New Canaan subcommittee hires Amenta Emma to study three town lots; members press parking, value and outreach questions

Krista Nielsen, chair of the Town of New Canaan Affordable Housing Committee’s Project Development Subcommittee, opened the Nov. 10 meeting by introducing consultants from Amenta Emma and outlining the scope: the firm will prepare base information for three town-owned sites, develop two site-plan options per site and return with a recommended preferred option after public feedback.

"They're going to develop 2 site plan options for each sites to explore the maximum residential unit yield based on different parking and building configurations," Nielsen said, describing a schedule that calls for initial plans in December, a January presentation (tentatively Jan. 12) and public outreach in January–February before refinement in March–April and a recommendation by May.

Consultant Jeremy Jamalkowski, senior project designer at Amenta Emma, walked members through existing-conditions slides for each lot and emphasized transit connections at the largest site. "This is not designs. They're just the existing conditions with sort of notes on that," Jamalkowski said as he began the Lumberyard-site review, adding that the Lumberyard has a unique walkable connection to the train station that will be important for any transit-oriented development (TOD).

On the Lumberyard site, consultants called out five distinct edge conditions: a street-facing retail/frontage edge, a steep grade drop, a problematic interface where the lot abuts the train-station parcel, a chain-link fence along the railroad and a tall wall with adjacent parking. Members flagged visibility from across the tracks, truck and loading access for nearby commercial tenants, and circulation as major design constraints.

Committee members repeatedly raised parking as a primary policy constraint. Nielsen reminded the group that the committee had instructed consultants to avoid a "no net loss of the public parking that was currently on the sites." Members asked the consultants to show multiple parking ratios in the options and to note where structured (deck or garage) parking might be required to meet both town needs and unit yields.

Bill Perrette pressed the group on how to measure the town’s opportunity cost when land is held for affordable housing rather than commercial or mixed-use redevelopment. "...understand the value of the lot and what we're contributing and giving up," Perrette said, prompting members to agree that financial trade-offs and any strategy to realize value would be a policy conversation for elected officials rather than the consultants’ schematic task.

At the Park Street ("Richmond Hill") site the consultants described a smaller, neighborhood-oriented parcel with stronger single-family and multifamily interfaces. The group discussed retained parking, possible use of under-Walgreens parking and evolving downtown parking policies; Nielsen and others said on-site counts suggest some lots are used at less than 50% of capacity since COVID and asked staff to obtain permit/usage data from the parking office.

At the Locust/Lucas Street site the consultants highlighted slope advantages for stacked parking, the proximity of a firehouse that creates vehicle-access constraints, and an upper edge that abuts the town’s historic district — all reasons to be cautious about height, scale and egress design.

Members also suggested the Lumberyard site could be used creatively for civic or institutional uses (child care, Board of Education space) or for mixed-income housing, and asked that the final materials clearly articulate assumptions — parking ratios, comparison to current zoning, and order-of-magnitude cost estimates. The consultants said they will provide rough cost estimates ("order of magnitude") rather than detailed construction bids.

Nielsen offered to collect parking-usage data for the three sites and the subcommittee agreed Amenta Emma should return with the two-option schemes in January for a committee workshop and to plan public outreach. With no public commenters visible, a member moved to adjourn and Nielsen closed the meeting.

Next steps: Amenta Emma will develop two schematic options per site, the committee will review those in January, staff will provide parking-usage data, and the subcommittee plans public engagement in January–February prior to a March–April refinement and a targeted May recommendation to town leadership.