Affordable Housing Committee

Affordable Housing Committee Elects Officers, Hears from Town Officials at First Meeting

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A newly appointed committee charged with identifying properties in New Canaan where affordable housing units could be built, among other responsibilities, on Monday voted to elect a seasoned and widely respected municipal volunteer as its chair. At its first meeting, members of the Affordable Housing Committee voted 9-0 to elect former Planning & Zoning Commission chair John Goodwin to lead the group. 

In nominating him, Committee member Krista Neilson said that Goodwin’s time on P&Z “gives him a lot of insight into the work that we’re going to be doing here.”

“He sat in on approving Canaan Parish and Millport, I’m sure he probably dodged some 8-30g applications that didn’t come to us,” Neilson said during the meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. She continued: “So he’s seen the whole gamut, at least, of how it comes to the town. And also, I think he has great experience being the chair of the Planning & Zoning Commission, which—those of you who haven’t had the pleasure of attending our meetings, can be quite long, quite contentious. I feel if you can chair that, you can chair most anything.

Government

New Canaan Family Tradition Continues with Appointment of Katie (Franco) O’Neill to Parking Commission 

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A family tradition in New Canaan is set to continue with the appointment last week of a local woman to the Parking Commission. The Board of Selectmen voted 3-0 at its Feb. 5 meeting to appoint Katie O’Neill, née Franco, to the volunteer body. O’Neill’s father had served on the Parking Commission and her brother, Rick, served for decades prior to stepping down in 2020. 

Selectman Steve Karl said, “On Katie, I feel a full circle because my career in service started with her older brother, Rick, on the Parking Commission.”

“I served with Rick on the Parking Commission for years before going onto the [Town] Council,” he continued at the meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. “And Katie’s a Franco, so she’s lived here her whole life and has intimate knowledge of parking and the way everything works in town.

Board of Selectmen

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

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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.

Amy Murphy Carroll

FY25 Budget: Carlson Flags Town Stipends for Nonprofits

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The town should allow grant-making agencies that raise private dollars to fund nonprofit organizations that serve residents, rather than putting that cost on local taxpayers, New Canaan’s highest elected official said last week. Other Fairfield County towns do not make the smaller grants that New Canaan has given to agencies such as the Child Guidance Center and, more recently, Family Centers, according to First Selectman Dionna Carlson. New Canaan needs to “look at where are we getting our bang for buck as a municipality, and what are we using that we need to fund,” Carlson said during a Jan. 23 Board of Selectmen meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. 

Though the community decided to enter into a partnership with the New Canaan Community Foundation and Silver Hill Hospital to fund the successful Urgent Assessment Program, “I’m not quite sure what we are doing with all of these small donations to these other agencies,” she added. “My only argument is that if it truly is a really beneficial nonprofit that many people value, they will write checks for it,” Carlson said.

Amy Murphy Carroll

Town To Issue RFP for Legal Services

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New Canaan’s highest elected official said Wednesday that the town will issue a request for proposals for legal services. First Selectman Dionna Carlson said that she hopes the firm that long has handled the town’s legal services, Westport-based Berchem Moses PC, will respond to the RFP. “It’s more of a philosophy that we’ve had them for two cycles of first selectmen, and it’s just good practice to go out” to bid, Carlson said during a special meeting of the Board of Selectmen, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. The town has not issued an RFP for legal services since 2012—a block of time that encompasses the entire three-term tenure of the immediate former first selectman, Kevin Moynihan, a retired lawyer who routinely exceeded the legal budget. For example, in fiscal year 2021, the town spent $404,788.01 in legal fees to Berchem Moses against a budget of $300,000.