New Canaan P&Z faces lawsuit over planned school construction

The New Canaan Planning & Zoning Commission is being sued by a resident over its approval of a two-story, 25,000-square-foot athletic facility at New Canaan Country School.

According to the lawsuit filed in state Superior Court on behalf of plaintiff Katherine Moore, whose property abuts that of the school, the facility”™s location “is such that it will have more negative impact on the use, enjoyment and value of the Moore property than it would literally anywhere else on the 70-plus-acre school property.”

The complaint alleges that P&Z”™s decision to approve the project “is illegal, arbitrary, capricious and constitutes an abuse of discretion for a variety of reasons.” Among the reasons cited are that the school”™s initial application was incomplete and inaccurate and that the P&Z”™s decision involved “incomplete, nonconforming and illegal plans.”

“The commission ignored competent and unrefuted evidence offered by Moore that the facility could be located elsewhere on the school property, in a location that fully complied with the zoning regulations, and without impacting neighbors so severely, if at all, and which did not present the traffic or safety complications at the approved location,” according to the filing.

The lawsuit ”“ which maintains that the 45-foot-tall building will be located about 56 feet from the line with Moore”™s property ”“ seeks to reverse P&Z”™s decision, order a denial and “grant such other relief,” including costs, as allowed under state law.