Commission Hears Waveney's Parcel E Senior Housing Plan

Parks and Recreation · Meeting of September 9, 2026

New Canaan Parks and Recreation Commission hears pitch for 150-unit senior housing complex on parkland. Waveney Life Care Network CEO Russ Barksdale told the commission the nonprofit provides over $3 million a year in uncompensated care to New Canaan residents and faces a six-and-a-half-year long-term care waitlist, but residents challenged whether a deed restriction on the proposed "Parcel E" site actually permits a health care facility. Resident Sally Jones said "that ain't affordability, buddy," disputing entrance fees of $1.5 million to $2.5 million.

Another resident cited Connecticut's parkland-replacement statute, Section 7-131n. No vote was taken. Separately, the commission pushed a $500,000 Merritt Parkway Trail berm-and-realignment project to its October 14 meeting after cross-country officials objected to rerouting the trail's finish stretch, and approved Planet New Canaan's pumpkin and tree collection programs.

In the full story:

• Who Was There
• Organizations And Documents Referenced
• The complete report — 3,037 words

Source: the Parks and Recreation meeting of September 9, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.

The Full Article

Consent Items: Roll Call and July Minutes

The commission opened with a roll call of members Jordan Singer, Hank Green, Doug Murphy, George Pennington, Jeff Blatt, John Pumple, Sue Leone, Lindsay Aaron, David Shea, a member recorded in the roll call as Minami Karni but addressed throughout the meeting as Melanie, and Gene Goodman. Doug Murphy moved to approve the minutes of the commission's July 8 meeting; the motion carried with one abstention.

Planet New Canaan: Pumpkin and Tree Collection Programs

Heather Bollinger, representing the nonprofit Planet New Canaan, asked the commission to approve two of the group's recurring diversion programs. The pumpkin collection, which kept more than 15,000 pounds of pumpkins out of the landfill last year, is requested for November 27 through 29, 2026, from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., co-located with the Exchange Club's holiday tree lot. Bollinger asked for an extended window, through December 7, to remove the pumpkins in case of bad weather, longer than last year's timeline.

The companion "tree cycle" program, which diverts about 800 Christmas trees a year from the landfill, has historically operated out of the Steve Banco pool parking lot, which is unavailable this year. Bollinger proposed relocating it to the Exchange Club's tree-lot site at Kiwanis Park, running December 26, 2026 through January 11, 2027, with chipping the week of January 11 through 15. The chipped material is trucked to the Nature Center and spread on trails. A commissioner asked whether the parks department wanted any of the resulting wood chips for its own trails; Bollinger said the Nature Center uses them but Kiwanis Park does not need them. The commission approved both programs on a motion made by Melanie and seconded by Sue Leone, with one recorded abstention.

Merritt Parkway Trail Project: Section 3 Berm Extension

Background and stakes: The Waveney Park Conservancy has been working since last fall on a seven-stage plan to reduce sight and sound impacts from the Merritt Parkway on its trail network, following community feedback that the trail was unpleasant near the highway. The conservancy completed 100 percent design development this year and returned to ask whether it could proceed with construction on Section 3, one of the plan's more expensive stages.

The question before the body: Whether to approve moving forward with Section 3 — extending two existing sound berms and rerouting roughly 200 feet of trail away from the parkway into the woods — or to wait for additional data.

Substantive content: Executive Director Michelle Crookenden and a board member identified only as Val presented findings from a landscape firm's decibel testing (referred to in the meeting as Harrod's Landscapes and, at another point, Heritage Landscapes): the western berm near Lapham Road reduces parkway noise by 29 percent, and the eastern berm near South Avenue reduces it by more than 50 percent. The plan would extend those berms, add a vegetative buffer citing Federal Highway Administration and USDA Forest Service research on visual noise mitigation, and fill in the old trail alignment to improve what the presenters described as a low-biodiversity section of woodland. The project also includes a new infrared, non-camera trail counter installed this fall to gather usage data. Estimated cost is about $500,000, with the conservancy proposing to match roughly 50 percent from previously allocated town funds — described as approximately $680,000 currently set aside for the conservancy's use on a matching basis.

