Business

Town Officials Flag Size, Style of Antiques Store’s ‘Going Out of Business’ Sale Signs

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Town officials say the long-established antiques store at the corner of South Avenue and Elm Street that is going out of business has gone through two iterations of signage announcing its closing sale after early versions caused consternation for some. Sallea Antiques, whose owner is retiring, had “basically papered its windows” with hot pink and neon green signs initially, according to Planning & Zoning Commission Chairman John Goodwin. “And the pushback to that is, if I’m a merchant and somebody is across the street from me or next door to me, and [the signs] look like it’s a name-your-discount Dollar General ‘going out of business’ type thing, and a lot of people just think it doesn’t look very good,” Goodwin said Tuesday at a regular P&Z meeting, held in the Sturgess Room at the New Canaan Nature Center. Town Planner Steve Kleppin, who doubles as the department’s zoning enforcement officer, said he would be willing to take yet another look at the shop’s signage, through “to be quite honest, I have zero enforcement power,” he said. “Because they’re going out of business,” he said.

Business

‘It Looks Like It Could Be a Dumpster’: Planning Officials Object to Pine Street Restaurant’s Outdoor Seating ‘Bunker’

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Calling a Pine Street restaurant’s makeshift outdoor seating area a ‘bunker’ that could be mistaken for a dumpster, planning officials on Tuesday night called for the eatery to build what was approved or forego the seasonal addition altogether. South End had been approved for an “open, very light and airy” enclosure that extends into would-be parking spaces for temporary outdoor seating, with features that include vertically defined posts, Planning & Zoning Commission member Kent Turner said at the group’s regular monthly meeting. “As you can see, it was very open,” Turner said of the original and approved plans at the meeting, held in the Sturgess Room at the New Canaan Nature Center. “The as-built condition looks like a mechanical equipment louver that completely encloses the space. The fact that it is painted white and the original lower portion of the fence or screen is dark gray is very puzzling, and it appears to be an enclosed structure and I just don’t see how this was even close to what was originally proposed, nor should it be allowed, based on our zoning guidelines and what you see throughout New Canaan as far as outdoor seating.”

Chairman John Goodwin said P&Z had extended an invitation to South End to attend the meeting and speak on the matter, though no representatives from the restaurant were in attendance.

Government

Planning Officials Flag Safety Concern in Traffic Circulation at Proposed Post Office

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Planning officials said Monday night that they’re concerned that a plan to allow one-way entrance circulation on the east side of a proposed new Post Office on Locust Avenue with two-way traffic on the west side—as opposed to, say, a single entrance on one side of the building and exit on the other—will create safety hazards that could create liability problems for the town. Specifically, Town Planner Steve Kleppin and members of the Planning & Zoning Commission say, two-way circulation could confuse drivers and lead to motorists traveling in opposite directions suddenly and unexpectedly looking each other somewhere on the property at 18-26 Locust Ave., not to mention motor vehicle backup, since there’s no turnaround space, and cars backing up into pedestrians’ paths. Designating spaces directly behind the proposed building for Post Office workers and those expected to work in second-floor office space “would leave spaces on the west side of the building for patrons of the Post Office,” Kleppin said at a special meeting of the commission, held in the Douglass Room at Lapham Community Center. “And if that was the case, then they [Post Office officials] wouldn’t need two-way on the west side, because those spaces north and south abutting the building would be occupied by stationary employees, as opposed to others coming in and out,” Kleppin said. The owner of 18 Locust Ave.

Government

Coming Saturday, April 25: Community Meeting on Future of Cross and Vitti Streets

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Planning officials are seeking public input on the potential development of the Cross and Vitti Streets area—a section of town that’s been called “ripe for change.”

Led by consultants including Peter Flinker of Ashfield, Mass.-based Dodson & Flinker, the open community meeting—or “public design charette,” as it’s being called—will welcome participants between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. Saturday, April 25, in the lower level of New Canaan Library. Residents, business owners and other New Canaanites are invited to attend. “The idea is to really guide the long-term outlook for that area,” said Town Planner Steve Kleppin, who will join the consultants and members of the Plan of Conservation and Development Implememtation Committee at the meeting. “If change happens—and in my opinion it will, we’ve already started to see it—how will it develop in the future? The Planning & Zoning Commission last fall approved one new mixed-use building that’s expected to anchor a streetscape that could see more retail-and-residential structures worked into the Cross-Vitti band, historically home to New Canaan’s “service core,” Kleppin said.

News

St. Luke’s Plans New Turf Field for Baseball, Soccer

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St Luke’s School is seeking to install a synthetic turf field for baseball and soccer where a grass playing field now lays, according to an application that’s scheduled to come before the Planning & Zoning Commission Thursday. The turf field is not designed to expand athletic programs, will include no lighting or loudspeakers and “will not result in any significant increase in surface runoff from the site,” the school said. “The inclusion of a large, porous stone reservoir beneath the field will effectively capture and detain rainfall entering the turf field, promoting groundwater recharge and attenuating peak discharge to the piped system from this area,” according a report from Andover, Mass.-based SMRT. “The runoff and routing calculations demonstrate that the development will not result in any significant increase in the peak runoff from the site during design storm events of 2-year, 10-year, 25-year and 100-year return periods; therefore the project will have no significant impacts to downstream resources or receiving waters.”

St. Luke’s is seeking a Special Permit, as required under section 6.4.G of the New Canaan Zoning Regulations (page 115 here), to excavate more than 1,000 cubic yards of cubic earth and disturb more than 10,000 square feet of soil. In addition to the field, plans call for a new fenced backstop, first-base dugout, expanded concrete area for portable bleachers and relocation of the existing scoreboard to the would-be centerfield.