News

New Construction Planned for Parish Lane, Parade Hill Road

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The century-old ranch at 119 Parade Hill Road has been razed and the town has issued a permit to build a new home with more than five times the living space of the old. The original single-story, 1914 home included just one bedroom and bathroom in 625 square feet of living space (all in one room) among about 1,450 total gross square feet. The new home will include 3,428 square feet, with four bedrooms, three baths, one half-bath, a 2-car attached garage and 14-by-18-foot open patio, according to a building permit. The .17-acre property and original house was purchased seven years ago for $460,000, tax records show. Both the demolition and building permits were issued May 29.

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Demo, New Condos Planned for Hoyt Street and East Avenue

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One month after the property sold for $630,000, an application has come into the town to create two 2,900-square-foot condos at East Avenue and Hoyt Streets. The noticeably deteriorating 1926 structure there now includes two homes at 91 and 93 East Ave., with a total of 2,540 square feet, tax records show. The property includes .24 acres. Under a building application filed Tuesday, each new unit would include 2,900 square feet with four full bedrooms, four full baths, two half-baths, family, living and dining rooms, kitchen, garage and allowance for a future elevator. The construction is to be done by Westport-based Celotto Properties Inc. for an estimated $800,000.

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Future of 1735 Ferris Hill Road Home Concerns New Canaan Preservationists

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Local preservationists say they’re concerned for the future of an antique home in New Canaan that changed hands in November. The 1735 home at 8 Ferris Hill Road—or 441 Canoe Hill Road (same parcel)—sits on 2.14 acres that sold six months ago for $1.25 million, tax records show. Town officials say the new owner had pursued a special permit that would’ve allowed him to build a second house on the same property—but that the application since has been withdrawn. “We’re very concerned, we are anxious but we have no solution, because at the moment there are no ordinances to protect the house in this situation,” said Mimi Findlay, founding president of the New Canaan Preservation Alliance, a nonprofit organization. Renderings posted on real estate websites depict what would be a new, 7,700-square foot home on the property—and a note that the 1735 home could be used as a guest or pool house.

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New Construction to Double Size of Ca. 1900 Hoyt Street Home

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The town last week issued a building permit for a 4,000-square-foot house at 48 Hoyt Street, currently the site of a 1900 home less than half that size, tax records show. The .21-acre property was sold April 29 to Peter Grant, for $645,000. Building plans at Planning & Zoning—from Rowayton-based PB Architects—call for another $600,000 in construction (by Darien Construction) to create a 4-bedroom house with three full baths, one half-bath, a partially finished attack and 2-car attached garage. The current two-story home includes three bedrooms and one bath. It isn’t clear from site plans whether or how much of that original home would be preserved.

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11-Room Colonial Planned for Site of Late ‘New Canaan Legend’ Syd Greenberg’s Home

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The single-story, 6-room ranch at 75 Parade Hill Road that was razed last summer—for more than a half-century the home of a New Canaan legend, the late photographer Syd Greenberg—is to be replaced by an 11-room Colonial, according to site plans and a building permit application filed with the town. The new, 4,000-square-foot-plus home will include seven bedrooms and bathrooms, kitchen, family and dining rooms, an office and 2-car attached garage, according to the application, filed in August. The .22-acre lot sits opposite a series of duplexes on Parade Hill Road, a street whose residents recently petitioned the town to request traffic-calming measures (it’s a popular commercial vehicle cut-through between Routes 124 and 123). Greenberg, a New York City-born, celebrated World War II photographer—a tech sergeant in the 164th Signal Corps deployed in China who also was embedded with the Chinese National Army—passed in January 2012 at age 92. For decades he had served as the affable if unofficial photo-archivist for New Canaan, a longtime Justice of the Peace for whom the town gathered at a memorial service in the spring following his passing.