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Letter: Preserve Original Library Building and Donor-Supported ‘Salant Room’

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Editor, New Canaanite

The modernist design for the new library is impressive, but can we not save the core of the original 1913 library in the interest of preserving one of New Canaan’s iconic historic buildings?  New Canaan Library Executive Director Lisa Oldham has stated that it is simply too expensive to restore the 1913 building, and that the library has no use for it. Honestly, 1913 is really not that old. Most of the buildings on Main Street pre-date 1900. Waveny Mansion was built in 1912. Bringing old buildings up to code and into the “modern age” is done every day across America to preserve community character. Demolition of the 1913 library will destroy the Richard Salant Reading Room.

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Letter: Alternative Sites to Oenoke Ridge for Waveny’s Proposed Independent Senior Residence

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Editor NewCanaanite,

At the November 19th Planning & Zoning Commission hearing, one of the opponents to the proposed Waveny CCRC said that the mammoth, 550-foot-long, four-story-high building would dominate the crest of Oenoke Ridge at night like a giant lit-up cruise ship. Although a couple dozen people have written letters and testified before the P&Z in support of the senior facility, the opposition of the 164 residents of the Heritage Hill Condominiums, the 500 families of St. Mark’s Church, the neighbors on Oenoke Lane, and the more than 1,400 people who have signed a petition in opposition to the Waveny CCRC at 65 Oenoke, cannot be ignored. 

Hopefully the very sound legal arguments against permitting the CCRC as presented by counsel for St. Mark’s, the Oenoke Association, and the neighbors on Oenoke, together with the significant citizen opposition, will result in this unwelcome ship being sunk by the P&Z Commission. Nobody is against the construction of a senior residence in New Canaan, the problem is where.  

The Waveny Board claims they have looked at all alternative possible sites and have ruled them out as not suitable or too expensive.

News

Letter: Proposed Retirement Complex on Oenoke Ridge a Threat to ‘Small-Town Rural Feeling’

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New Canaan needs more housing for senior citizens who wish to “downsize” and remain in New Canaan. However, the question is where should it be permitted and built such that it is affordable and does not detract from New Canaan’s small-town charm? The 70-unit retirement complex which Waveny LifeCare Network proposes to build at 65 Oenoke Ridge is simply too large for the site, and will destroy the small-town rural feeling that the present zoning and Historic District designation has created as one drives into New Canaan from the north. As a member of the New Canaan Historic Society, I object strongly to the visual impact the proposed center will have on the campus of the Historical Society. As a member of St.

News

Letter: Selling Town-Owned Land at Lapham and Talmadge Hill Roads a ‘Bad and Short-Sighted’ Idea

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The proposal to sell the 6.2 acre undeveloped parcel of Waveny Park land on the south side of the Merritt Parkway adjacent to the Talmadge Hill Station is a very bad and short-sighted solution to the town’s fiscal condition. The recommendation should go no further than the Conservation Commission and the Parks & Recreation Commission, and they most assuredly will vote “no.”

This “unused” property is wooded open space that provides wildlife habit; serves as a sink for carbon dioxide and other exhaust pollutants from the Merritt Parkway; is a groundwater recharge area; and helps provide the green buffer that makes Waveny Park feel so rural. New Canaan has less than the state recommended area preserved as public open space. Selling six acres for development is simply not justified from an environmental standpoint. If the parcel is legally part of Waveny Park, then under state law, a like kind amount of land must be purchased to compensate for the taking of park land.

News

Letter: Preserve the Historic ‘Brick Barn’ in Mead Park

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As the Town Council ponders the future of the historic buildings owned by the Town, the undersigned is writing on behalf of the New Canaan Preservation Alliance (NCPA) about the Brick Barn in Mead Park. Built in 1901 by the Standard Oil Company (now ExxonMobil) as a stable for horses to pull tank wagons of kerosene to customers in New Canaan, the historic building has a long history of use by New Canaan organizations, and is listed on the Connecticut Register of Historic Places. It was one of the first fuel “service stations”, and is one of the last remaining of its genre. The various civic groups that used the building over the past 117 years include a WWII sewing group for the troops; several veterans groups; the Town Band; as a changing room for school football teams; and most recently as the Town wood working shop and storage for Parks & Recreation. Over the past 20 years, the building has been unoccupied and has fallen in disrepair, as the Town ceased maintaining the building.