Government

Park Place Homeowners Seek Permission to Relocate Driveway

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The owners of a Park Place home are seeking permission to relocate a driveway from a paved area out front of their house to one side of their property. Creating a driveway along the southern side of 27 Park Place will allow the homeowners “to restore the mostly paved front yard into a tasteful lawn and landscaped area,” according to an application filed on their behalf by attorney Jacqueline Kaufman of Stamford-based Carmody, Torrance, Sandak and Hennessey LLP. “The requested relief will allow for the continued use of the Property for residential purposes consistent with those around it,” Kaufman said in a narrative that accompanies an application for two variances. “The location for the driveway has been sensitively selected to be compatible with layout on surrounding properties. We further believe it presents an improvement to the quality of life on the street by restoring the mostly paved front yard with lawn and landscaping and relocating family vehicles to the rear yard which is buffered from  neighbors views with landscaping and fencing (and a future garage structure).

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Covered Porch Applicant: ‘Trend Toward Bigger Houses Has Eliminated Our Outdoor Privacy’

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Saying their privacy has eroded as larger, taller homes have gone up around them, the owners of a 1.5-story Cape on South Avenue are seeking permission from a municipal body to create an approximately 12-by-22-square-foot covered patio at the back of their house. The owners of 411 South Ave. in a letter to the Zoning Board of Appeals said their hardship is that “the inexorable trend toward bigger (surrounding) houses has eliminated our outdoor privacy.”

John and Hutton Cole, owners for 30 years of the 3,315-square-foot brick house at the corner of Crystal Street said they “wish to partially reclaim” that privacy with the porch. “When we bought our house in 1991 the prevalent architectural style of the neighborhood was either single story ‘ranch’ or 1.5-story Cape and the code would have allowed the coverage we now seek,” the Coles said in their April 7 letter. “Today, our abutting neighbors as well as most of the homes in the area have converted to 3 stories and the increased verticality and bulk has reduced the privacy of our yard.

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Owner of Property Straddling New Canaan-Stamford Line Seeks Permission To Build New Home

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The owners of a 1.3-acre property that straddles the New Canaan-Stamford border are requesting permission to build a single-family house that exceeds what normally would be allowed under local zoning regulations. If the property at 96 West Cross Road all were all located in New Canaan, the allowable building coverage would be about 4,000 square feet, according to part of the application for a variance, filed by New York City- based Ryan Salvatore Design. 

The property’s owners, Sharon and John Feighery, are seeking to a variance from the New Canaan Zoning Regulations order to build a home using 4,830 square feet of coverage, the application said. Currently, the property includes 1,718-square-foot Cape, according to tax records. They’d purchased it in December for $628,500 “with the intent to relocate from Stamford to Town given that several of their children live in New Canaan,” the application said. “They desire to construct a new single-family house organized entirely on one-level so that they can age at this location,” it said.

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‘It’s Been There For a Year’: White Van Full of Junk Sits in Locust Avenue Lot [UPDATE]

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Update

Police say the white van that officials described earlier in the week as “abandoned” for about one year in the Locust Avenue municipal parking lot is legally registered and allowed to park there overnight. Original Article

Town officials on Monday night discussed a van that appears to have been abandoned about one year ago in a municipal parking lot downtown. The white van parked near the northeastern corner of the Locust Avenue Lot “has been there since before COVID-19 started,” according to Zoning Board of Appeals member Luke Tashjian. “I go there every Friday with my son, to see the fire ladder truck they test out,” he said Monday night. “This van is full of junk.

Ben Bilus

ZBA To Homeowners: We’d Deny Your Application for an Outdoor Patio

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Saying there’s no evidence of a hardship that would warrant a one-off exception from the New Canaan Zoning Regulations, town officials on Monday night told the owners of a Welles Lane home that they would deny an application for a variance to create a covered patio. Though the Zoning Board of Appeals did not formally vote down the application for 54 Welles Lane, the appointed body’s members told homeowners Altin Tirana and Jorida Banda that they should figure out another way to get a covered 530-square-foot patio on the 2.15-acre property. “Unfortunately, our hands tied because these are town ordinances,” Chair Laura Edmonds said during the meeting, held via videoconference. She referred to what’s required for a variance as well as what counts toward building coverage, under the Zoning Regulations. 

The homeowners’ plan for a covered patio—with an outdoor cooking and seating area—would put their home, already over coverage by nearly 500 square feet, about 1,000 square feet over what’s allowed, according to the town planner. Though an uncovered pergola in that spot would require no approval, a roofed structure such as the one the applicants proposed likely would require the homeowners to “subtract enough coverage” from the property first, Board Secretary John Mahoney said.