The deliberation: Commissioners, including Doug Murphy and David Shea, pressed for specifics: how long the realigned section would be (estimated at roughly 75 yards), how long construction would take, and whether the town would face resident questions about spending. "I think both listening and improvement is great, but people ask us, you know, why did we do this," one commissioner said, adding that residents deserve a clear rationale before equipment moves in. Val and Crookenden said informing the public with signage was planned. Commissioners also asked whether construction timing would affect the high school cross-country team; Crookenden said the conservancy had consulted Athletic Director Jay Egan, who did not object as long as work avoided the fall season.

Procedural steps and outcome: No vote to approve construction was taken. The commission asked the conservancy to return at its October 14 meeting with trail-counter usage data and cost-benefit information before deciding whether to advance funding requests to other town bodies.

Implications and what is next: The conservancy said it would present usage numbers, likely available this fall, at the October 14 meeting. Because town funding requires approval from a separate town body, no construction can begin until after that meeting at the earliest.

Western Porch Native Plantings at Waveney House

Crookenden and Val also presented a schematic landscaping plan for the western porch of Waveney House, funded by private donors, that would add native, low-maintenance perennials and shrubs to screen the parking lot and dumpster from view without blocking porch sightlines, and formalize pathways from the forecourt to the back lawn. The presenters said the plan had been scaled back from an earlier, more extensive concept discussed with parks staff over the summer. They asked to return in October with cost estimates and a more finished design; no vote was requested or taken.

Lapham Community Center Annual Report

Kathy Collins, who has directed the Lapham Community Center for about a year after five years on its staff, succeeding a longtime director referred to as Aggie, gave the commission its annual update. She introduced her team: John Howard, director of parks and recreation; Anna Isler, the center's new program manager; a part-time event specialist referred to as Stephanie, who holds a doctorate in literature and teaches literature classes at the center; and Marcy Rand, whom Collins described as executive director of both a social-services organization and the Lapham Center.

Collins said Lapham serves New Canaan residents 21 and older, though most participants are over 60, and hosts resident groups including a decades-long bridge club whose members range in age from 80 to 99, plus the Rotary Club, book and investment groups, and a New Canaan Landmark ornament-painting group tied to the Historical Society. She read several resident quotes about the center's impact, including one about a widower.

"Lapham brought me back to life after my wife died. And Lapham is the jewel of New Canaan. And I really hope you see what a jewel it really is by coming in, participating." [00:49:59] — attendee quote read by Kathy Collins, director, Lapham Community Center

Collins highlighted the center's Medicare counseling program, which she said has logged 5,637 appointments and saved residents more than $4.6 million since 2011, with open enrollment running October 15 through December 7. She said the center has fielded 12 to 16 requests for volunteer Medicare counselors to replace longtime volunteer Dick Neville, who is on hiatus after 20 years. Projected attendance for the current year is roughly 29,000 to 30,000, with the center reaching an estimated 11 percent of the town's 60-to-69 population, 22 percent of residents age 70 to 79, and 37 percent of those 80 to 99, based on 2021 census figures. No vote was requested; commissioners thanked Collins and asked no substantive questions.

Waveney Life Care Network's Proposed Senior Life Plan Community on Parcel E

Background and stakes: New Canaan has roughly 80 age-restricted housing units, according to Waveney board member Rich Townsend, and the town has searched unsuccessfully for a senior-housing site for at least two decades, according to Barksdale, in part because construction and parking-structure costs made prior sites unworkable. Waveney Life Care Network, the nonprofit operator of Waveney Care Center and related senior-care facilities on Farm Road, has identified Parcel E — a roughly 50-acre, town-owned tract off Lapham Road commonly called the mulch pile — as a possible site for a new "life plan community."

The question before the body: Barksdale and Townsend were explicit that this was a listening session, not a vote. "We are not voting on any," Barksdale said at the outset, before the presentation began.

