The Norwalk developer proposing to raze part of the Roger Sherman Inn and create eight single-family homes on the 1.8-acre lot is seeking three major changes to the New Canaan Zoning Regulations in order to make the project possible.
Rendering of a future Roger Sherman Inn site.
Spelled out by Westport-based Landtech, an engineering firm, as part of the Glazer Group’s overall application, the proposed text changes all center around the idea that the new development would bring the inn’s Oenoke Ridge Road parcel into more conformity with the regulations.
Rendering of a future Roger Sherman Inn site.
Specifically, the applicant seeks three new allowances, all by special permit:
- First, to add to a list of structures allowed by special permit (see page 45 here)—a list that currently includes things like elderly housing, congregate housing, B&Bs, group homes and religious institutions—the following: “Pre-existing non-conforming uses—where a pre-existing non-conforming commercial use is located within a residential zone a residential use may be permitted by special permit when the proposed use is residential and as a result o the residential use it reduces the non-conformity. The newly created residential use shall not exceed a density of six dwelling unit per 1 acre of land either attached or detached”;
- Second, to add to a list of uses that qualify for exceptions to building coverage, by special permit (see page 69 here)—a list that now includes municipal and governmental facilities as well as hospitals in the two-acre zone and some recreational clubs—the following: “a proposed residential use that will reduce non-conformity from its current/existing use”;
- And third, to add to the ways that the Planning & Zoning Commission may allow an increase via special permit to maximum density—that is, lots per acre of buildable land—the following method: “determining that the proposed increase in maximum density will reduce the pre-existing non-conforming use.”
P&Z is expected to take up the application for the first time at its next regular meeting, at 7 p.m. on Oct. 25.
Planning & Zoning should say NO. This proposed development demonstrates again that developers have no respect for P&Z rules. When developers ask P&Z to jump, P&Z says how high? On the other hand, when New Canaan residents ask for a waiver, P&Z says no. How long can the town allow this double standard to exist?
What Zoning changes if any were made at the Maples next door? Was that site made “more conforming” from a less conforming lot? Is the intent to make the Roger Sherman site “more conforming” to be similar to a newly minted Maples that may have recently been made “more conforming”? If this happens it will be awfully tantalizing to make portions of the Presbyterian Church and the Nature Center “more conforming” as well.