Around Town

Did You Hear … ?

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Congratulations to the South School Chess Club, which won first place at the Fairfield County Scholastic Team Chess Championship. The Nov. 8 tournament featured competitors from nine K-5 Fairfield County elementary schools. The South School team was led by Joseph Ho, Michael Telesco, Henry Chandra and Luke Gencarelli, who each won three games out of four. Strong contributors included Jenna Ho and Luke Van Dussen. This tournament also brought out young talents Quinn Kilkenny, Yuna Ho and Emily Telesco who were each playing in their first or second professional tournament.

Government

Plans Filed for Building Project at Millport That Would Give New Canaan Relief from Developer Loophole

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A plan to add 33 units to the public housing development at Mill Pond would trigger temporary relief for New Canaan from a state law that often amounts to a loophole for developers seeking to skirt local planning decisions, officials say. Under the Affordable Housing Appeals Act, towns where less than 10 percent of the housing stock qualifies as “affordable” by the state’s definition (New Canaan’s is at about 2.4 percent), developers may bypass Planning & Zoning by designating a percentage of units within proposed new structures as affordable. Ten percent is a rigorous standard that towns such as New Canaan are unlikely to meet, officials say, since the state in calculating “affordable” lumps the town into the sprawling geography of the “Norwalk-Stamford Metropolitan area.” Yet there’s a way to get relief under a provision (a complicated provision) in the state law. Under the provision, types of housing are assigned a certain number of points based on variables such as how much they cost (in mortgage payments or rent) and who they serve (seniors or families).

Government

Plan to Double Affordable Housing at Mill Pond Stalls

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A project that would more than double the number of affordable housing units at Millport Apartments hit a speed bump Tuesday night. Preliminary plans call for 60 to 70 additional units to be built on property located opposite Mill Pond. Pending more details, the Board of Finance at its regular meeting put off approving a measure that would see $500,000 made available to the New Canaan Housing Authority to pursue that plan. Those funds—collected through a 1 percent add-on fee in some building permit applications (ones that deal with exterior work only)—are held in trust for the purpose of boosting New Canaan’s affordable housing stock. Finance board members, including Mary Davis Cody and John Sheffield, questioned the prudence of signing off on the $500,000 without details on just how the funds would be used for pre-construction architectural and engineering studies.