Substantive content: The proposed community would include about 150 independent-living units on roughly 20 of Parcel E's 50 acres, in a two-story building with underground parking designed to be visually consistent with the historic Waveney House. Financially, Barksdale and a Waveney colleague identified only as Amy described the model as neither a purchase nor a rental: residents would pay an entrance fee — described in the range of $1.5 million to $2.5 million depending on unit size — of which roughly 90 percent would be refunded to the resident or their heirs upon moving out or death, plus a monthly fee in the range of $6,000 to $11,000 that would not rise with the resident's level of care, only with inflation. Barksdale said the network currently provides more than $3 million a year in uncompensated care to New Canaan residents, a figure he projected would grow to $4.5 million and potentially $6 million to $8 million within a decade without new capacity. He said the network's long-term care waiting list stands at six and a half years and that it can accept only four of every ten New Canaan residents seeking short-term rehabilitation beds, prompting a 30-bed rehab expansion at Farm Road due to open in spring 2028.

On the legal question central to the evening, Townsend said independent attorneys retained by Waveney concluded that a life plan community is consistent with Parcel E's deed restriction, which limits use to "recreation, health, horticulture" and open-space purposes. He said the parcel was purchased separately by the town and was not part of the original Ruth Lapham gift that established the surrounding Waveney parkland, which he said is why its deed language differs from parcel to parcel across what he called the five-parcel "Waveney Zone."

Resident Sally Jones, calling in, disputed that interpretation directly, citing her own attorney's reading of the deed.

"The term health, according to my lawyer, refers to lifestyle — horseback riding, walking trails. It does not permit the erection of a health care related facility, unlike Section C, where Farm Road is." [02:17:15 nearest indexed marker area] — Sally Jones, resident, 423 South Avenue

Jones also questioned the project's affordability framing. "Rich, you keep — I counted 22 times you mentioned the word affordability. That ain't affordability, buddy, in my book," she said, noting entrance fees exceeding $1 million reach a narrow slice of residents.

A resident who gave her address as 1328 Old Stamford Road raised a separate legal objection, citing Connecticut General Statutes Section 7-131n, a state open-space law she said was amended in 2025 after a New Haven court case, which she said requires a municipality that converts dedicated parkland to another use to provide comparable replacement land of equal size and value, and to describe that replacement land at a public hearing before any agreement is reached. She asked the commission to develop such a plan before any memorandum of understanding is signed.

The deliberation: Commissioner David Shea asked whether the project was entirely contingent on a land lease from the town; Barksdale confirmed it was. Shea also asked whether the life plan community's revenue would offset Waveney's charity-care shortfall; Barksdale said it would help stabilize, not eliminate, the roughly $3 million annual gap. Another commissioner pressed on whether existing subsidized units at Waveney's facilities could count toward the town's affordable-housing inventory; Barksdale said the network does not currently receive credit for about $3.5 million in existing free or reduced-cost housing it provides and that the question of counting future units was still being worked out with the town.

Public comment, held to the end of the meeting per the chair's instructions, included both support and opposition. Resident Amy Kennedy asked how many New Canaan residents currently reside at Waveney Care Center (Barksdale said 76) and said the town's volunteer ambulance corps already responds to roughly 10 percent of its annual fall-related calls at existing Waveney facilities, warning that adding up to 200 more residents could strain volunteers the way it has in Wilton, where the ambulance corps now pays Norwalk Hospital to staff daytime weekday shifts.

"So that's asking the town and the volunteers an awful lot, to tax them so much more." [01:11:07 approx.] — Amy Kennedy, resident

Barksdale responded that a Waveney board member, Liz Zaya, serves with the town's emergency medical services, and said the town's aging population would strain EMS resources regardless of the project. Chase Ashley, a Conrad Road resident representing the town's disc golf course, said he supported the project as long as it did not expand north of the mulch field, where several holes are sited close to the boundary. Amy Murphy Carroll, a 30-year resident who said she spent her career investing in senior communities, urged neighbors to keep an open mind and criticized anonymous mailers she said contained misleading information about the project. Paul Fitzpatrick, of Summit Ridge Road, said a facility of 150 to 200 residents and roughly 50 employees, with associated parking and food-delivery traffic, would make the park "much less park-like."

Procedural steps and outcome: No motion was made and no vote was taken. Barksdale said Waveney's next step, pending continued community meetings, would be to ask the town for permission to conduct topographic and wetlands studies on Parcel E.

Implications and what is next: The project has no application pending before any town board. Its future depends on resolving the deed-restriction dispute, on the town's own interpretation of the 2025-amended state parkland statute, and on further community meetings Waveney said it intends to hold. No date was set for the commission to revisit the topic.

