Business

‘It Is Absurd’: Planning Officials Call For Re-Worked Sign Proposal on Main Street

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Saying a proposed sign for a pharmacy moving into a vacant Main Street space is too big and loud, planning officials on Tuesday called for a new design. A rendering of the proposal for the front of the Greenwich Pharmacy at 118 Main St. showed a plain red-lettered sign that would “read as a huge billboard,” Planning & Zoning Commission member Kent Turner said at the group’s regular meeting, held in the Town Meeting Room. “This sign really goes from one side of the building to another,” Turner said of the proposal. “This sign is 38 feet long.

Government

P&Z To Cyclists Group Proposing Donated Road Safety Signs: No Thank You

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Calling the design of a proposed sign urging motorists to give cyclists a 3-foot berth ineffective and overly promotional, town officials say they’ll pass on a private group’s offer to supply the signs for free. The Planning & Zoning Commission at its most recent meeting voted 6-0 to forego the offer from the Sound Cyclists Bicycle Club. Commissioner Elizabeth DeLuca, head of the group’s sign subcommittee, told officials from the club that “we are not OK with your sign because it is not effective, it is not visible” and that Town Attorney Ira Bloom had advised against posting publicly a sign that includes the name of a private group. “Ira recommended that there be no group name on the sign,” DeLuca said at the July 28 meeting, held in the Sturgess Room at New Canaan Nature Center. Technically speaking, P&Z’s “No” vote is a sense of the commission rather than a hard denial to the cycling group, which includes some 40 New Canaanites, its officials say.

Government

‘Why Would You Want This Clutter?’: P&Z Opposes Lawn Signs at Town Hall

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Members of the Planning & Zoning Commission are urging officials to leave the front lawn of Town Hall free of event and campaign signs as the recently renovated and expanded building at 77 Main St. phases back in as the central location for municipal offices. Prior to closing for the major construction project two years ago, some 30 to 40 requests to place signs on the front lawn of Town Hall came in each year, officials said Tuesday at a special meeting of the Board of Selectmen. It isn’t clear just how that proliferation developed, but with a “signature building like the new Town Hall” that “looks wonderful and is landscaped fairly well,” it doesn’t make sense to place signs out from, P&Z Commission Secretary Jean Grzelecki said at the meeting, held in the Training Room at the New Canaan Police Department. Said fellow P&Z Commissioner Elizabeth DeLuca, head of the group’s sign committee: “We have this beautiful building and landscape design, and why would you want this clutter in front of this building?”

Though they stopped short of a formal vote, First Selectman Rob Mallozzi and Selectman Beth Jones both voiced support for the P&Z recommendation.

Business

‘The Impact Is Staggering’: Downtown Merchants Make Case for Controlled Sandwich Board Allowance

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Chris Kilbane, owner of downtown mainstay New Canaan Toy Store, first placed a sandwich board outside his Park Street shop after earning “Best Toy Store” honors from Moffly Media. The main idea, Kilbane told town planning officials Tuesday night, was to promote the Best of the Gold Coast designation. What he quickly discovered, however, was that the sandwich board helped steer foot traffic into New Canaan Toy Store—something that’s become increasingly important and more difficult for mom-and-pop retailers. “It seems so small, but the impact is staggering,” Kilbane told the Planning & Zoning Commission at the group’s regular meeting, held in the Douglass Room at Lapham Community Center. “You have to understand how it is to run a business in New Canaan at this point, or any brick and mortar store.

Business

Though Prohibited, Sandwich Boards Proliferate Downtown; P&Z to Open Discussion

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Though local zoning regulations explicitly prohibit them, sandwich boards are appearing in front of an increasing number of businesses downtown, prompting planning officials to open a public discussion on the matter. Under Section 6.3.F.7 of the New Canaan Zoning Regulations (page 118 here), “sandwich board and easel type signs” are prohibited. Yet members of the Planning & Zoning Commission “clearly have noticed a dramatic increase in sandwich boards in the past year or so” and will take up the issue at its Feb. 24 meeting, Chairman John Goodwin said. “It is something that we [P&Z members] have said we need to discuss, and personally I do not have a clear view yet of whether my view would be, ‘Look it is an ordinance and we’ve got to prohibit them’ because, on the other hand, we want to do everything possible in town to help businesses, and I am a very strong advocate of that.”

It isn’t clear whether Goodwin and P&Z will seek wider public input on sandwich boards during the group’s regular meeting.