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Owners: Roger Sherman Inn To Close Jan. 2

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The owners of the Roger Sherman Inn said in a social media post Monday that the Oenoke Ridge Road landmark will close Jan. 2. Calling the Roger Sherman a “treasured home away from home for many of our loyal families,” owners Nesreen and Joseph Jaffre in a Facebook post on the inn’s page called for people to patronize the business over the next few weeks. “In appreciation and celebration of the many good times we’ve shared and the warm memories we’ll cherish as time goes by, please join us over the next four weeks as we gather to share stories, laugh together, cry together and say goodbye to the end of an era,” according to a Facebook post. It included a photo of the Jaffres in front of an old-looking car and concluded: “Thanks for the memories, your support and your loyalty.”

News

Letter: Plans for Roger Sherman Inn Represent ‘Creep of Cluster Housing’

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About the proposed plans for the Roger Sherman Inn site: Today, if you’re driving north on Oenoke, passing St. Mark’s, First Presbyterian and the Nature Center, you’d say you were leaving town—that town was behind you. In that sense you’d be thinking of town as the denser, concentrated part of our community where stores, restaurants, businesses and private residences are conveniently clustered close to one another. If you lived even as close as say, the Roger Sherman Inn, Holmewood, Hampton or Gerrish Lanes, you’d say you live close to town, in walking distance to town, but you probably wouldn’t say you live “in town.” Would you agree? If you agree, then please consider the impact of the proposed plan for the site of the Roger Sherman Inn and the new “floating zone” language that P&Z is seriously considering in order to create more density housing and allow a total of seven homes clustered tightly together on this 1.683 acres.

News

Hopeful Developer of Roger Sherman Site Proposes New Zone for Regulations To Make Project Possible

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Seeking to tweak the New Canaan Zoning Regulations in a way that will make his plans possible, the would-be developer of the Roger Sherman Inn on Monday filed a new application that proposes a so-called “overlay district.”

Filed on behalf of Norwalk developer Andrew Glazer and Glazer Group, the proposed district would allow him to convert part of the existing inn into a residence and build another six 2.5-story, 2,600-square-foot units on the 1.8-acre lot at 195 Oenoke Ridge Road. Located in the 1-acre zone with a 96-foot easement that runs east of the parcel, the property could accommodate a single home under the existing regulations. Glazer in an initial application made in September and at a subsequent public hearing last month argued that his plan would bring the property into greater conformity with the regulations because it would be a non-commercial use. Filed by Westport-based engineering firm Landtech—not by an attorney who specializes in land use matters, as typically is done—the proposed ‘Non-Conforming Residential Overlay District’ “would allow existing non-conforming uses to be replaced by a more conforming uses.”

“The proposed amendment is a precursor to our special permit application for the proposed residential development of the Roger Sherman Inn,” Landtech principal Peter Romano said in the Nov. 14 application.

Government

‘Take a Big Step Back’: Neighbors, Residents Voice Opposition to Plans for Roger Sherman Redevelopment

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The proposed redevelopment of the Roger Sherman Inn is too dense for its neighborhood and flies in the face of the documents that govern and guide zoning in New Canaan, an attorney representing opponents of the plan said Tuesday night. Creating seven single-family homes on the 1.8-acre lot at 195 Oenoke Ridge Road where the historic inn and restaurant now stand “really is not in keeping with the properties you see along Oenoke Ridge Road,” according to Amy Zabetakis of Darien-based Rucci Law Group. She represents six neighbors of the inn, on Holmewood and Hampton Lanes. “I think you really need to take a big step back and really make sure that this is something you want to encourage in town,” she told members of the Planning & Zoning Commission during the first public hearing regarding the Roger Sherman Inn proposal, held at Town Hall. “I was hoping to come here today that I would hear something from the applicant about how this plan does conform with the Plan of Conservation and Development, how it does conform with existing New Canaan regulations, because I think that is an essential part of your analysis.

Around Town

Did You Hear … ?

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The Witness Documentary: Official New Trailer
Uploaded by Five More Minutes Productions on 2016-08-31. A haunting documentary about the March 1964 murder in Queens, N.Y. of Kitty Genovese—eldest of five kids in a family that lived in New Canaan at the time—is now available on Netflix. “The Witness” (see trailer above) tracks younger brother Bill’s quest to unearth details surrounding the pre-dawn stabbing murder, which reportedly was witnessed by 38 people and became synonymous with bystander apathy. ***

A motor vehicle struck a utility pole on Weed Street on Monday night. At 9:28 p.m., emergency responders received a notification about the collision in the area of 202 Weed St.