Around Town

Did You Hear … ?

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New Canaan’s Teri Buhl, convicted of second-degree breach of peace following reinstatement of the charge by the state Supreme Court, said in a post on her website Wednesday that she’s hoping to raise “a few hundred dollars” via Paypal so that she doesn’t get beat up or raped in jail. Buhl said that on Friday she will enter the state’s female prison, the high-security York Correctional Facility in Niantic, Conn. and needs the money to “pay for phone calls and to buy things for other inmates from the jail store to ‘buy protection.’ ”

“Based on interviews with other women who have been in York prison there will be gangs based on race in jail. I get to somehow try to ‘gain favor’ with the leader of the white gang to help make sure I don’t get beat up or raped.”

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The developer of the new Post Office now taking shape in earnest on Locust Avenue said he’s actively taking inquiries from professionals interested in renting the 3,800-square-foot second floor of the Federal-style building. Asked for details on the space, New Canaan’s Richard Carratu said it features two separate entrances, a dedicated elevator and 14 parking spaces.

Around Town

‘An Important First Step’: Post Office Signs Lease for Planned Locust Ave. Building

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The U.S. Postal Service announced Thursday that the federal agency has signed a lease to occupy a future building planned for Locust Avenue. With a signed lease, the agency can “move forward with the New Canaan Post Office at the new location,” David D. Mastroianni, USPS district manager, said in a press release. “Signing the lease is an important first step towards the delivery of our new, first class home in the community. We join New Canaan in welcoming this development.”

After sorting out some final concerns regarding traffic flow and parking, town officials in May approved a site plan for a new building at 18-26 Locust Ave. Plans call for a two-story brick, cupola-topped, Federal-style structure with a total of 8,220 square feet and office space on the second floor. The property’s owner, hopeful Post Office developer Richard Carratu of LJ18 Properties LLC, in April acquired additional land abutting the proposed site in order to expand parking (and won support for the project from the Parking Commission).

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

Hopeful Post Office Developer Acquires More Land for Parking

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Weeks after putting in for permits that would allow them to create a new building on Locust Avenue that would house New Canaan’s new Post Office, the property’s owners said Tuesday night that they’ve acquired an abutting parcel of land to be used for additional parking. The acquisition of a portion of the .43-acre lot at 56 Forest St.—a 3,000-square-foot sliver that is, in fact, zoned for commercial use—will allow the hopeful Post Office developers to create an additional eight or nine parking spaces behind 18-26 Locust Ave. and “make the site work much better,” attorney Michael Sweeney of Stamford-based Carmody Torrance Sandak & Hennessey LLP told the Planning & Zoning Commission at its regular meeting. “The good news, and kind of rare news, is that we have had excellent pre-application discussions with the Parking Commission,” Sweeney told P&Z at the meeting, held in the Sturgess Room at the New Canaan Nature Center. “They have given us suggestions along the way, and the latest feedback we have had with them is with the additional parking, they are very pleased with way layout seems to be coming to the fore.”

Plans call for a two-story brick, cupola-topped, Federal-style structure with a total of 8,220 square feet and office space on the second floor.