News

No Idling: NCHS Friends of the Earth Club Works for Cleaner Air and a Better New Canaan

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Idling cars are a major pet peeve for New Canaan High School sophomore Will Santora. The 15-year-old is aware that it’s illegal in Connecticut to idle a motor vehicle for more than three minutes, yet he estimates that up to 80 percent of the cars that back up at the NCHS lot when school lets out are idling. “You waste gas, you waste money, you are polluting—and all for no reason,” Santora said from Room 115 at the high school on a recent afternoon, surrounded by a half-dozen likeminded sophomores and juniors. “You don’t need to leave your car running at all. And people sometimes just forget to turn off their car or they don’t realize it’s going, so that is a big issue because it does pollute a lot and if you idle for more than 10 seconds, you are already starting to waste gas.”

In the next month or so, Santora and this group of high school teens—together they are the Friends of the Earth Club, an extracurricular group—will purchase and install a “no idling” sign on school grounds.

News

‘A Beacon of New Canaan History’: Closely Watched Valley Road Antique Hits Market at $2.25 Million

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A ca. 1750 home that New Canaan open space advocates and historic preservationists have been watching closely for several months hit the market this week at $2.25 million. The “Grupe-Nichols-Brown House” at 1124 Valley Road—itself a well-preserved antique structure—also sits on 4.43 acres adjacent to a large, accessible New Canaan Land Trust property that fronts Grupes Reservoir. It’s owned by the first taxing district of Norwalk. Chris Schipper, president of the Land Trust, called the house “a beacon of New Canaan history.”

“It has stood there for over 250 years and is at the center of what was once a 200-acre farm that extended all the way across the Wilton line, so it is definitely an important preservationist property,” Schipper said.

Around Town

DPW Seeks $125,000 for New Sidewalk Connecting Elm Street to Irwin Park

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Public works officials are seeking $125,000 next fiscal year to create a widely anticipated sidewalk connecting the top of Elm Street to Irwin Park. The sidewalk would run along the west side of Weed Street and, according to preliminary engineering plans (see PDF below), could involve removing one row of maple trees and a tree stump, and relocating a set of mailboxes at Woods End Road. The sidewalk wouldn’t run up against the roadway but would have a “grass shelf” between it and Weed Street, Department of Public Works Assistant Director Tiger Mann said Tuesday during a budget request presentation to the Board of Finance. “All we will need basically are handicapped accessible ramps on either end and across Woods End Road and some of the driveways and what have you,” Mann said at the finance board meeting, held in the Sturgess Room at the New Canaan Nature Center. “But we will not be adjacent to the roadway, so we will have grass shelf and that gets a lot easier and a lot less expensive to construct.”

The $125,000 for the new sidewalk is part of an overall $785,000 request for engineering in fiscal year 2016 (see page 29 here), along with $5 million in bonding for the town’s regular street paving program ($2.5 million per year over two years).

Around Town

Did You Hear … ?

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Quick update on the closely followed renovation and restoration of the famed former Huguette Clark estate on Dan’s Highway: The New Canaan Building Department issued a permit Jan. 12 for a 60-by-22-foot in-ground pool. The estimated $105,000 job will be completed by Signature Pools of Norwalk, according to the permit. ***

Two of New Canaan’s most prominent and effective nonprofit organizations—the New Canaan Land Trust (membership info here) and New Canaan Community Foundation (information on giving here)—held their annual meetings Thursday night. Some 200 supporters attended each event, held at the Country Club of New Canaan and Waveny House, respectively.

Business

P&Z Approves Weed Street Subdivision, Mixed-Use Building on Cross Street

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Town planning officials on Tuesday approved a pair of closely followed land use applications—one for a 2-lot subdivision on Weed Street that includes a conservation easement connecting two New Canaan Land Trust properties, and another for a mixed residential-and-commercial structure on Cross Street that’s designed to accommodate future New Canaan Post Office needs. What follows is a summary of each item. Both were approved by the Planning & Zoning Commission at the group’s regular meeting, held in the Sturgess Room at the New Canaan Nature Center. Weed Street
P&Z on six conditions (see below) approved the 2-lot subdivision at 929 Weed St., a 9-acre property whose current structure—a Midcentury Modern—will remain, while two additional lots will be carved out. As part of the subdivision, the property’s owner is granting as a conservation easement along an approximately 425-foot strip of land that connects two parcels long ago given to the New Canaan Land Trust: One that backs up (eastward) into the woods and connects eventually to the New Canaan Nature Center, and another that includes wetlands and fronts Weed Street itself.