Members of the Town Hall Building Committee have endorsed the so-called Scheme 2 for renovation of the town’s main building. The design would feature a new midsection and a skylight on the second floor. The committee opted to include a flat roof on the building to offer a clear view of the cupola atop Town Hall, which has stood since 1909.
“What everyone likes about it is, it’s much more of a campus feel. It doesn’t look like we put this thing in the middle of the parking lot,” said New Canaan First Selectman Robert Mallozzi III. “It’s really in keeping with a lot of the design elements in our town.”
The façade of the original building will be maintained, according to the committee.
The expanded Town Hall will include space for most of the departments that moved out when the building was closed in November ahead of the planned renovation. All the land-use departments – the building department, inland wetlands and planning and zoning – will return to Town Hall, while the parking department and fire marshal’s office will relocate to the New Canaan Police Department, Mallozzi said.
The Town Hall renovations will cost about $12 million, Mallozzi said, while soft costs in preparation for the construction will run about $2.5 million. The project will be paid for with bonded funds.
Residents will have their say on the proposal at a community meeting March 11 in the Wagner Room at New Canaan High School.
The Planning and Zoning Commission is expected to review the proposal March 26, Mallozzi said. Demolition of the current building could begin this summer and the project should be finished by summer 2015.
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