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‘It Would Be An Illegal Approval’: Neighbor’s Attorney Argues Against Rebuilt 2-Family Dwelling on Oak Street
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Town officials must reject an application to rebuild a two-family home on Oak Street because it doesn’t comply with New Canaan’s zoning regulations, would decrease the value of a neighbor’s property by looming over it and would be rejected by a court on appeal, an attorney told the Planning & Zoning Commission last week. The proposed structure at 50-52 Oak St.—centerpiece of a plan to replace the aging duplex there now—fails to meet two of the five criteria outlined in the New Canaan Zoning Regulations (see page 42) for new two-family dwellings in the Residential B zone and in any case requires a variance rather than a special permit because, after the house there is razed, the new one would be nonconforming, according to Eric Bernheim, a partner at Westport-based Halloran & Sage LLP. Criteria for a special permit include consideration of property values, and—as Bernheim’s clients, the neighbors directly to the east, the Crowleys of 64 Oak St. expressed at a public hearing last month—because the rear unit of the proposed new dwelling would loom taller over their backyard, it would devalue their property, he told members of P&Z. “It doesn’t take a lot of discussion to understand that having a two-family home that towers over your property and backyard and destroys the privacy you have and will impair value,” Bernheim said at the meeting, held April 26 at Town Hall.