News

Owners of Valley Road Antique Slated for Demolition: We Will Sell House with Some Land, Not Entire Parcel

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The owners of a prominent, antique Valley Road home that’s slated for demolition say they’re confused by a letter that New Canaan town officials sent Monday, urging them to work toward preserving the house. That’s because the owner of 1124 Valley Road—Norwalk’s First Taxing District—on March 27 met with New Canaan’s highest elected official and others and proposed selling the house and property it sits on to a local organization for a price that group has said it can afford, according to Dominick DiGangi, general manager of the First District Water Department. Specifically, DiGangi told NewCanaanite.com, he proposed a lot line reconfiguration that would bring the 18th Century home onto an adjacent New Canaan Land Trust parcel for less than $1.2 million while then also adding some land to the existing 4-acre parcel at 1124 Valley Road so that it still meets setback distances under the New Canaan Zoning Regulations. The 4-acre property itself is no longer for sale as such, DiGangi said. “We are not going to change our mind about the land,” he said.

Government

Town Imposes 90-Day Demolition Delay on Antique Valley Road House

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Saying that buying some time prior to a planned demolition could help the owner of an antique and conspicuous Valley Road home find a way to transfer the structure to preservationists or otherwise avoid the wrecking ball, officials voted unanimously last week to impose a 90-day demolition delay. Representatives of the owner of 1124 Valley Road, Norwalk’s first taxing district, are not fighting against that delay, members of the Historical Review Committee said at their March 1 meeting. It would be interesting for the public at large “to know the purpose of the use” of the 18th Century home, committee member Laszlo Papp—formerly a neighbor of the house, for 54 years—said the meeting, held in the Town House of the New Canaan Historical Society. “Is there going to be open space attached to the land the water company has or do they intend to build a McMansion there or exactly what is the future?” Papp said. He added: “During the period of the delay, I think, all political pressure should be borne to Norwalk to influence that [trustee].

News

Owner of Antique Home on Valley Road Applies for Demolition Permit

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Saying it’s too expensive to maintain and insure a vacant, antique house in northeastern New Canaan, the property’s owners on Monday filed an application to demolish it. The first taxing district of Norwalk has no immediate plans for the ca. 1750-built house and 4-acre property it owns at 1124 Valley Road, according to James Fulton, an attorney who serves as trustee for the district. “If someone offers us enough money, they can buy the whole property with the house on it, too,” Fulton told NewCanaanite.com. “But for the amount of money that some people think the property is worth and are willing to pay, it is actually worth more to the district to keep it for its future use.

Around Town

Did You Hear … ?

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Members of the Parking Commission on Thursday night voted to extend to the end of January a deadline for those on waitlists for the three commuter parking lots in New Canaan—Lumberyard, Richmond Hill and Talmadge Hill—to pay a $10 renewal fee. It originally had been due Dec. 29, officials said. The new deadline is absolute, commissioners said, so that those who do not pay the renewal fee will lose their places on the waitlists. ***

In a strange property transaction, the commercial building at 87 Main St.

Around Town

New Canaan’s Open Space Map Updated, Protection Strategy Laid Out

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New Canaan should formalize its existing open space protections to achieve preservation goals as well as to ensure the “perpetual existence” of beloved town assets, researchers said last week. The town’s most effective financial strategy will be some combination of bonds for large projects and an Open Space Fund allocation for smaller projects and associated costs, according to two graduate students at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. And the best way to leverage funds is for the town and nonprofit New Canaan Land Trust to work together, the students— Eve Boyce and Katie Panek—said during a Dec. 11 presentation at the New Canaan Nature Center. Citing a state goal whereby 21 percent of acreage in Connecticut is protected as open space—the figure represents a target of combined local and state efforts—Boyce and Panek underscored the social, health-related and economic benefits of open space protection.