Government
‘A Fundamental Mismatch’: Neighbors Voice Concerns About Proposed Parade Hill Road Development
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Neighbors of a proposed 14-unit affordable housing structure on Parade Hill Road during the most recent regular Planning & Zoning Commission meeting raised concerns about the building’s size and appropriateness for the neighborhood, as well as traffic, public safety, flooding, aesthetics, noise and screening. Addressing P&Z during a public hearing held March 31 at Town Hall and via videoconference, those opposed to the project at 30 Parade Hill Road said they support additional affordable housing in New Canaan, but not such a large building on a .37-acre site that fronts a windy road already overburdened by large commercial and speeding vehicles. Those speaking out against the 8-30g project—exempt from the town’s active “moratorium” from the state law, due to its size (less than 40 units) and plan to rent all units at affordable rates—told P&Z that there’s case law to allow P&Z to reduce the number of units in the building. They voiced concerns about services available for prospective residents of the development, as well as parking, and criticized a planting plan from the property’s owner—a limited liability company whose principal is Stamford resident Richard Freedman, a trustee of the Garden Homes Fund (philanthropic arm of Garden Homes Management, which owns 9,500 units of rental housing throughout the Northeast)—as insufficient. Michael Campisi, a next-door neighbor of the site, noted that new renderings brought before P&Z are “missing several important things, and those are the homes around it.”
“The single-family homes around it, who have lived here under a pretense that this is a community of single family homes so when you are placing pictures up there, be a little more accurate,” Campisi said.
