Around Town

Did You Hear … ?

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Scores of New Canaanites joined students of architecture and fans of the Midcentury Modern style at The Glass House on Saturday for the annual Summer Party, a fundraiser for the National Trust for Historic Preservation site. Sipping Taittinger champagne and bringing picnic baskets prepared by Campagna and The Bedford Post Inn, attendees roamed the 49-acre property on a bright, sunny day, entering buildings that include not just the famous Glass House but also Da Monsta and Philip Johnson’s painting gallery and library. Others lounged by a pond down the back of the property or by the pool near the main house. See photos above. ***

A woman who hurt herself after falling on the sidewalk in front of Dunkin Donuts on Elm Street in January has filed a letter of intent to sue New Canaan, according to a notice filed with the town. It happened at about 2:30 p.m. on Jan 12 at what the woman’s New Canaan-based lawyer is calling “a dangerous and unsafe pedestrian sidewalk which was improperly repaired, maintained, cleared of snow, sleet and/or ice and/or improperly treated with salt, sand or the like.” The woman hurt her “right fingers, right hand, right wrist, right arm, right elbow, right shoulder, neck back and buttocks,” according to the Notice of Intention to Commence Action Against Municipality.

Government

Planning Officials Flag Safety Concern in Traffic Circulation at Proposed Post Office

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Planning officials said Monday night that they’re concerned that a plan to allow one-way entrance circulation on the east side of a proposed new Post Office on Locust Avenue with two-way traffic on the west side—as opposed to, say, a single entrance on one side of the building and exit on the other—will create safety hazards that could create liability problems for the town. Specifically, Town Planner Steve Kleppin and members of the Planning & Zoning Commission say, two-way circulation could confuse drivers and lead to motorists traveling in opposite directions suddenly and unexpectedly looking each other somewhere on the property at 18-26 Locust Ave., not to mention motor vehicle backup, since there’s no turnaround space, and cars backing up into pedestrians’ paths. Designating spaces directly behind the proposed building for Post Office workers and those expected to work in second-floor office space “would leave spaces on the west side of the building for patrons of the Post Office,” Kleppin said at a special meeting of the commission, held in the Douglass Room at Lapham Community Center. “And if that was the case, then they [Post Office officials] wouldn’t need two-way on the west side, because those spaces north and south abutting the building would be occupied by stationary employees, as opposed to others coming in and out,” Kleppin said. The owner of 18 Locust Ave.

Government

Hopeful Post Office Developer: Roughly Half of Now-27 Parking Spaces To Serve USPS Customers

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About half of the 27 parking spaces at the proposed new Post Office on Locust Avenue will be designated for USPS customers, and after-hours they likely will be open for customers of restaurants in town, the site’s developer said Thursday night. A second-floor commercial tenant on the proposed 8,220-square-foot building would use an estimated 10 spaces at 18-26 Locust Ave., while the Post Office requires three or four spaces for workers at the new branch, leaving about 13 or 14 spaces for customers, according to New Canaan’s Richard Carratu. “The postal trucks will not park on-site, which is important for the town—they will only come in four times a day to deliver mail from Stamford to New Canaan and load it and then leave, so there will be no permanent trucks on-site,” Carratu told the Parking Commission during its regular monthly meeting, held in the Douglass Room at Lapham Community Center. Carratu said he’s agreed on business terms with the Post Office and that as of Thursday, the USPS district that includes New Canaan had signed off on the proposed building. Plans call for a two-story brick, cupola-topped, Federal-style structure at a combined lot that would include 18 and 26 Locust Ave.

Government

LOOK: Plans for New Post Office on Locust Filed with Town

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The proposed new Post Office on Locust Avenue is a two-story brick, cupola-topped, Federal-style structure with a total of 8,220 square feet and office space on the second floor, according to an application filed Tuesday with the town. Plans call for the razing of two buildings that now occupy 18 and 26 Locust Ave., with those parcels merged into a single 16,591-square-foot lot, according to a site plan filed with the Planning and Zoning Department. “The proposed building is a classic, Federal-style design, to be completed using high quality materials and finishes,” according to a site plan and special permit application filed on behalf of the properties’ owners, with renderings from James Schettino Architects of New Canaan. “The building façade will consist of brick and the roof will be a synthetic slate. Windows will be white clad Marvin style; gutters, leaders and flashing will be finished in zinc and the water table and keys will be comprised of cast stone.

Government

Post Office Selects Locust Avenue for Permanent New Canaan Location

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A future New Canaan Post Office will be located on Locust Avenue, occupying contiguous .18- and .21-acre properties just below the municipal parking lot. Town officials said the United States Postal Service informed them Monday that it had selected 18-26 Locust Ave. over the other candidate (on Park Street, next to Mrs. Green’s). First Selectman Rob Mallozzi said in a press release that he looks forward “to the public dialogue and review of the plans for the new facility at that location.” “Like so many of you, I am most anxious to have a permanent home for our Post Office,” Mallozzi said. It isn’t clear just when the Post Office expects to make the move, how much capital work is required to prepare the site or just when or how, long-term, the plans will affect the commercial property at 26 Locust Ave.