Andrew Melillo
‘I Will Not Enforce That’: Committee, Building Official at Odds Over Demolition Notice [CORRECTED]
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[Note: This article has been corrected to reflect a 4-1 vote, not a 5-0 vote as originally reported.]
Saying those seeking to raze a derelict greenhouse followed the process outlined in a local ordinance, New Canaan’s town building official last week told members of an appointed municipal body that he wouldn’t enforce their request to re-notice the structure. According to some members of the Historical Review Committee, the sign affixed to a ca.-1900 greenhouse at the New Canaan Nature Center failed to meet a requirement that it be posted “in a conspicuous location of the property on which the structure is situated” and that it’s “visible from the nearest public street or other accessway adjoining the property.”
Committee member Ed Vollmer said during the appointed body’s April 16 meeting that “there are people who are unhappy with what is going on and the destruction of the greenhouse because it is considered a historic building.”
Under local ordinance, if a letter objecting to a planned demolition is received within 15 days of publication of the notice in a newspaper, then the Committee may decide to impose a delay period of up to 90 days. In this case, however, the Nature Center’s notice was published Feb. 6, meaning the objection period expired Feb. 21—four days before a New Canaan woman filed her letter, which was therefore rejected by Town Building Official Brian Platz.