News

Repeated Parking on South Avenue Sidewalk Prompts Installation of New Signs

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Two ‘No Parking On Sidewalk’ signs have appeared on a very short stretch of sidewalk in front of the Mobil station on South Avenue, after a resident alerted town officials to the unusual habit of some motorists who parked on it. The approximately 20-foot long stretch of sidewalk between the gas station’s two entrances for cars from South Avenue is differentiated in its brickwork, but is at grade with the adjacent lot that includes fuel pumps. Members of an administrative team that field traffic requests said at a recent team that they received a formal complaint about the practice of some motorists who park there. “I don’t want to put anything in the pedestrian way,” Department of Public Works Assistant Director Tiger Mann said of the situation at a Feb. 23 meeting of the Traffic Calming Work Group.

Government

Louise’s Lane Man Seeks To Remove Apostrophe-S from Street Name, Sign

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New Canaan traffic officials said Tuesday that they received a request from a Louise’s Lane man to remove the apostrophe-S from the street’s name and sign. The resident also asked whether a more decorative sign than the standard white-lettering-on-green could be installed at the head of the short, dead-end lane that runs south off of upper Oenoke Ridge Road, according to Police Capt. John DiFederico. “He has two requests—one was to change the name to just ‘Louise Lane,’ and the other was to change the street sign itself to make it more decorative and appealing,” DiFederico said at a meeting of the Traffic Calming Work Group, an administrative team of police, public works, emergency management and fire officials that fields such requests. One of the reasons that New Canaan would be careful about pursuing any change to a street name—even one of punctuation—is that the names themselves have been carefully selected (see a full database here of the history of New Canaan street names). In the case of Louise’s Lane, according to a 1960 annual of the New Canaan Historical Society, the street “was laid out in 1950 and named for the late Louise Warren Higley.”

A look through the files at the New Canaan Historical Society shows that Higley was the wife of the ultra-prominent and influential Stuart Higley, of Brotherhood & Higley renown, and was a woman who died at a rather young age after marrying into a New Canaan family when she was 29.

News

Resident Calls for Traffic Calming on Frogtown Near Weed Street

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The owner of three contiguous properties near the eastern end of Frogtown Road is asking town officials to help reduce the speed of motorists at the sharp bend there, down the hill from the intersection at Weed Street. Limited visibility creates a safety hazard at the curve that slopes down from Weed, and additional signage or speed bumps would help, according to a letter filed with the Traffic Calming Work Group by the owner of 96, 112 and 138 Frogtown—parcels that total about six acres on the south side of the road. Yet there are “not a lot more signs that you can put out there” beyond the multiple warning signs and reflecting arrow signs in place, Police Capt. John DiFederico said during the group’s most recent meeting. “We will continue to monitor it, with [officers] enforcing the speed limit,” DiFederico said during the Dec. 15 meeting, held in the Training Room at the New Canaan Police Department.

Government

Town Plans New System of Crosswalks, Push-Button Signs To Help Pedestrians Safely Navigate God’s Acre

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Town officials plan to install two crosswalks and three signs around God’s Acre in order to make the area safer for the scores of pedestrians who travel through it on foot as commuters, residents, church-goers, downtown visitors and others. Motorists who come off of Main Street and zip up by God’s Acre often come suddenly upon pedestrians seeking to cross Park Street at the crest of the hill, where St. John’s Place comes in, officials say. To notify those motorists that someone up ahead is about to cross a planned new crosswalk—one will come directly across Park Street to the southern corner of St. John’s Place, another spanning St.

Government

Question of Funding Lingers as State Sketches Out Safe Pedestrian Crossing of 123 at Locust

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The good news for residents who live near a bustling Route 123 intersection that motorists enter six different ways is that state officials have sketched out a plan—it includes new push-button signals, sidewalks, pedestrian ramps and crosswalks— that would help them get safely across New Norwalk Road. As it is now, that’s an ill-advised, dangerous prospect where Locust Avenue and Summer Street converge at the northwest edge of downtown. The bad news is that the Connecticut Department of Transportation in its proposal has indicated that the state agency would pay for the crosswalk striping only—an approximately $250 piece of a project that municipal officials peg $33,000 to $35,000 all in. New Canaan would need to build some 75 feet of sidewalk with granite curbing, move two walk signals with conduits, re-time them “and do a whole bunch of other stuff” including signage and striping, according to Tiger Mann, deputy director of the New Canaan Department of Public Works. “If the residents want it, they have to now kind of elevate that cause,” Mann said Tuesday during a meeting of an administrative team that fields requests for traffic calming, held in the Training Room of the New Canaan Police Department.