Government

Use of Planned New Space a Major Concern for New Canaan Field Club’s Neighbors

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Though the New Canaan Field Club has followed town officials’ instructions in supplying more details about noise and screening, Glen Drive and Smith Ridge Road neighbors remain concerned about the impact of a proposed building expansion. Many of those concerns, raised at Wednesday night’s Planning and Zoning Commission meeting, centered on what neighbors anticipate will be new, more frequent, visible and potentially loud uses of a planned additional floor and attendant outdoor deck of the pool pavilion. Kelly Hennigan of Glen Drive during a public hearing on the Field Club’s application described as “unsettling” the figure 298—that’s how many people would be allowed by fire code to occupy the proposed new floor and deck combined (229 inside and 69 outside). “We believe it is a change in the intensity of use of the facility and that it will negatively impact property values on Glen Drive,” said Hennigan, one of more than a dozen Field Club neighbors attending the meeting, held in the Douglas Room at Lapham Community Center. “We are very much concerned with the additional floor and adjoining deck and based on the capacity of being able to host 300 people,” she continued.

Around Town

New Canaan Field Club, Neighbors at Odds over Proposed Building Expansion

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New Canaan Field Club officials and neighbors of the 11-acre property are at odds about what impact a proposed building expansion will have on noise, visibility and real estate values in the area of Glen Drive and Smith Ridge Road. Opponents of the pool pavilion expansion say the project fails to meet criteria for a Special Permit in the one-acre zone since the structure’s footprint and height would increase significantly—by 85 percent and 12-15 feet, respectively—and new areas within the building indicate a change in use. The opposing neighbors also say that the club hasn’t indicated what new activities will take place there post-expansion. Advocates for the project—including New Canaan attorney David Rucci, who presented the club’s request for a Special Permit—say no new use is planned, just a sorely needed update and the ability for the club to hold indoors activities for which it currently lacks the space. Rucci reiterated during Tuesday’s Planning and Zoning Commission meeting that the scope of the expansion is well within regulations and that the club had tried to speak directly to neighbors on Glen Drive concerned mostly about noise.

Animal 411

Elusive Goose at Field Club Is Dangerously Tangled in Fishing Wire

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Officials at the New Canaan Field Club are trying to secure a female goose in that small front pond there long enough to undo a fishing line now caught around its leg, causing the bird to limp and threatening serious physical damage. The club’s secretary, Karen Stewart, said she spotted the familiar goose limping badly Monday and immediately took steps to figure out how to help. She and club Manager Tom Brown contacted the New Canaan Police Department Animal Control unit. Officer Maryann Kleinschmitt said geese are visual and if they don’t recognize someone (like her) then they stay away. So, she left a net behind with Brown to try and catch the bird.