CORNWALL — With the homes selling for roughly triple pre-pandemic prices in Cornwall, solutions for attracting young families to town are in high demand.
More than 50 community members gathered at the Cornwall Library Feb. 22 to brainstorm potential uses of a 12-acre plot at 282 Kent Road.
The session was hosted by Cornwall Housing Corporation and Litchfield County Center for Housing Opportunity (LCCHO), who aim to develop the land with up to 24 affordable units.
LCCHO Director Jocelyn Ayer described the project as “very early days” and the goal of the forum was to learn “the community vision for this site.”
The property is owned by David Berto, a housing consultant who purchased it at a tax lien sale in 2023. CHC has the option to buy the land from Berto for the purpose of creating housing.
Brownfield testing is underway courtesy of a grant from Northwest Hills Council of Governments. Previous testing conducted in 2004 and 2005 found heavy metals in the land and hydrocarbons in the groundwater.
Berto said at that time the owners “basically removed all of the surface contamination, so we don’t think there’s much left now but we don’t know yet.”
After a brief breakdown of the lay of the land, attendees split into five groups to design their vision for the site. Topographical maps were distributed to each team with paper cutouts to place residential units on the property.
Ideas abounded at the affordable housing forum in Cornwall Feb. 22. Riley Klein
Ideas flourished and each group presented to the forum.
The consensus was to maximize the number of residential units, which was determined to be 24. Rental units were preferred by most groups due to space-saving qualities and the expressed need by individuals on the housing waitlist.
Most designs consolidated the structures to preserve as much open space as possible.
Some popular ideas were solar panels, either on the roofs or in an open field, bear-proof trash receptacles, rural aesthetic for the structures, a nature trail and courtyards for residents.
Consideration was given to creating community spaces for the greater public to utilize. These included a park and playground, community gardens along the road, and a community center.
Ayer thanked everyone for contributing to the forum and encouraged residents to stay involved in the process.
Environmental testing of the property will go through the fall of 2025. Ayer said another forum will be scheduled when the evaluation produces results.
Fierce action from both teams commenced right from the opening face-off, and it looked to be an equal battle. Dakota Boyle and Ainsley Moffitt scored quickly for Kent giving them a 2-0 lead after only six minutes.
Kent's Ainsley Moffitt takes a shot against the Millbrook goalie.Photo by Lans Christensen
The second period started, again with fast but equal aggression from both teams. The Millbrook and Kent goalies were sharp, turning away chance after chance for the bulk of the period.
Millbrook’s Brooke Ness found the net near the end of the second period, as did Lily Kennedy and the game was tied 2-2.
Lily Kennedy on attack for Millbrook.Photo by Lans Christensen.
Excitement grew throughout the contest and the final period started with high hopes from both teams and fans. The two sides traded goals, only adding to the drama.
The deciding moment came when Kent's Abby Roberson scored the game-winning goal, securing a tough but deserved 4-3 victory for Kent.
Kent's record advanced to 7-12-1 and Millbrook moved to 6-10-3.
Ainsley Moffitt celebrates after scoring a goal for Kent.Photo by Lans Christensen
Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.
Laurie Fendrich and Peter Plagens at home in front of one of Plagens’s paintings.
“He was doing critiques with everyone,” Fendrich said of Plagens. “We met at one of those sessions and, well, what can I say. We fell in love instantly.”
Fendrich speaks candidly about the pressures that shaped her early life choices. “We both married the first time at 21, which a good number of women of my generation did without much thought.” Her first husband was a good guy, she says, but “we weren’t suited for each other at all, even though he suited my parents perfectly.” Her decision to get a divorce was seismic. “My mother didn’t speak to me for a year.” Time softened the rupture. “One day she told me, ‘I see now why you left.’”
Fendrich had a rigorous liberal arts education at Mount Holyoke. “I studied painting and drawing, but I also got interested in political philosophy. Plato, Aristotle, Machiavelli — Rousseau was my big guy — Tocqueville, everybody. And I still read them.” Plagens’s path was less formal. “I went to USC at 17,” he said, “and declared English as my major. It was a frat school, and I was in one for the first two years. Then I started doing the cartoons for the Daily Trojan, took a couple art classes, and thought, ‘Wait a minute, I like this.’”
Culturally, they diverged just as sharply. “I came from a fairly puritanical family that didn’t even go to the movies,” Fendrich said. Plagens, by contrast, grew up immersed in pop culture. “My father was an omnivorous reader,” he said, “and a jazz fan, and he shared these passions with me.” In 1966, Plagens walked into Artforum’s LA office and said, “I want to write reviews.” He was paid five dollars per piece. “Gasoline was 23 cents a gallon, so it went a long way.”
Over time, the couple slowly fused their educations. “He taught me jazz, I taught him Mozart,” Fendrich said with a laugh. “I’ve had a movie education from him; he read Jane Austen because of me.”
Plagens and Fendrich at home in front of some of Fendrich’s paintings. Natalia Zukerman
During their early years in LA, Plagens taught at USC, and Fendrich at Art Center College of Design. In 1985, they decided “our kind of abstraction would do better in New York,” as Fendrich put it. “So, we up and moved to Tribeca with $10,000 and a toddler.”
Both artists grounded their artistic careers in teaching and writing. “Teaching, which I loved, gave me the financial stability to be an artist,” Fendrich said, reflecting on her 27 years as a professor at Hofstra. “It meant that being an artist didn’t require I make money from every show. I didn’t start writing until 1999, but though I write for publication frequently, I make hardly any money at it.”
Artistically, they guard each other’s independence. “We have unspoken rules,” Plagens said. “You don’t comment on someone’s work while they’re in the middle of creating it.” Critique comes by invitation only. “He’s not mean, just direct,” said Fendrich. Over time, their aesthetics have subtly converged. “My work has gotten cleaner from looking at his,” she said. “He’s gotten more colorful because of me.”
The two have had several two-person exhibitions. At a recent duo show at the Texas Gallery in Houston “Laurie’s paintings flew off the wall,” Plagens recalled. “Me, well, not so much.”
Plagens’s parallel career in journalism shaped their lives in tangible ways. He worked as art critic at Newsweek from 1989 until 2003 and currently contributes reviews of museum exhibitions to The Wall Street Journal. “Being at Newsweek was one of the luckiest breaks I ever had,” he said. “They paid me to see things I would gladly pay to see.”
Their creative processes mirror their personalities. “I start with a specific idea,” Fendrich said, “and then modify things as I paint.” Plagens laughed. “I start with complete mush, just blurting it out and spending the rest of the time fixing it.”
In 2019, they made what Fendrich calls “a decision of contraction.” They left the TriBeCa loft they had lived in for three decades, sold their Catskills home with its large studio, and moved full-time to a former auto repair shop in Lakeville, now a house where each has a studio, and the ground floor retains the open feel of a loft.
What sustains them in life, art and love, decades in, are endless conversations — and arguments — about art, history, exhibitions, books and movies. That exchange, ongoing and rigorous, may just be the masterpiece of their shared life.
Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.
