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Letter: Puzzling Over Senior Housing in New Canaan

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Given the controversy over Waveny LifeCare’s proposal to build a continuing care retirement community or “CCRC” on Oenoke Ridge, a number of people have said that New Canaan’s seniors currently have no place to go when they no longer want to deal with a house. They end up moving to a CCRC in Wilton, Darien, or another nearby town. Thinking about this (being analytical), if a person has their heart set on moving to a CCRC, that’s certainly true. New Canaan doesn’t have a CCRC yet, so, yes, they would need to move to one of our neighboring sister towns. I’ve lived in Oenoke Condominium since 1969 when my family moved here (it was Oenoke Apartments then; it converted to condominiums a few years later).

Government

Neighbors, Attorneys Criticize Waveny’s Proposed Senior Housing Complex at P&Z Hearing [CORRECTION]

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[Editor’s Note: This article has been corrected to show that the site in question is in the half-acre zone, not the two-acre zone as originally reported. The date of the P&Z hearing also has been corrected to Nov. 19, not Nov. 20.]

The proposed senior housing complex on Oenoke Ridge is inconsistent with New Canaan’s regulations and violates some precepts of the town’s guiding document with respect to planning, according to representatives of one neighboring organization. Waveny LifeCare Network’s application for a 70-unit residential retirement building also requires approval of changes to the New Canaan Zoning Regulation that amount to “spot zoning,” attorney Steve Finn, representing St.

News

Op-Ed: The Character of New Canaan

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At a standing-room only Planning & Zoning Commission hearing on October 29th, Waveny Life Care Network proposed building an independent living residence that would complete its plan to provide a continuing care retirement community (“CCRC”) in New Canaan. Almost everyone agrees with the concept, but over 1,000 residents have signed a petition opposing the proposed site on Oenoke Ridge. 

Opponents apparently assume that if they block the Oenoke Ridge site, the facility could simply be built somewhere else. For 30 years, Town leaders and developers have floated New Canaan locations for senior housing and each time have been told to “build somewhere else.” Each time, “somewhere else” has turned out to mean nowhere at all. 

If the Oenoke Ridge location is rejected, the message to developers will be that New Canaanites don’t want a CCRC in our Town. The opposition’s campaign tactics will become a template that other residents will use to resist proposals in other locations.

Government

Preservation Group: Proposed Residential Retirement Complex Would ‘Loom Over the Historic District’

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Saying a proposed residential retirement complex would loom over New Canaan’s Historic District, members of a local nonprofit organization dedicated to preservation said this week that they’re opposed to it. The three-story complex planned for 65 Oenoke Ridge “will dominate the view looking north from God’s Acre, and simply overpower the Historical Society campus and St. Michael’s Church,” according to a Sept. 30 letter to the Planning & Zoning Commission from Neele-Banks Stichnoth, president of the New Canaan Preservation Alliance Board of Trustees. “The view looking south from St.

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St. Mark’s Votes Not To Support ‘The Oenoke’ Senior Housing Complex

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Members of the St. Mark’s Episcopal Church vestry are not supportive of a widely discussed housing complex planned for a neighboring parcel on Oenoke Ridge, officials say. The vestry voted not to support Waveny LifeCare Network’s proposal for “The Oenoke” during a Sept. 22 meeting, according to an email sent to members Tuesday and obtained by NewCanaanite.com. Its decision “was not reached lightly,” said the email, signed by the Rev. Peter Walsh, rector, Senior Warden Stan Twardy and Junior Warden Mark Thorsheim.