Around Town

First Selectman: New Canaan’s Commitment to Youth Evident, Regardless of Outback Funding

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Beyond the taxpayer funds that benefit youth through the public schools—some two-thirds of the entire budget—New Canaan supports its young people by spending some $354,000 each year on its own human services personnel and nonprofit agencies that serve youth, according to the town’s highest elected official. So the idea that spending taxpayer money on the Outback Teen Center is synonymous with supporting youth here is a “misnomer,” First Selectman Rob Mallozzi said Tuesday. “We sometimes think that the Teen Center is the building—it personifies in some people’s minds the commitment the town has [to youth], but it is a private entity,” Mallozzi said at a regular meeting of the Board of Finance, held in the Sturgess Room at the New Canaan Nature Center. “The misnomer is that if you don’t support the Teen Center, you are not in the teen business,” said Mallozzi, who serves as the finance board’s chairman. “I just want to make sure that we all understand: There are a lot of great agencies out there doing some wonderful things, some with a building and some without a building—whether it’s the churches, the YMCA or the Teen Center itself.

Government

Town Hall Renovation: ‘Anything That Would Have Been Discovered, Has Been Discovered’

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The renovation of Town Hall remains on time and budget, with the Main Street structure’s floors poured, walls up and interior finishes underway, New Canaan’s highest elected official said. Officials expect municipal services to move into the renovated space next May, First Selectman Rob Mallozzi said Tuesday at a special meeting of New Canaan’s Board of Finance. “Anything that would have been discovered, has been discovered, so that is really good,” Mallozzi said at the meeting, held in the Douglas Room at Lapham Community Center. The comments came as the finance board approved 9-0 about $275,000 from a contingency fund for construction spending. About $150,000 to $200,000 remains in that fund, Mallozzi said.

Government

New Canaan To Seek Protection from Developer Loophole

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While New Canaan may not be constituted to meet a rigorous state threshold that would forever protect the town from loophole-happy developers, it might be able to stave off unwanted development at least for a few years while alternatives are figured out, officials said Tuesday. A proposal that would double the number of affordable housing units at Mill Pond may trigger a three-year exemption from the Affordable Housing Appeals Act. Under that law, in towns where less than 10 percent of the housing qualifies as “affordable” by the state’s definition (see below—New Canaan’s is at about 2.4 percent), developers may bypass local planning decisions by designating a percentage of units within proposed new structures as affordable. Town Planner Steve Kleppin said at the Board of Finance meeting that it’s not realistic for New Canaan to get all the way to 10 percent. “The total number is just not there,” Kleppin said at the meeting, held in the Sturgess Room at the New Canaan Nature Center’s Visitors Center.