Around Town

Park or Locust: Post Office Lists Criteria for Permanent New Canaan Location

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U.S. Post Office officials say the maneuverability of delivery trucks is a “very, very important” safety factor that tops a list of criteria that will help determine whether a future permanent location in New Canaan is on Park Street or Locust Avenue. A major challenge also has been finding a site that can accommodate a 300-square-foot loading dock, according to Christine Dugas, a USPS spokesperson. “New Canaan is a small area, a cozy area, so with many sites we looked at that [the loading dock] was a sticking point,” Dugas told NewCanaanite.com. “For example, with one we would’ve had to back down an alley to get the dock—we cannot do that. Honestly, postal vehicles are like Santa’s sleigh—they attract children.

Around Town

Functionality and Familiarity: Walking 121 Park St., Contender for Permanent Post Office Site

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Key advantages of the Park Street property that the U.S. Postal Service is eyeing for its permanent New Canaan location include parking, traffic flow and the site’s proven workability for both the federal agency and town residents, proponents of the plan say. Asked for specifics on why 121 Park St. should be seen as a viable contender, Anthony Giordano of Elm Street Partners said that the loading configuration out back of a proposed new building—cited as one reason for rejecting a handful of other sites—is the very same one that the Post Office had used successfully for decades. “They come in from Pine Street, put their nose here and back in,” Giordano said on a recent morning, pointing across a rear parking lot that also touches Oxygen Fitness and Mrs. Green’s, both on Elm Street Partners-owned property. “Their loading dock was here, and this [new configuration] will be an even easier maneuver for them.

Business

Post Office Narrows Permanent Location in New Canaan to Park Street, Locust Avenue

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The U.S. Postal Service is looking at 18 Locust Ave. and 121 Park St. (see map below) as possibilities for its new, long-term home in New Canaan, officials say. The Park Street location is just south of its former spot on the corner at Pine/Cherry, currently Mrs. Green’s. The Locust Avenue location is roughly opposite Joe’s Pizza, just east of the public parking lot.

Government

P&Z to Cross Street Developers: You Must Convince Us ‘of the Size and Intensity of This Proposal’

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Though New Canaan should have mixed residential-and-commercial structures on Cross and Vitti Streets, and a newly located Post Office also would be a desirable “anchor tenant” there, the architects of a plan that would accomplish both must give the town and public time to work through concerns surrounding parking, building height and density, officials said Tuesday night. Those behind the proposal at 16 Cross St. must convince the Planning & Zoning Commission “of the size and intensity of this proposal,” Chairman Laszlo Papp said during the first public hearing on the project. “That is what you have to [do in order to] convince the commission to give a favorable” decision, Papp said during the hearing, held in the Sturgess Room at the New Canaan Nature Center. Several of those in attendance spoke in favor of plans for the 3.5-story structure—with 7,000 square feet for businesses on the ground floor (half intended for a Post Office) and 14 apartments above (11 two-bedroom units at 1,050 square feet and three studios at 560) with 54 parking spaces below—calling the proposal a creative way to solve multiple problems at once, such as creating housing near the village center and breathing new life into a largely neglected piece of the downtown.

Business

SLIDESHOW: Plans Filed for New Post Office, Mixed-Use Structure on Cross Street

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[acx_slideshow name=”16 Cross Street Proposed Mixed Use Structure”]

[Editor’s Note: The images in the slideshow above—you can pause it by hovering over an image with your mouse—are from plans for a mixed-use retail-and-residential structure, filed Oct. 6, 2014 with the Planning and Zoning Department by New Canaan’s Karp Associates for the property at 16 Cross St.. The architect is S/L/A/M Collaborative of Glastonbury and land surveyor Rocco V. D’Andrea Inc. of Riverside.]

Tree-lined and Colonial in style, with underground parking, space for a newly relocated New Canaan Post Office and topped by three floors of residential units, site plans this week were filed for the development of 16 Cross St., sketching a streetscape and larger vision for a section of downtown that officials have called “ripe for change.”

A proposal aligned with the recently updated Plan of Conservation and Development that dovetails with recent discussions about the area of Cross and Vitti Streets, the proposed 3.5-story, mixed-use structure would include 7,000 square feet of first-floor commercial space, with residential units on the second, third and fourth floors, totaling about 18,000 square feet, according to a letter filed by property owner 3M Capital Trust LLC in support of a special permit for the project. (A special permit is needed to construct dwelling units in the “Business B Zone.”)

“The property owner is currently negotiating with the United States Postal Service to lease a significant portion of the building as the new location of the New Canaan Post Office,” said 3M’s letter. “A Post Office is delineated as an ‘anchor use’ in the [POCD].