Director of Parks and Recreation Report

John Howard, director of parks and recreation, reported that the Kiwanis Park pool closed for the season, and that the department is holding an event for special-needs children at Kiwanis in October, with a date still to be set. He said a middle school track and field program, previously run informally by a high school coach, has been formalized as a parks and recreation program for both boys and girls. He also said the department has applied for a forestry grant to fund tree removal and substantial new plantings at Kiwanis Park, and that the department has received complaints about electric and standard bicycles on trails and may add signage.

On capital projects, Howard said the elevator installation at Waveney House is nearing completion, and that scaffolding will go up in March 2027 and remain through November to complete roof recoating and stop water intrusion into the building in a single season rather than the multi-year approach used previously; the number of weddings booked during that window has dropped from about 30 to five, with the town offering full deposit refunds to couples who wished to cancel. He said carpet replacement in the Lapham Center basement is approved and on order, with a hoped-for early October completion, though the timeline was uncertain. He had no update on a proposed pickleball court project, saying the department is still working with designers.

Commission members present (per roll call): Jordan Singer, Hank Green, Doug Murphy, George Pennington (presided over the meeting), Jeff Blatt, John Pumple, Sue Leone, Lindsay Aaron, David Shea, a member recorded as Minami Karni but addressed as Melanie, and Gene Goodman.

Staff: John Howard, Director of Parks and Recreation; Kathy Collins, Director, Lapham Community Center; Anna Isler, Program Manager, Lapham Community Center; Marcy Rand, executive director of a social-services organization and of the Lapham Center; a part-time event specialist referred to as Stephanie; a parks department staff member referred to as Tiger.

Outside presenters: Heather Bollinger, Planet New Canaan; Michelle Crookenden, executive director, Waveney Park Conservancy; a Waveney Park Conservancy board member referred to as Val; Russ Barksdale, president and CEO, Waveney Life Care Network; Rich Townsend, board member, Waveney Life Care Network; an unnamed Waveney colleague referred to as Amy who explained the project's financial structure.

Public commenters: an unidentified man who said he lives on Conrad Road (questioned the trail realignment and the housing proposal); Jim Gerwick, director of the town's Summer Cross Country Series and co-meet director of the FCIAC high school cross-country championship; Chase Ashley, 104 Conrad Road, representing the town's disc golf course; Amy Kennedy, a longtime resident who said she has lived on Old Stamford Road; an unidentified woman who distributed historical documents about the Lapham parcels; a resident who gave her address as 1328 Old Stamford Road; Amy Murphy Carroll, a roughly 30-year resident; Sally Niffin, 223 Main Street; Paul Fitzpatrick, Summit Ridge Road; a caller identified only as Tracy, of Park Road; a caller identified as Jen, of 96 Richmond Hill Road; Jennifer Zona, 893 North Bolton Road, who was invited to respond as a town council member but spoke as a resident; Sally Jones, 423 South Avenue.

Planet New Canaan — nonprofit that operates the annual pumpkin and Christmas tree diversion programs discussed in item one. Exchange Club of New Canaan — hosts the annual holiday tree lot that Planet New Canaan's collection programs are co-located with. Waveney Park Conservancy — nonprofit managing roughly 130 acres around Waveney House; presented the Merritt Parkway Trail and western porch planting items. Waveney Life Care Network — nonprofit operator of Waveney Care Center, the Inn on Oak Ridge, and Farm Road assisted living/memory care; proposed the Parcel E life plan community. A landscape design firm referred to in the meeting as both Harrod's Landscapes and Heritage Landscapes — conducted decibel testing behind the Merritt Parkway berms. Federal Highway Administration and USDA Forest Service — cited for research on vegetative visual barriers reducing perceived highway noise. Connecticut General Statutes Section 7-131n — cited by a resident as requiring comparable replacement parkland and a public hearing before dedicated parkland is converted to another use; she said it was amended in 2025 following a New Haven court case. Schoolhouse Apartments — cited by Rich Townsend as an existing source of income-restricted senior housing in town. Waveney.org FAQ page — cited by Russ Barksdale as the network's public information source on the proposal.