Government

Neighbors Support Plan for Proposed Garage To Replace Dilapidated Carter Street Shed

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Neighbors are voicing support for a Carter Street homeowner’s plans to create a three-car garage where a dilapidated shed now stands. The proposal for 306 Carter St. requires modest variances from the New Canaan Zoning Regulations for two reasons. First, the new garage would put the property, which includes an antique root cellar and stone well pump house, about 360 square feet over maximum allowable coverage (see page 57 here), according to the applicant. Second, the single-story garage would sit about 27 feet from a rear yard setback, in lieu of a required 35 (page 58), homeowner Doug Harris said in an application filed this month with Planning & Zoning.

Business

Walter Stewart’s Seeks Variance for New Rooftop Condenser; Seminary Street Neighbors Object

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An attorney representing one of New Canaan’s best-established businesses is seeking permission from the town to maintain a rooftop condenser unit that reaches .75 inches higher than regulations allow. Installed two summers ago, the condenser atop Walter Stewart’s Market also is located about four feet closer to the westerly edge of the roof at 229 Elm St. than allowed in the New Canaan Zoning Regulations, according to an application filed with the town by Steve Finn of Stamford-based Wofsey, Rosen, Kweskin & Kuriansky LLP. 

In making his case for the variance to the Zoning Board of Appeals, Finn noted that “the Walter Stewart’s Market buildings were build prior to the enactment of the zoning regulations” whose limits in the Business A zone on the maximum height of buildings and location of rooftop appurtenances such as the condenser now require formal permission from the town. “The location and height of the new condenser unit would be in compliance with the zoning regulations up until approximately 1982 when the current restrictions on height first started to appear in the New Canaan Zoning Regulations,” Finn said in a statement of hardship filed on behalf of the market. 

“The application of the height requirement retroactively to buildings constructed in 1978 and 1957 would make it virtually impossible to have environmentally efficient up-to-date code and industry-compliant mechanicals necessary to safety operate the Applicant’s grocery store,” he said. 

Finn continued: “A hardship results from the amendment to the zoning regulations decreasing the maximum building height which was enacted after the [Applicant] bought the property for its grocery business and constructed the buildings on the site. It would not only be a hardship but unfair to require the Applicant to comply with a zoning regulation which was changed after the property was purchased and the buildings were constructed.

News

Orchard Drive Homeowner Seeks Permission To Build Second Story

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The new owner of a 1947-built Orchard Drive home is seeking permission from the town to construct a second floor over part of the house. Though it does not predate the New Canaan Zoning Regulations, the 1,769-square-foot, four-bedroom Cape Cod-style home at 111 Orchard Drive encroaches on the front yard setback by mere inches in two places, according to a recently completed survey of the property, officials say. The .35-acre property, located in the “A Residential” zone, was purchased for $775,000 in October, tax records show. Under the New Canaan Zoning Regulations, a nonconforming structure in the zone may only be enlarged if it complies with the regs or gets a variance from the Zoning Board of Appeals (see page 158 here). The ZBA is scheduled to take up the application at its regular meeting Monday night.

Around Town

Did You Hear … ?

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Tuesday saw one of the all-time worst parking jobs on Elm Street. Passersby and downtown workers wandered outside as events unfolded after a motorist parked the nose of a Volvo wagon in the handicapped space in front of Dunkin Donuts. The car was towed. ***

Parks officials said Wednesday that the town received about 230 applications for nonresident family permits to Waveny Pool. The town sold 120 of the permits—the Parks & Recreation Commission recommended they sell for $1,200 apiece—following a May 1 lottery.

Government

Neighbors Voice Concerns Over Proposed Two-Family House on Raymond Street

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Saying a new two-family home would bring excessive traffic to their short residential street and that an application to allow for such is without merit and makes no accommodation for parking, neighbors of a vacant .36-acre parcel on Raymond Street at a recent meeting voiced concerns to town officials. Under the New Canaan Zoning Regulations, a property in the B Residential Zone must have a lot diameter of at least 100 feet in order for its owner to apply for a special permit to build a two-family home on it (see page 42 here). Yet the lot in question is 87.8 feet wide, according to an application for a variance from its owners—a company whose principals are Marcin Pyda, Marta Yaniv and Viktor Lahodyuk, according to records on file with the Connecticut Secretary of the State. Saying he would welcome a single-family home on the lot, William Wartinbee, an immediate neighbor with four kids, urged members of the Zoning Board of Appeals at their most recent meeting to deny the application to build a two-family home there. “The hardship claim for this property does not have any merit,” Wartinbee said during the ZBA’s April 2 meeting, held at Town Hall.