town contribution. The money is expected come from the Land Acquisition Fund, established in 2017, and will require further approval from the Board of Finance and Town Council, officials said. The Land Trust plans to sign a purchase-and-sale agreement within about one week, and to complete the property transfer in September, according to the president of organization’s Board of Directors, Tom Cronin.

Board of Selectmen

ADA Violations: Town Hires Company To Help with Planning Amid Ongoing Negotiations with Feds

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Town officials say they remain in negotiations with the U.S. Department of Justice following the federal agency’s recent findings of dozens of violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act at public properties and buildings. The town’s lawyers and officials are “still working through that with them [the DOJ] as far as what the final outcome of that site report would be,” according to Public Works Director Tiger Mann. “There were various items on it,” he said during the April 18 Board of Selectmen meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. 

Mann added, “There still are negotiations at present with the Department of Justice. Some items that we’re aware of we have been taking care of as we go.”

The comments came during a discussion of a $75,000 contract with a Boston-based company that’s expected to help the town comply with the federal law. The DOJ launched an investigation in 2021 following a complaint regarding the town’s failure to comply with ADA.

Board of Finance

Moynihan: Town To Contribute Toward Land Trust’s Acquisition of Antique Valley Road House

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The town will contribute about $100,000 toward the purchase of an antique house on upper Valley Road that a prominent local nonprofit organization is in the process of purchasing, New Canaan’s highest elected official said. As he’d indicated last month, First Selectman Kevin Moynihan told the Board of Finance during its April 11 meeting that the New Canaan Land Trust “has succeeded in negotiating a purchase of the 1124 Valley Road house, which we’ve been trying to protect for the last four years.”

Referring to the public agency that has owned the four-acre property since 2006, Moynihan continued, “The First Taxing District of Norwalk is trying to improve relations with their neighbors, including the town of New Canaan, and they would like us to participate in their purchase on a 1-to-5 ratio. They’re getting an extra acre of open space to connect the two properties, the Brown Preserve of about 10 acres, and the two acres they’re purchasing. We have the Land Acquisition Fund for that purpose and I think the process is that the Board of Selectmen has to approve it. And they [Land Trust officials] may have to come through all the bodies.”

Asked what the town’s contribution to the sale would be, Moynihan said, “Probably less than $100,000.”

“I don’t want to announce their purchase price because they haven’t announced it,” he said during a general update to the Board.