Politics & Government

Irwin Park Development Requires P&Z's Approval

Irwin Park is a park, but the Park and Recreation Commission doesn't have full authority to develop it.

Town Planner Steve Kleppin has reiterated in an e-mail that Irwin Park is in fact a park, but that since it is situated in a residential zone the construction of facilities there requires a special permit.

Kleppin's remarks came Friday in response to a letter New Canaan open space advocate Tanya Bickley e-mailed to the local media and town officials. An application for a permit to build a parking lot at 848 Weed St. is on the agenda for the Planning and Zoning Commission's Dec. 15 meeting, but Bickley noted that the legal notice about the hearing does not identify the location as Irwin Park.

The oversight again resurrected questions over the status of the park first raised last month at the League of Women Voter's forum on how New Canaan's parks are developed.

Planning and Zoning Commission Chairman Lazslo Papp said then that he "wasn't sure" that his commission would agree to establish the special zone for the park that the Park and Recreation Commission wants in order to execute the master plan for Irwin, which includes the parking lot, with out having to secure special permits every step of the way.

"Irwin Park is in a residential zone," Papp said at the forum. "If it was not a residential zone then our authority to protect the residential neighborhood would diminish."

That comment provoked the ire of Bickley and others worried that the interests of a handful of nearby residents would supersede the planned use of the property by the community at large. And they wondered what then was meant by the referendum five years ago in which voters decided 2,310 to 1,432 to approve a $20 million appropriation to buy the 36.2 acres for "parkland" use.

Town Attorney Chris Jarboe said in an interview that the designation of the property as parkland means that it is open for public enjoyment and that if New Canaan ever wanted to sell or put a road through the property, the town would have to come up with a replacement parcel.

The zoning, however, is a separate matter.

Other than Irwin and Waveny, all of New Canaan's parks fall under the Park, Recreation, and Open Space Zone, allowing playgrounds, recreation areas, greenways, and open space without a special permit; new structures still require the Planning and Zoning Commission's approval. The Waveny Zone gives the Park and Recreation Commission authority to determine how the Waveny Park buildings and land under its jurisdiction are used. The Park and Recreation Commission wants the same powers over Irwin Park so that decisions over the use of Irwin don't have to be made piecemeal and are not slowed by having to go through multiple town bodies.

A zoning change application for Irwin Park has not yet been submitted.


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