News

Mixed-Use Redevelopment with 8 Residential Units Proposed for Vitti Street

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The owners of a long-disused lot on Vitti Street are seeking the town’s permission to create a new 2-story commercial building facing the sidewalk with an 8-unit residential structure behind it. A pair of vacant structures on the .56-acre lot at 23 Vitti St. would be demolished under plans filed Sept. 2 with Planning & Zoning. In their place, near the street, would go two-story, 8,600-square-foot commercial building that could be occupied by “primarily fitness/therapy and medical uses,” according to a special permit application filed on behalf of the property owner by New Canaan-based attorney David Rucci of Lampert Toohey & Rucci LLC.

Government

Town Denies Appeal from Neighbor Regarding Use of Guest Cottage on Oenoke Ridge Road

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Backed by documents showing that an Oenoke Ridge Road accessory structure received town approval for use as a guesthouse, and citing the many years it has been occupied as such without complaint, officials last month rejected a next-door neighbor’s appeal regarding the building’s use. The Zoning Board of Appeals at its most recent meeting by a 5-0 vote denied an appeal that had been filed this spring on behalf of Peter and Kathleen Streinger, owners of 785 Oenoke Ridge Road. They had sought to halt use of a guest cottage on the property to their west as a dwelling, saying it violated the New Canaan Zoning Regulations and conditions attached to a subdivision approved in 2003. However, the town planner told ZBA members in a memo ahead of the group’s Aug. 1 meeting, a subsequent owner of the property in question (number 757 Oenoke Ridge Road) in 2004 applied for a special permit exempting the historic accessory structure from building coverage under a newly enacted regulation (see page 148 here).

Government

‘A Reasonable Compromise Has To Be Worked Out’: P&Z Weighs In on Merritt Village Proposal

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Questions about the viability of a new parking system, guarantees regarding the set-aside of some below-market units and the potential that a condo-and-apartment complex could loom conspicuously over parts of Park Street rank high among outstanding concerns regarding the proposed development at Merritt Apartments, the chairman of the New Canaan Planning & Zoning Commission said Tuesday night. Most of all, perhaps, the Merritt Village as proposed—a plan that would see 123 units built on a combined 3.29-acre parcel at the edge of downtown New Canaan where 38 now exist—raises questions about “the density of the whole project,” P&Z Chairman John Goodwin said during a public hearing. “One component is—is four stories the right answer or should it be three?—which effectively becomes three-and-a-half [stories] with a roof,” Goodwin said during the hearing, which drew a standing-room only crowd at Town Hall. “And as the planner has noted, there is the issue of how many units. The planner has shared with the commission his analysis that if we were to apply the current most dense project in New Canaan to [the Merritt Village] project, the number that would fall out would be 95 units, so that is a challenge.

Government

New Restaurant Proposed for Forest Street; Property Owner Seeks P&Z Approval To Pay Fee To Meet Parking Requirement

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An experienced restaurateur wants to open a new eatery on Forest Street that would include a sushi bar, but before pursuing that plan, the building’s owner is seeking the town’s permission to help meet a difficult parking requirement, records show. That vision for the space at 11 Forest St.—vacant since Peachwave frozen yogurt closed one year ago—represents a proposal only at this stage, the property’s owner told NewCanaanite.com. What’s needed in order to kickstart the project is approval from the Planning & Zoning Commission for Frank Elmasry of 3-11 Forest Street KKE LLC to pay a fee instead of figuring out some way to provide the estimated eight physical parking spaces that would be needed if the commercial space is re-classified from “retail” (as it is currently) to “restaurant.”

In an Aug. 2 application to P&Z, Elmasry said: “The potential restaurant owner plans to make significant investments in the fit-out in order to provide a venue that is aesthetically pleasing and in harmony with the existing establishments on Forest Street, adding to the attractive character of the town. The owner has a track record of success in New Jersey and New York and this would be his first location in Connecticut.

Government

‘You Ultimately Fell Victim To a Bait and Switch’: Pound Ridge Town Supervisor To P&Z on Grace Farms

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Grace Farms is operating as something substantially different from a church and its president was less than “brimming with Christian charity” in addressing concerns from the town located immediately to the north, the highest elected official in Pound Ridge, N.Y. told members of the Planning & Zoning Commission in a recent letter. Pound Ridge Town Supervisor Richard Lyman often hears people recommend that “you must really go to Grace Farms for lunch, it is terrific,” he said in a letter received Aug. 1 by P&Z and obtained by NewCanaanite.com. That “seems a rather upscale if not perverted twist on the proverbial church basement soup kitchen,” Lyman said in his letter. “Thank you, I’ll pass.”

He added that P&Z members “after all of your hard work on this application … ultimately fell victim to a bait and switch,” saying: “Some of you may recall that I publicly stated in one of your site plan review meetings that following my reaching out to Ms. [Sharon] Prince, president of the Grace Farms Foundation, to open a dialogue between the Town of Pound Ridge and the Foundation to address our concerns, I did not find Grace Church to be exactly brimming with Christian charity.”

Sent a copy of the letter (embedded below as a PDF) and asked for a response, Prince through a spokesperson said: “Grace Farms Foundation will address concerns and questions at the October Planning & Zoning hearing.”

That’s when the commission is expected to discuss publicly a widely anticipated application from Grace Farms to amend its permit.