Government

‘A Really Wonderful Model for the Neighborhood’: Officials Offer High Praise for Forest Street Home Design in Voting 4-0 To Lift Demolition Delay

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Calling the redesign of a new home on Forest Street tasteful, respectful of the property’s historic past and exemplary for an important neighborhood, town officials last week voted unanimously to lift a delay on the demolition of an existing structure. Members of the Historical Review Committee voted 4-0 at their Jan. 5 meeting to lift a delay instituted last month on demolishing the ca. 1830-built home at 74 Forest St. “You have made significant changes—positive changes—I think you have created a winner here, a really wonderful model for the neighborhood and an example for others who will come after you,” committee member Martin Skrelunas said during the group’s meeting, held at the New Canaan Historical Society’s Town House.

Government

Officials Vote 4-0 To Delay Demolition of ca. 1830-Built Forest Street Home

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Saying that more information is needed about a new two-family house planned for Forest Street, town officials on Monday voted unanimously to impose a 90-day delay in the demolition of an existing antique structure on the .3-acre lot. Members of the Historical Review Committee during a special meeting described the architecture of the approximately 1830-built home at 74 Forest St. as a “vernacular” type that rapidly is disappearing in a historically important area. Committee member Martin Skrelunas, an architecture and landscape preservationist, said the red-painted house “represents and is one of last of this style in New Canaan.”

Addressing Tom Sturges, the contractor on the construction project, Skrelunas said, “I think the thing that could be special about your project is, knowing you’re building from scratch, is that you can demonstrate that you can build in a non-designated historic street but maintain that history, maintain that spirit, which in turn could benefit the rest of that block.”

“I think there will be change on the rest [of the street] and if you are able to do that, I could see others following suit and becoming a much more valuable area,” Skrelunas said at the meeting, held in the Janet Lindstrom Room at the New Canaan Historical Society’s Town House. Committee member Rose Scott Long, an architectural preservationist, added: “This is kind of a crucial point because there is definitely going to be more development in that area and what you do here it is really going to have a great impact.”

The committee voted 4-0 to impose the delay.

Around Town

Did You Hear … ?

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The town on Tuesday issued a permit for Acme, the Elm Street grocery store known for decades as Food Emporium, to do a $1.5 million interior renovation at the store. The work at 288 Elm St. will include “shelving, display units, refrigerated cases” and checkout areas, according to the building permit, a total of 25,198 square feet. ***

Lindsay Benko, a New Canaan High School graduate whose father, Steve Benko, is the town’s longtime recreation director, is to be married June 9 of next year at First Presbyterian Church with a reception to follow at Waveny House (her dad’s workplace). She met her fiancé, Albany, N.Y. area native Chris Gardner, while the two studied nursing at Hartwick College in Oneonta, N.Y. 

***

Four members of New Canaan Girl Scout Troop 50121—Olivia Licata, Megan Lydon, Emma Gibbens and Lily Plum—intend to install three bike racks at Waveny, Irwin and Kiwanis Parks as their Silver Award projects.

Around Town

Did You Hear … ?

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Police and wildlife officials helped free a fawn that had become trapped last week between the metal poles of a fence in a Ramhorne Road yard. The New Canaan Police Department’s Animal Control section at 10:29 a.m. on July 17 responded to a report that an injured fawn was stuck inside a pool area at a residence there. The young deer clearly had been injured in some way and its hair could be seen on the poles of the fence, between which it had squeezed through to enter the yard, according to Officer Allyson Halm. When a landscaping professional showed up and frightened the animal, it became stuck again trying to get out. The fawn likely had entered the yard when it was younger and smaller, and tried to get back in by habit.

News

Historic Ferris Hill Home To Be Rented, Back on Market in ‘Several Years’

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Now that the property has been safely transferred, volunteers spent several hours Tuesday afternoon cleaning up a historic farmhouse on Ferris Hill Road in order to make it rentable in the next couple of months. Tom Nissley, who holds title to the property with his wife, Emily, said his long-term goal is to sell the 1735-built house at 8 Ferris Hill Road, though it could be “several years” before it’s ready to go on the market again. “Somebody who loves history is going to have to buy the house,” Nissley said. “My theory is that everything sells. There is always a buyer for things, and there are a lot of people who are interested in history.”

That’s a major reason why the historic farmhouse still stands.