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‘Responsive in Words But Not in Action’: Neighbors, Officials Eye Long-Neglected Richmond Hill Road Properties
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Town officials say they’ve fielded multiple complaints of blight on two conspicuous, adjacent Richmond Hill Road properties marked by peeling and dilapidated structures, unkempt yards, garbage and general disarray. Owned by New Canaan resident Sam Zendehrouh, the eyesores include a neglected 1820-built home and freestanding garage at 39 Richmond Hill Road and vacant, overgrown lot at 45 Richmond Hill Road where a house that had been constructed the same year came down in 2011. Neighbors in letters to New Canaan Town Building Official Brian Platz have said the remaining house has a hole in its clearly deteriorating roof and that after rainstorms, Zendehrouh himself has been seen dumping buckets of water out of the structure and siphoning rainwater out of the second floor. Asked about the situation, Platz said that the owner “has not been very responsive.”
“He has been responsive in words but not in action,” Platz said. “This is not fair to any of the residents of New Canaan, but especially to the immediate neighbors who have had to live next to that for many years.