Officials say they received a strong response to the open town planner job in New Canaan, and will commence interviews with six final candidates on Thursday and Friday this week.
Active town planners in nearby communities are among those conducting the first-round interviews, according to Cheryl Pickering-Jones, director of human resources for the town of New Canaan.
“We are trying to move quickly,” Pickering-Jones told NewCanaanite.com.
New Canaan’s town planner for 11 years, Steve Kleppin, is leaving this week to take the Norwalk job. Credit: Michael Dinan
Town Planner Steve Kleppin, whose last day is Thursday as he takes the same job in neighboring Norwalk, will continue to advise New Canaan in a consulting position, she said.
Given that New Canaan has received major applications in recent weeks and months—for example, the Merritt Village proposal, (recently modified) Roger Sherman Inn redevelopment plans and effort from Grace Farms to amend its operating permit—Kleppin’s institutional and historical knowledge, and ready familiarity with New Canaan Zoning Regulations, are important assets, officials say.
“It’s critical for an effective transition” that Kleppin stay on in an advisor capacity, Planning & Zoning Commission Chairman John Goodwin said.
Chief Building Official Brian Platz, who supervises the town planner position, said Kleppin also will be retained to review “any of the more complicated applications we get for single-family dwellings.”
Kleppin has worked as New Canaan’s town planner for more than 11 years.
One prominent local builder indicated during a public meeting last month said that New Canaan’s Land Use Department faces the prospect of additional, and perhaps unwelcome, changes.
Scott Hobbs of Hobbs Inc. during remarks to the Town Council following a matter involving the Housing Authority, which he chairs, said: “As we may be headed for some turmoil inside our Land Use Department, I would love to throw in a plug that whatever we can possibly do to help to keep the key members happy and there and if we go through a sad disruption that it stops at the current sad disruption and does not go any further. When it comes to the actual accumulated knowledge of all of the professionals down there, it is big. And when the next developments come up, the next issues, having that history is really big. So I’d like to put in a plug for them. Having worked with all of Fairfield and Westchester County, we have a really good Land Use Department.”