Government

Owner of Vacant Canoe Hill Road Lot Seeks P&Z Permission To Build New Home, Accessory Structures

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The owner of a vacant 3.16-acre rear lot on Canoe Hill Road is seeking permission to build a new home, pool house, greenhouse and detached garage. 

Plans for 221 Canoe Hill Road call for locating the garage 40 feet from the lot’s access way, according to an application filed on behalf of the property’s owner by attorney David Rucci of New Canaan-based Lampert, Toohey & Rucci LLC. 

The proposed buildings “are smaller in footprint” than what had stood on the oversized lot before “and creates more open space in the neighborhood,” Rucci said in the application. 

“The proposed development is in keeping with the residential character of the neighborhood,” Rucci said. “The garage is sited to provide easy access to the drive. This particular proposal is consistent with the Plan of Conservation and Development as it supports open space [and] uses existing systems with minimal disturbance.”

The Planning & Zoning Commission is scheduled to take up the application at its regular meeting at 7 p.m. Tuesday. 

P&Z approval is needed for the Special Permit and site plan, as well as for the planned excavation and soil disturbance (page 137 here) and for locating an accessory building in a front yard and within 150 feet of the street (page 54). 

Town Planner Lynn Brooks Avni noted in a memo to the Commission that although the proposed garage is more than 150 feet from Canoe Hill Road, it is just 40 feet from the access way (the property shares the access way with 219 and 223 Canoe Hill Road). P&Z may consider conditioning an approval for the application, including that soil and erosion controls be bolstered and that prior to the issuance of a Certificate of Occupancy, the applicant submit a licensed engineer’s as-built plan. 

The lot had been purchased in June 2018 for $1,525,000, tax records show. Here’s where it is:

Business

‘The Adirondack Store’ To Open on Elm Street

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A Lake Placid, N.Y.-based retailer whose offerings include a range of gifts, glassware, pillows and home decor items is planning to occupy a prominent commercial space on Elm Street that’s been vacant since April 2018. The Adirondack Store & Gallery has filed plans for its exterior renovation at 39 Em St. with Planning & Zoning. 

“The Adirondack Store was in New Canaan from 1995 to 2009 and closed that location due to differences with the landlord,” according to a narrative submitted with the plans. “They are looking forward to reopening in New Canaan.”

The two-level store had been occupied for about 40 years by Family Britches, which moved to Main Street. Before that a restaurant, notably the iconic Pierre’s or “Izzy’s Place,” as it commonly was known, operated there from 1944 to 1976.

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YMCA Seeks To Expand Parking Lot by 20 Spaces

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Saying it’s needed for pedestrian safety and to accommodate use during peak hours, the YMCA is seeking to expand a parking lot along the side of its South Avenue building by 20 spaces. Fewer than 5% of the Y’s current 247 space are available when the nonprofit organization is busiest, according to an application filed with the Planning & Zoning Commission. 

“Cars circling the parking lot looking for a parking space create an unsafe condition for pedestrians, many of them children, and may invite patrons to park on South Avenue or Putnam Road,” according to a letter that accompanied site plan and Special Permit applications filed on the Y’s behalf by attorney Ted O’Hanlan of Stamford-based Robinson+Cole. 

In approving the Y’s extensive renovation five years ago, P&Z noted that if more parking is needed, the organization should submit a site plan along those lines, O’Hanlan noted. 

“That time has arrived and is motivated by genuine concern for safety and convenience,” he said. “No increase in either programs or membership has motivated these applications.”

The application includes a traffic study that “clearly demonstrates that more on-site parking will better serve the YMCA’s existing parking demand.”

“The traffic analysis states that, because the YMCA is not adding any new programs, there will be no increase in trip generation to and from the property, and, therefore, no traffic impact on South Avenue and the surrounding street network,” O’Hanlan said. Plans call for 20 striped parking spaces on what the applicant is calling the “south side of the building,” running roughly parallel to Putnam Road. The spaces are to be used by Y staff and “as overflow parking for patrons.” Two new landscape islands with curbing are to be installed, along with a 6-foot-high wooden fence, forsythia hedge and access gate for emergency vehicles.

David Rucci

Waveny To Propose Smaller Building on Oenoke Ridge with Increased Setbacks

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In response to comments from planning officials and concerns from some neighbors, Waveny LifeCare Network is reducing the size of a proposed residential retirement complex on Oenoke Ridge by 10,000 square feet aboveground, according to an attorney representing the nonprofit organization. The setback from Oenoke Ridge itself will be increased from 25 to 60 feet, attorney David Rucci of New Canaan-based Lampert, Toohey & Rucci LLP said in a Dec. 12 letter to the Planning & Zoning Commission, and the setback from the Heritage Hill property line increased from 25 to 35 feet. Also, the number of units will be reduced from 70 to 66—a reduction of 34% from an original proposal of 100—and the length of the building will be reduced by 30 feet, among other changes (see below), Rucci said in the letter, available in the public file at Town Hall. “In addition, affordability is of great concern to us as well,” Rucci said in the letter.

Government

Neighbors, Attorneys Criticize Waveny’s Proposed Senior Housing Complex at P&Z Hearing [CORRECTION]

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[Editor’s Note: This article has been corrected to show that the site in question is in the half-acre zone, not the two-acre zone as originally reported. The date of the P&Z hearing also has been corrected to Nov. 19, not Nov. 20.]

The proposed senior housing complex on Oenoke Ridge is inconsistent with New Canaan’s regulations and violates some precepts of the town’s guiding document with respect to planning, according to representatives of one neighboring organization. Waveny LifeCare Network’s application for a 70-unit residential retirement building also requires approval of changes to the New Canaan Zoning Regulation that amount to “spot zoning,” attorney Steve Finn, representing St.