New Canaan’s town planner leaves job
NEW CANAAN — Town Planner Lynn Brooks Avni has left her position and Assistant Planner and Zoning Enforcement Officer Sarah Carey will be taking over many of her responsibilities for the time being.
Human Resource Director Cheryl Jones said she did not know whether Avni took another similar position after she left on Jan. 11, but planner positions are in demand in the state.
“There are currently over seven communities looking for planners” or zoning enforcement officers,” Jones told Hearst on Monday. Glastonbury, West Haven, Meriden and Stonington have similar positions open, according to listings online. Simsbury has an opening for assistant town planner on its job website.
The town planner oversees the Planning and Zoning Department and works closely with land-use boards, including the Planning and Zoning Commission and the Zoning Board of Appeals. The department provides guidance to residents regarding land use, processes building applications, provides administrative support to members of the land-use bodies and enforces zoning and subdivision regulations.
Avni was hired in 2018 after nearly a decade in planning and zoning. She was director of planning and economic development in Ossining, N.Y., and worked in Greenwich and New Orleans before that.
Carey was promoted to assistant town planner recently after being hired as an assistant zoning inspector in January 2022. Before coming to New Canaan, she was a zoning and wetlands enforcement officer for the city of Derby, where she started in 2021.
Carey graduated summa cum laude from Virginia Tech in 2020 and holds a degree in geography, including Geographic Information System and land use planning.
The planner and the
Planning and Zoning Department have been involved in creating the plan for affordable housing required by 8-30j. Three recent applications that have come across the desks in the department have been for highly controversial affordable housing 8-30g developments. The 8-30g law allows builders to largely circumvent local zoning laws.
Two 8-30g developments were rejected by the planning and zoning commission, including a 101unit building on the corner of Elm and Weed streets and another one two doors down from Town Hall for a 20-unit building, expanding an antique Queen Anne house. A 26-unit affordable housing development on Burtis Avenue was recently approved.