Government
After Strained Meeting with Neighbors, Grace Farms Faces Questions About Transparency at Past Public Hearings
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Though Grace Farms intends to “work” planning officials regarding complaints that its varied, robust and non-religious activities violate what’s allowed at its 80-acre site, the organization is failing to collaborate in earnest with its own next-door neighbors, according to records of a meeting the two parties held this month. Representatives from Grace at a June 16 meeting with the owners of six abutting properties said out loud that they wanted to understand the neighbors’ concerns, according to minutes of the meeting sent to the chairman of the Planning & Zoning Commission, as well as the town attorney, town planner and first selectman. Yet, for example, when the neighbors “voiced concerns about the impact of the significant scale, intensity of use, and scope of Grace’s activities on their property values,” representatives from Grace responded “that they understood that Grace Farms was generally perceived as having a positive impact on New Canaan property values,” according to minutes of the meeting taken by a neighbor and sent June 20 to town officials. “The neighbors noted that visitors to their properties have likened the view of Grace Farms to that of an industrial park or an airport, depending upon the time of day, and noted the detrimental impact of regular and virtually unrestricted use of Grace Farms on their safety, security and privacy, which have resulted in a material negative impact on the value and salability of their properties. The Grace representatives continued to emphasize their view that Grace Farms enhances general public perceptions of New Canaan and property value generally in New Canaan, as if the points we just raised relative to our specific properties—all of which directly abut Grace Farms—had not registered with them.”
The discussion also touched on a looming 2-story structure originally depicted as a “shed” in site plans, as well as noise, lighting, long hours and volume of visitors—concerns that Grace personnel previously had dismissed, according to the minutes, obtained by NewCanaanite.com, making it seem “disingenuous for them to be interested in acting like good neighbors now.”
Based on past dealings with people at Grace, “we had not been interacting with an organization whose ‘tone at the top’ was focused on being a good neighbor,” the minutes said.
