Government

Grace Farms Seeks To Amend Operating Permit, Downplays Comments Made at Past Public Hearings

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Seeking new zoning designations in hopes that they’ll allow for wide-ranging activities already occurring on its campus, Grace Farms on Monday filed an application to amend for the second time its town-issued operating permit. Prepared by attorney Edward O’Hanlan of Stamford-based Robinson+Cole, the application stops short of validating concerns from neighbors and town officials about the intensity of use at Grace Farms—concerns that, once they had been aired this summer, gave rise to the need for this new filing. In fact, O’Hanlan in the application argues that the Planning & Zoning Commission may have erred in drafting the permit under which Grace now operates, but cannot now go back and cite what Grace officials had said at the public hearings that led to the approval of that permit—since those utterances do not determine what’s allowed as much as the physical document itself (more on that below). Rather, Grace Farms attributes its need to come back to P&Z to its own technical failure to interpret correctly New Canaan’s Zoning Regulations, according to the Application for Second Amended Special Permit (it is available here in the dropdown menu, listed as ‘365 Lukes Wood Road’). Specifically, by grouping the ‘Grace Farms Foundation’ in with Grace Church under a “religious institution” use, the organization did not allow room for the Foundation to pursue what the application calls “charitable” (as opposed to religious) activities at its site.

Government

‘A Reasonable Consensus’: Developer of Proposed ‘Merritt Village’ Complex Reduces Number of Units, Height of Buildings

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The owners of a 3.29-acre property on the edge of downtown New Canaan on Thursday night unveiled a scaled-back version of the proposed condominium-and-apartment complex that’s caused wide discussion in town since it was presented in June. Instead of 123 units in four 4-floor multifamily dwellings, Merritt Village would have 116 units (55 condos, 61 apartments) and its townhouse-style buildings would rise no more than 3.5 stories, with some of the proposed structures coming down to two stories, according to representatives for the applicant, property owner M2 Partners. The architects of the proposal would prefer to move forward with what originally had been submitted to the town, though the modified plan takes into consideration reasonable concerns raised by third-party consultants and neighbors, Dan Granniss of project designer SLAM Collaborative of Glastonbury told members of the Planning & Zoning Commission at a special meeting. Though M2 Partners does not expect to garner “100 percent consensus,” still “we want to come to a reasonable consensus and we believe the modified design has done just that,” Granniss said during the meeting, which drew more than 100 attendees to Town Hall. The modified proposal was made public during the fourth hearing on Merritt Village, currently the site of Merritt Apartments, a 38-unit complex.

Government

‘A Big Loss’: Town Planner Steve Kleppin To Leave New Canaan for Norwalk Job

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Steve Kleppin recalled that when took the helm as town planner 11 years ago in New Canaan’s Land Use Department, after spending six months as assistant town planner, the agency’s perception in the community was poor. Some on staff at the time had faced criticism from the public and many relationships between the two had gone sour, he said. Yet “through the people that were here and the other people that came on board, we changed that, as a group,” Kleppin recalled Thursday, hours before the town announced that he had taken the role of town planner in neighboring Norwalk. “It’s a well-run area. Even though people might not always like the outcome or the decisions that are made, they’re treated appropriately, treated well and the decisions are thought-out.”

A steady, soft-spoken figure who is highly respected among colleagues, building professionals and property owners in New Canaan—often delivering unwanted news that touches on the largest single investment that residents will ever make—Kleppin will work his last day here on Oct.

News

Mixed-Use Redevelopment with 8 Residential Units Proposed for Vitti Street

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The owners of a long-disused lot on Vitti Street are seeking the town’s permission to create a new 2-story commercial building facing the sidewalk with an 8-unit residential structure behind it. A pair of vacant structures on the .56-acre lot at 23 Vitti St. would be demolished under plans filed Sept. 2 with Planning & Zoning. In their place, near the street, would go two-story, 8,600-square-foot commercial building that could be occupied by “primarily fitness/therapy and medical uses,” according to a special permit application filed on behalf of the property owner by New Canaan-based attorney David Rucci of Lampert Toohey & Rucci LLC.

Government

Town Denies Appeal from Neighbor Regarding Use of Guest Cottage on Oenoke Ridge Road

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Backed by documents showing that an Oenoke Ridge Road accessory structure received town approval for use as a guesthouse, and citing the many years it has been occupied as such without complaint, officials last month rejected a next-door neighbor’s appeal regarding the building’s use. The Zoning Board of Appeals at its most recent meeting by a 5-0 vote denied an appeal that had been filed this spring on behalf of Peter and Kathleen Streinger, owners of 785 Oenoke Ridge Road. They had sought to halt use of a guest cottage on the property to their west as a dwelling, saying it violated the New Canaan Zoning Regulations and conditions attached to a subdivision approved in 2003. However, the town planner told ZBA members in a memo ahead of the group’s Aug. 1 meeting, a subsequent owner of the property in question (number 757 Oenoke Ridge Road) in 2004 applied for a special permit exempting the historic accessory structure from building coverage under a newly enacted regulation (see page 148 here).