Government

Objection to Proposed Subdivision on ‘One of the Streets in New Canaan That Time Forgot’

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Saying the proposed subdivision of a long-unused, sloping 4.76-acre lot on Hill Street will exacerbate runoff, lower property values and do nothing for the aesthetics of an already “forgotten” New Canaan neighborhood, an attorney for one neighbor is calling for a new engineering design and plans. Hill Street is windy road of 10 modest houses and condos that runs just above and roughly parallel to Route 123 for about 500 feet, just east of Brushy Ridge Road. Developers have put forward a plan to subdivide into two what is called “Lot 72”—a thickly wooded property located within the Fivemile River watershed that’s belonged to the same family since it was purchased for $19,500 in 1966, tax records show. Plans call for two single-family residences with a single, shared access driveway from Hill Street. The Inland Wetlands Commission on June 30 approved the driveway on several conditions.

News

P&Z Chair on Developer Loophole: ‘There Are Some Real Threats’

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Though he declined to name specific properties (so as not to give anyone ideas), the chairman of the Planning & Zoning Commission on Wednesday said the town is at risk of seeing unwanted housing complexes shoehorned into New Canaan by developers leveraging a state law whose spirit and intended purpose—not always evident in practice—is to boost affordable housing stock. Under normal circumstances, that’s a widely embraced goal by New Canaanites who point to valued, essential workers such as teachers, police, firefighters and public works crewmen as candidates for affordable units. Yet the Affordable Housing Appeals Act (sometimes called “8-30g” for its statute number) when abused is a tool that developers wield in order to get around rejections of site plans locally. “There are several parcels in town which may be targeted by—and I’m sorry to say this—probably mostly out-of-town developers who would like to come in and propose 8-30g affordable units there,” P&Z Chairman Laszlo Papp said Wednesday during a Town Council meeting. The law is triggered in municipalities where less than 10 percent of the housing stock is considered “affordable,” by the state’s definition.