‘It Looks Like It Could Be a Dumpster’: Planning Officials Object to Pine Street Restaurant’s Outdoor Seating ‘Bunker’

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The Planning & Zoning Commission is unhappy with the appearance of the outdoor seating enclosure erected at South End Restaurant. Credit: Michael Dinan

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Original, approved outdoor seating area at South End restaurant. Rendering by Lecher Designs of New Canaan

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Original, approved outdoor seating area at South End restaurant. Rendering by Lecher Designs of New Canaan

Calling a Pine Street restaurant’s makeshift outdoor seating area a ‘bunker’ that could be mistaken for a dumpster, planning officials on Tuesday night called for the eatery to build what was approved or forego the seasonal addition altogether.

South End had been approved for an “open, very light and airy” enclosure that extends into would-be parking spaces for temporary outdoor seating, with features that include vertically defined posts, Planning & Zoning Commission member Kent Turner said at the group’s regular monthly meeting.

“As you can see, it was very open,” Turner said of the original and approved plans at the meeting, held in the Sturgess Room at the New Canaan Nature Center.

“The as-built condition looks like a mechanical equipment louver that completely encloses the space. The fact that it is painted white and the original lower portion of the fence or screen is dark gray is very puzzling, and it appears to be an enclosed structure and I just don’t see how this was even close to what was originally proposed, nor should it be allowed, based on our zoning guidelines and what you see throughout New Canaan as far as outdoor seating.”

Chairman John Goodwin said P&Z had extended an invitation to South End to attend the meeting and speak on the matter, though no representatives from the restaurant were in attendance.

Citing emails exchanged between P&Z and South End, Turner noted that part of the enclosure’s purpose is to block out the glare of headlights pulling into the parking lot. Newly appointed P&Z commissioner John Kriz said the planters out front of the enclosure appear to have been placed as protective buffers lest a motor vehicle back into it “which I can understand since it’s a parking lot.”

“But it’s just a go-away message and it’s not at all consistent, and I am always suspicious that you approve X and suddenly Y ends up being built,” Kriz said. “It sits badly with me.”

Goodwin noted that P&Z had made an exception in approving South End for its outdoor seating last summer—a set-up that had included the lower half only of what appeared recently outside the Pine Street restaurant.

While noting that last year’s set-up had been “charming” and “attractive,” several commissioners expressed distaste with the end result this year.

Said P&Z commissioner John Flinn: “It looks like it could be a dumpster. I wouldn’t be surprised if people threw trash in it.”

Turner called it “a fortress” and Kriz described it as “a bunker.”

Kriz said the enclosure presents a “stay-away” message.

“It just says, ‘Don’t come near me,’ ” he said.

Kriz added: “This isn’t even like a rim shot. This is chalk and cheese, which decreases my sympathy level more.”

Goodwin asked whether it would make a difference if the upper, white “louver” portion were painted the same color as the restaurant’s exterior, and the commissioners said no.

Town Planner Steve Kleppin asked whether South End should be invited to come in next month and discuss the enclosure, and the commissioners said that no, the restaurant had a chance to address the matter in person at its meeting.