Footer Featured Widget

Outdoor Dining: No Expansions into the Street This Year

By |

Town officials say that restaurants taking advantage of outdoor dining this year will not be able to expand into on-street parking spaces. Launched amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the outdoor dining season has seen restaurants not only set up additional tables on the sidewalks out front but also—where the sidewalks haven’t already been widened as part of the town’s “bumpout” initiative—take over entire parking spaces in Elm Street, cordoning off the additional tables and chairs with large, heavy barriers to protect diners from motor vehicle traffic. For the outdoor dining season that begins May 1 this year, “[a]ll outdoor seating must stay on public sidewalks,” according to a letter that Town Planner Sarah Carey sent Tuesday to local businesses. “I understand at first glance this may feel like a significant operational change,” the letter said. “However, please note that restaurants are permitted to have seating in front of a directly adjacent storefront, if written permission is submitted by the property owner, which can supplement some of the lost street seating.”

It continues: “Additionally, please be aware that no barriers are provided by the Town to mark the edge of the curb.

Footer Featured Widget

The Playhouse: P&Z Issues Favorable Report for New Lease/Operator

By |

The Planning & Zoning Commission this week voted unanimously to make a favorable referral for the town to enter into a new lease for The Playhouse—a key step ahead of the Feb. 9 public hearing where details about the prospective new operator are expected to come out. Under state law, the local P&Z is required to weigh in when there’s a proposed new lease of a public building before the town’s legislative body votes on the lease itself. Following a discussion where P&Z received very limited information about the lease itself—the Commission’s role is to decide whether leasing the building to a new operator is in line with the town’s long-term planning—members voted 9-0 in favor during their regular meeting Tuesday night. Prior to the vote, some commissioners voiced concern that they had no details about the draft lease’s contents. 

“The challenge is we don’t know the particulars of the lease, nor the term,” Commissioner John Engel said.

Around Town

Here’s What’s Coming at Burtis and Cherry

By |

Construction is underway at the corner of Burtis Avenue and Cherry Street, with completion for the new housing project targeted for early 2027. The mixed-use development will include 25 residential units and 400 square feet of commercial space, spread across two multi-family buildings and four townhouses. The plan was approved the following November 2022, following development by the Planning & Zoning Commission of new “inclusionary zoning” regulations. “In 2021, the commission adopted inclusionary zoning regulations for our downtown commercial zones to try and incentivize builders to build multi-family affordable housing,” Town Planner Sarah Carey told NewCanaanite.com during an interview Tuesday at Town Hall. “The application for the project on Burtis and Cherry was the first to use the regulation.

Business

‘Core Burn Pilates’ Plans to Open on Elm Street

By |

[The NewCanaanite.com Summer Internship Program is sponsored by Karp Associates.]

Core Burn Pilates, a boutique studio, is planning to open a location in New Canaan this summer. The new Core Burn Pilates studio will be located on 142 Elm St., currently a vacant space. The previous occupant was a retail store, Lilly Pulitzer (now at 78 Elm). Founded in 2010 by Tamara Slupchynskyj—a co-owner of the New Canaan location—Core Burn Pilates has 12 studios across Connecticut including Greenwich, north Greenwich, Rowayton and Westport, according to the business’s website. The company also has studios in New York and North Carolina.

Board of Selectmen

Town Approves New Fees for Restaurants Offering Outdoor Seating on Public Property

By |

Saying it’s a more sensible system, town officials on Tuesday approved new fees for restaurants offering outdoor dining in downtown New Canaan. The Board of Selectmen also voted in favor of edits to the town’s “Sidewalk Café Guidelines” (see the meeting’s public packet here) by getting rid of a section that says businesses can’t encroach more than seven feet onto the sidewalk—a rule that restaurants with newly wider sidewalks are violating—as well as noting that a four-foot-wide pedestrian pathway must be maintained on the sidewalk as per ADA. Town Planner Sara Carey, who proposed the changes to the selectmen, noted that currently the town charges a “$300 flat fee regardless of how many seats you had” for outdoor dining. “I don’t think that’s necessarily how we should operate anymore if we are allowing people to bump out more than seven feet under the sidewalk, so I’ve proposed a sliding scale,” Carey told the selectmen at their regular meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. Under the new system, those with up to 15 seats will pay $400 per season (April through October), those with 16 to 30 seats $800 and those with 31-plus seats $1,600.