Around Town

Did You Hear … ?

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We heard that a New Canaan woman who learned last Monday (the eve of Election Day) that she needed to have open-heart surgery felt her vote was important enough that she arranged to cast an emergency absentee ballot. ***

Though about a dozen New Canaan constituents entered “write-in” candidates on their ballots, just one of the names put down on Election Day counted (write-in candidates must register ahead of time with the Secretary of the State). Apparently, two or three New Canaanites put down “None of the Above” in the governor’s category. ***

Word is that the owner of the Great Dane who on the morning of Sept. 17 broke free from its leash and attacked a far smaller dog (Cocker mix) on Elm Street is refusing to pay for the Cocker’s vet bill.

News

Owners of Antique Home in Northern New Canaan Seek to Build Standalone Barn as Garage

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The owners of an antique home on 5.88 acres up near the Pound Ridge line are seeking to build a standalone barn on their property that will double as a garage. The stately, 3,000-square-foot home at 70 Barnegat Road was built in 1800, according to the property’s assessor’s card. It sold for $1,560,000 in June. At its meeting Monday, the New Canaan Zoning Board of Appeals will hear the owners’ request for a variance to build a two-bay barn (there is no garage now on the property) on a sloping area north of the antique home. A variance is needed because the barn would be 22.7 feet tall, exceeding the 20 feet allowed, according to documents filed by the owners and on file at Planning and Zoning—though the total building height conforms.

According to a letter submitted to P&Z by the owners, the proposed construction will create a “bank barn” style structure.

Government

Proposed Backyard Shed Shifts 25 Feet after Neighbor Voices Concerns

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A Weed Street family is adjusting its plan for a backyard shed after next-door neighbors raised concerns about the structure’s visibility from their own property. The lot at 51 Weed St. owned by Maria Fernandez Rebosio and Francis Power is long and narrow, with most of the .27-acre property extending behind the family’s two-story Colonial. The Ruoffs’ .89-acre lot next door runs along the northern edge of the Rebosio-Powers’ property line and includes some land behind it, running up to the Metro-North Railroad tracks. The Ruoff house itself sits further back along the property line—meaning that from their family room, master bedroom, breakfast area and patio, the Ruoffs can turn and look out across the Rebosio-Powers’ back yard.

News

Country Club Road Homeowners Seek to Preserve Ca. 1835 Barn as Guesthouse

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The owners of a Country Club Road home on Monday night took an important first step toward winning town approval for an effort to re-designate as a guesthouse a barn on their 3.8-acre property that dates to the early 19th Century. David and Shelley Simone at number 340—the first driveway on the right as you come off of Oenoke Ridge—are planning to put their home on the market, New Canaan-based attorney David Rucci, representing the couple, said during a public hearing before the Zoning Board of Appeals. Most of those who have seen the property—it includes a 7,000-square-foot home built in 2003, as well as a pool and spa—have asked whether the ca. 1835 two-story barn that sits right on the road is a guesthouse, Rucci said. “It’s basically being used as a guesthouse, but it’s not legally a guesthouse—and that’s OK, because right now it doesn’t have a kitchen, and that’s the barometer for determining whether it’s a guesthouse or not—so right now they don’t have it legally, but they want a legal residence,” Rucci said during the hearing, held in the Douglas Room at Lapham Community Center.