Government

‘A Reasonable Compromise Has To Be Worked Out’: P&Z Weighs In on Merritt Village Proposal

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Questions about the viability of a new parking system, guarantees regarding the set-aside of some below-market units and the potential that a condo-and-apartment complex could loom conspicuously over parts of Park Street rank high among outstanding concerns regarding the proposed development at Merritt Apartments, the chairman of the New Canaan Planning & Zoning Commission said Tuesday night. Most of all, perhaps, the Merritt Village as proposed—a plan that would see 123 units built on a combined 3.29-acre parcel at the edge of downtown New Canaan where 38 now exist—raises questions about “the density of the whole project,” P&Z Chairman John Goodwin said during a public hearing. “One component is—is four stories the right answer or should it be three?—which effectively becomes three-and-a-half [stories] with a roof,” Goodwin said during the hearing, which drew a standing-room only crowd at Town Hall. “And as the planner has noted, there is the issue of how many units. The planner has shared with the commission his analysis that if we were to apply the current most dense project in New Canaan to [the Merritt Village] project, the number that would fall out would be 95 units, so that is a challenge.

Government

‘I’m Just Worried About the Scale’: P&Z Raises Concerns About Proposed Mixed-Use Building on Park Street

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Though a proposed new mixed-use building on Park Street meets New Canaan’s development guidelines generally in terms of planning for housing and streetscapes, it could dramatically alter an important vista downtown if it’s located too close to the road, officials say. Replacing the small 1.5-story house at 121 Park St. with a two-story retail-and-residential structure that sits just five feet off of the sidewalk may not work “if you look at any context of the elevation looking down that street,” according to Planning & Zoning Commissioner Dan Radman, an architect. “All of us drive down that street multiple times a day—you are going to have a 2.5-story structure right at the corner of that transformer, looming over Park Street,” Radman said during the group’s regular monthly meeting, held March 29 at Town Hall. “That creates a condition going southbound on Park Street which has a very will create a very large impression on the street, in particular because you have a got a new structure existing past [Mrs. Green’s] by about eight or 10 feet.

Government

New Mixed-Use Retail-and-Residential Building Proposed for Park Street

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The owner of a Park Street property that abuts Mrs. Green’s is seeking to replace the small house that stands there now with a new mixed-use retail-and-residential building. In lieu of the 1.5-story, 1,278-square-foot structure that now stands at 121 Park St.—an oddly shaped lot once considered as a finalist for the new U.S. Postal Service branch in New Canaan—a 2-story building would go up, with 2,227 square feet for commercial space on the first floor and the same square footage divided between two residential units on the second floor. The proposal is in line with the document that guides land use and development in New Canaan and would increase parking, boost housing options, enhance the area’s character and—because it would be constructed directly up against the southern edge of the current Mrs. Green’s building—do away with the unsightly alley that now runs downgrade there, according to the applicant. The new housing would be in “very close proximity to the train station and is otherwise in keeping with the surrounding neighborhood,” according to documents on file with the town’s Planning & Zoning Department. They’re part of a larger application—filed on behalf of the property’s owners by attorney Stephen Finn of Stamford-based Wofsey, Rosen, Kweskin & Kuriansky LLP—that calls for a zone change for the property, amendments to the zoning regulations and a special permit.

News

Neighbors Oppose Planned Freestanding 3-Car Garage at Michigan and Lukes Wood Roads

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Saying a plan to erect a freestanding, three-bay garage near the corner of Michigan and Lukes Wood Roads lacks specifics on use and lighting, isn’t in keeping with the neighborhood and whose proposed driveway could present a safety hazard on a blind curve, nearby property owners told planning officials last week that they’re adamantly opposed to it. Marty Yudkovitz of 440 Michigan Road told the Planning & Zoning Commission at its regular meeting on April 28 that, if approved as originally submitted, the proposed 24-by-30-foot garage at 81 Lukes Wood Road would appear to the world to be located in his own front yard, diminishing his property’s value. Though it seemed a straightforward proposal at first, “the more we looked at it, it raised just a lot of red flags,” Yudkovitz told the commission at its meeting, held in the Sturgess Room at the New Canaan Nature Center. The first of those flags emerged about one year ago when a new, driveway-width wooden gate appeared one day cut into a longstanding stone wall along Michigan Road, he said. “We didn’t know whether permission was needed, we don’t know if permission was received—it doesn’t seem to have been,” Yudkovitz said.