Government

‘A True Town Treasure’: New Canaan Pays Tribute to Dr. Sven Englund, 93, for Contributions on Inland Wetlands Commission

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New Canaan landscape architect Keith Simpson can remember his very first appearance before the newly formed New Canaan Inland Wetlands Commission in 1988—for a subdivision on Seminary Street known at the time as the “Bryant-Kellogg subdivision.”

It required blasting out about 30 or 40 feet of rock to get through into what we know today as Scofield Lane—and in the 26 years since, Simpson and scores of fellow architects as well as residents, lawyers, soil experts and other professionals as they’ve sought approvals for sensitive projects have depended, among others, on one consistent figure on the commission: Dr. Sven Englund. “He’s a brilliant engineer and we all benefitted from his knowledge and understanding of engineering and science—he was a tremendous help to other commissioners,” Simpson said Monday night from the Douglass Room at Lapham Community Center, where nearly 40 locals gathered to honor Dr. Sven Englund for his decades of service on the commission. “I think he and other commissioners have been very good about striking a balance between making sure the wetlands are protected and allowing property owners to have a reasonable exercise of their rights as property owners, but doing the job which state statutes really require, which is to protect the wetlands,” Simpson said. “There are sometimes when you have to come close to wetlands and sometimes you have to cross them and if you do it in a responsible way then it’s fair and things don’t get damaged long-term.”

During a celebration of the 93-year-old’s work—which in truth goes back to the early-1970s, as a member of the then-Environmental Commission, family members say, a predecessor to Inland Wetlands—current commission Chairman Daniel Stepanek presented Dr. Sven Englund with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Connecticut Association of Conservation and Inland Wetlands Commissions, First Selectman Rob Mallozzi and Selectman Beth Jones read a proclamation declaring Dec. 15 ‘Dr. Sven Englund Day in New Canaan,’ and Stepanek, Simpson, Inland Wetlands and Watercourses Director Kathleen Holland, son Sven Englund and others offered words of gratitude to a man that Mallozzi called “a town treasure.”

A retired chemical engineer and father of two, prominent member of the United Methodist Church and choir who also has belonged for years to the New Canaan Senior Men’s Club, Dr. Sven Englund announced in October that he was stepping down from the commission.

Around Town

Remembering Briggs Geddis: Life of Longtime New Canaan Environmental Health Director Celebrated at Waveny

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[Editor’s Note: Each photoin the slideshow above is from a collection that was on view during the Aug. 7, 2014 celebration by family and friends of the life of Briggs Geddis, held in the Great Hall at Waveny House.]

Here’s what young Ashley Brower, granddaughter of the late Briggs Geddis, wrote about a man that many New Canaanites know as the town’s longtime director of environmental health:

“My grandpa who I call Bop-Bop had a nickname for a lot of people. My mom’s nicknames were Abby-Gabby-Gooey and Mrs. Bang, because she slammed doors a lot. My uncle’s names were Briggy-Wiggy and Wig. My names were Pipsqueak and Scallywag.

News

Local Architect on Huguette Clark Property Plans: ‘It’s Going To Look Terrific’

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Though they own multiple restored properties around the world, the couple that three months ago bought the former Huguette Clark estate on Dan’s Highway plans to settle into the famed New Canaan mansion—becoming its first occupants in decades, officials said Tuesday. Asked by the Planning and Zoning Commission whether he could identify the purchasers, New Canaan-based attorney David Rucci—while applying on the new owners’ behalf to dissolve a 10-lot subdivision of the 52-acre property—said they’ve renovated historic properties in the past. “They just happen to be very preservation-minded people,” Rucci said during the commission’s regular meeting, held in the Douglas Room at Lapham Community Center. “They are out of the city. They have properties in other parts of the world that they have done the exact same thing with.

Business

Forest Street Businesses on Parking Plan during Construction: ‘It’s Just Nuts’

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The one-way block of Forest Street—narrow, bursting with restaurants, halted during deliveries and drop-offs and home to a newly designated loading zone—will lose 10 parking spaces for a two-week stretch next month and then three separate spaces for about one year, as a widely anticipated building project at number 21 gets underway. Demolition of two buildings there—the former Forest Street Deli and Farmer’s Table (going further back, BMW Lindner Cycle Shop)—starts today (Thursday) and continues through midday Friday. It’s the first step toward what eventually will be a three-story, mixed residential-and-retail complex that will lie roughly between the New Canaan Dance Academy and brick building at the Locust Avenue corner, home to the Board of Education’s administrative offices. Saying they’re supportive of the overall project and that it ultimately will be good for New Canaan, business owners on the street expressed frustration Wednesday with what they called poor communication about the imminent parking disruption. “The stop-and-drop people who are there with the dance studio and that kind of thing have gotten to a point where Forest Street is clogged up entirely, people can’t park on the street and now we are told today—today—that there will be [10] more spaces taken out of the loop, which is insane,” Tequila Mockingbird owner Paul Mauk (speaking mostly on behalf of Gates, where he’s a partner), said during a meeting of the Police Commission, held in the New Canaan Police Department training room.