Government

Town Urges State Officials To See That Aquarion Land Is Preserved, Not Developed; Public Hearing Scheduled for June 1

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Town officials and open space advocates are urging a state agency that oversees utilities in Connecticut to see that the water company doesn’t sell off pieces of a large parcel of untouched land in southwestern New Canaan to developers, but rather ensures its preservation, as-is. Calling Aquarion’s 18.9-acre property an “oasis” of “woods, stream and wetlands” and a wildlife corridor set amid developed 2-acre properties, the chairman of the New Canaan Conservation Commission in a letter this month told the Public Utility Regulatory Authority that his group is “concerned that while Aquarion has worked in recent years to get this parcel designated as ‘forest land,’ allowing it to lower the total appraised value to $239,600, the company now seeks to reverse all of that effort and sell the property off to developers at top rate.”

“Since the Town has always been agreeable to the lower ‘forest land’ tax valuation, we see no reason that this valuation should now change when discussing the parcel’s proposed sale to those who would continue to preserve, not develop, it,” Conservation Commission Chairman Cam Hutchins said in his May 4 letter. “We are dismayed not just at the sudden, fast track turnaround in Aquarion’s stewardship of this oasis, but, if allowed, we are concerned about the message this reversal would convey about the 600 or so acres of other water company land in our town, and even more across the state. Please consider our point of view, which may differ from that being packaged and presented to you by Aquarion.”

Aquarion is proposing the subdivision and sale of a wooded parcel that straddles the Noroton River and is bordered by the points of three dead-ending roads—Indian Waters Drive, Welles Lane and Thurton Drive. After the water company made its intentions public in March, neighbors on Indian Waters rapidly united to voice support for the property’s conservation, and have filed a formal motion to intervene in Aquarion’s application, citing the utility’s intention to use their private road for access to the would-be subdivided lots (more on that below).

Government

Town Council Approves 2 Percent Increase To Budget for Fiscal Year 2017

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Praising the diligence of municipal workers and volunteers, as well as district officials for the granular level of detail made available in their own spending plan, the Town Council on Wednesday unanimously approved a total budget for next fiscal year of $141,121,088. The first budget passed since the widely discussed Audit Committee was put in place, it marks a 2.09 percent year-over-year increase, including a 3.66 percent bump in the Board of Education’s operating budget (driven mainly by health insurance costs). For the first time in recent memory, no one spoke during the public comments section of the final budget hearing. Town Council Vice Chairman Steve Karl publicly thanked the Police and Fire Departments, New Canaan Volunteer Ambulance Corps, Department of Public Works, including its highway division, New Canaan Library and others. Addressing the Board of Education—several members of which attended the meeting with Superintendent of Schools Dr. Bryan Luizzi and Director of Finance and Operations Dr. Jo-Ann Keating, among other administrators—Karl called their budget presentation “amazing.”

“You worked real hard, you guys came prepared and had the most information we have ever had, so thank you for that,” Karl said during the meeting, held at Town Hall.

Government

Officials: Millport Building Project on Track, Relief from Developer Loophole in Sight

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The first phase of a large-scale plan to create more public housing at Mill Pond is underway and on track for completion by year’s end, officials say—a widely anticipated project that’s expected to trigger temporary relief for New Canaan from a state law that allows developers to skirt local planning decisions. Under the Affordable Housing Appeals Act, towns where less than 10 percent of the housing stock qualifies as “affordable” by the state’s definition (New Canaan’s is at about 2.4 percent), developers may bypass Planning & Zoning by designating a percentage of units within proposed new structures as affordable. Ten percent is a rigorous standard that towns such as New Canaan are unlikely to meet, mostly because the state in calculating “affordable” lumps the town into the sprawling geography of the “Norwalk-Stamford Metropolitan area.”

Yet there’s a way to get relief under a provision (a complicated provision) in the state law. Under the provision, types of housing are assigned a certain number of points based on variables such as how much they cost (in mortgage payments or rent) and whom they serve (seniors or families). If a town amasses enough “housing unit equivalent” points, it can earn a four-year exemption.

Government

Town Officials To Establish New Municipal Body To Ensure Compliance with Code of Ethics

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New Canaan’s legislative body is pursuing the creation of a standalone commission that would help ensure that the town’s Code of Ethics—an ordinance that applies to employees of the town, police and school district— is adhered to throughout local government. Though New Canaan has a 3-person Personnel Advisory Board that can hear complaints from any public employee, “there is no process to take consideration of anybody that may be considered in violation of a Code of Ethics, which we do have,” Town Councilman Kathleen Corbet said during the group’s Jan. 20 meeting, held at Town Hall. “The Code of Ethics is a bit outdated—last amended in 1996—and if you look at it relative to other towns’ Codes of Ethics, it’s time for a refresher and this is a perfect thing for a Board of Ethics to focus on and to get to work on.”

The Charter calls for the establishment of a Code of Ethics, and it’s spelled out in Chapter 17 of the Town Code, addressing such matters as municipal employees’ use of town-owned property, special treatment, disclosure of confidential information, acceptance of gifts and favors, and bidding for public contracts. Working with fellow councilman Kevin Moynihan, Corbet had researched Boards of Ethics or Ethics Commissions in other lower Fairfield County towns—their genesis, duties and term information for members— and “virtually everybody with exception of Westport surrounding us has an established ethics committee, most of which are formed in the ordinances but some have them in charters,” she said.

Government

Town Officials Seek To Set Aside $10,000 for Community Facility ‘The Hub,’ Formerly Outback Teen Center

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One year after the Outback Teen Center received no town funding as its board at the time sought to forge a public-private partnership with New Canaan, town officials are proposing to put $10,000 into a contingency fund that could support a re-branded facility under new leadership that’s designed to serve a wider demographic. Because the major program expected to run out of “The Hub,” as the newly launched Outback building has been re-branded, would meet a major need by serving special needs adults, the Health & Human Services Commission for next year’s budget is seeking to set aside $10,000 to support the nonprofit organization, according to Judy Dunn, the commission’s chair. “The state of Connecticut stops aiding special needs people at age 21, so after that they get nothing,” Dunn told the Board of Selectmen on Wednesday in proposing a spending plan for next fiscal year. “Because this is an entirely new program, we didn’t want to take the entire amount they asked for and just say, ‘Here,’ ” Dunn said at the meeting, held at Town Hall. “We did not feel that was fiscally responsible of us to do.