Government

First Selectman: ‘It May Be We Are Going To Retain Vine Cottage for the Health Department’

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After seeking a prospective buyer for the building twice in the last three years, New Canaan’s highest elected official said last week that the town may keep a ca.-1859 building that long has formed part of the Town Hall campus. The town first issued a request for proposals from potential buyers of Vine Cottage in June 2019. Two years later, in August 2021, First Selectman Kevin Moynihan said the town had terminated its negotiations with a developer interested in the property and would reissue the RFP. The Board of Selectmen approved the issuance of the RFP the following month, but it has since closed, officials said during the selectmen’s Feb. 22 meeting.

Board of Selectmen

Town ‘Hard at Work’ on Application for Relief from Affordable Housing Law 

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The town has not yet applied for its next four years of relief from a widely discussed state law regarding affordable housing but is working hard toward its application, officials said this week. Municipal officials are “moving forward and we are consulting with the town attorney at this point,” Town Planner Lynn Brooks Avni told members of the Board of Selectmen during their regular meeting Tuesday. 

“We are hard at work putting it together,” she said. As of now Planning & Zoning has received just one 8-30g application for an affordable housing project at the corner of Weed and Elm Streets, and “I don’t know whether there are more,” Brooks Avni said. “I am sure there could be more, but we have only one in our hands right now,” she said during the meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. 

Brooks Avni added, “The way it works is the state has 90 days to approve once we formally submit. So if an 8-30g application comes prior to us receiving a Certificate of Completion for Affordable Housing, which is effectively the moratorium, we have to accept and they can file.”

The comments came as the selectmen appointed a New Canaan committee to participate in a regional planning group focused on affordable housing, as per state law.

Government

‘Our Comments Are Not Productive?’: Selectmen Push Back on Moynihan’s Removal of Standing Agenda Item

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Selectmen Kathleen Corbet and Nick Williams on Tuesday pushed back on a recent change that New Canaan’s highest elected official made to the Board of Selectmen’s regular agenda without their knowledge or input. Since January 2018, the selectmen’s agenda has included an item toward the end that allows members to address general matters before the town. The Board’s agenda typically has specific items related to approvals of contracts, hirings and appointments, and the “Selectmen Comments” item has allowed members to raise a number of other topics. In recent months, for example, the selectmen have used it to discuss traffic safety at Route 106 and Carter Street, a proposal to build a police station on a Saxe Middle School ball field and a more collegial approach to scheduling meetings. Yet last month, the item disappeared from the selectman’s agenda, Williams noted.

Board of Selectmen

First Selectman ‘Amused’ By Police Commission’s Memo on NCPD Building

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New Canaan’s highest elected official said Tuesday that he was “amused” by a memo from an appointed town body charged with managing and supervising the Police Department. The Police Commission in a Feb. 7 memo to the Board of Selectmen, Board of Finance and Town Council recommended that a future police station—whether renovated or built anew—remain where it is on South Avenue, and that the volunteer body be included in future discussions about the project. “Working together, we are confident that this project will be successfully completed,” according to the memo, read aloud during a regular selectmen meeting at Town Hall (bookmarked video embedded above). Yet after the memo had been read out, First Selectman Kevin Moynihan said with respect the police station project, “We don’t have time to discuss this today.

American Rescue Plan Act

Selectmen Recommend $1 Million in ARPA Funding Toward Restoring Playhouse on Elm

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The Board of Selectmen this week recommended spending $1 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds to prepare The Playhouse for a new movie operator. The funds would be combined with about $804,000 already built up through a fund for the 1923-built Playhouse in order to “do a significant amount of upgrades to the building,” according to First Selectman Kevin Moynihan. “In conjunction with an operator, we will make a joint investment in upgrades in the theater,” he said during a special Board meeting, held Monday at Town Hall and via videoconference. Public Works Director Tiger Mann said that a roof replacement at the iconic Elm Street building is nearly done, and now work is needed to its brick exterior as well as ADA upgrades as they relate to a bathroom, accessibility and exits. The theater needs “ADA accessibly in and through the theaters themselves, depending on how they are laid out,” Mann said.