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NORTH CANAAN — The proposal to create a 20-lot subdivision along the Housatonic River is back on the agenda for the Planning and Zoning Commission.
After several public hearings in the fall of 2023, the application was withdrawn and amended based on commission, resident, and professional feedback. The proposal from contractor Allied Engineering was once more put to public hearing in Town Hall Monday, April 22.
The applicant is seeking approval to split the property, owned by Bruce McEver, into 20 buildable lots and to construct a new road built to town standards. The road will eventually be transferred to town ownership.
Drawings at the Public Hearing showed theoretical 5-bedroom houses on the lots, but the application is not seeking permission to build any homes.
The proposed road will be 26 feet wide and will have fire hydrants installed every 500 feet. A homeowners assocation (HOA) would be created for the subdivision.
The Inland Wetlands Commission has reviewed the amended application and approved it. There will be a conservation easement stretching 300-feet from the river’s edge to protect the inner corridor from construction. River-adjacent properties will own a portion of the conserved land, but the easement itself will be deeded to a land use group and a brush-cleared walking path will be added along the river.
During the fall hearings, many residents expressed concern over the use of Highland Lane (a private, dirt road) as the sole access to the subdivision. In response, the applicant has agreed to pave Highland Lane from Honey Hill Road to the proposed new road.
More than a dozen citizens raised lingering concerns and questions at the April 22 hearing, most related to the plans for Highland Lane.
“I am strongly opposed to the Town of North Canaan taking over a private road,” said Sue Boults. “No where in the Plan of Conservation and Development does it say that North Canaan wants to take over more roads or build more roads.”
Housatonic Valley Association’s Julia Rogers offered advice on alternative ways to structure the conservation easement: “Management of a conservation easement that crosses multiple parcels and doesn’t have road access can be really challenging for a land trust or other entity to manage and enforce. A better solution would be a single parcel that connects directly to the road.”
Naturalist and area conservationist Tom Zetterstrom thanked McEver for his efforts to remediate the property from invasive species. He asked clarifying questions about the land easement, which will be answered when the hearing continues May 13 at 7 p.m. in Town Hall.
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Built in 1914 this Cape Cod style home at 634 Main Street on 0.7 acres in Lakeville sold quickly for $630,000, above the asking price of $625,000.
Christine Bates
SALISBURY — Listed below are real estate sales during the month of March filed with the Town of Salisbury. Only transactions with a monetary value are included while transfers without consideration are excluded.
March 13, 2024
10 Cooper Hill Road, a 3 bedroom, 2 bath home on 5.11 acres sold by Virgina Knittel to Elizabeth and Peter Juusola for $629,500.
March 15, 2024
230 Lime Rock Road, a colonial home with pool and pond on 17.22 acres sold by Frances Cuneo to Benjamin and Kristen Fay Family Trust for $1,570,000.
March 15, 2024
5 Bloomer Lane, a small cabin with direct frontage on Washinee Lake, sold by Bloom Lane LLC to Angela Cho Yu and Xin Yu for $355,000.
March 18, 2024
234 Main Street, a 3 bedroom/1.5 bath home sold by John Gruen to Deborah Apsel Lang for $630,000.
March 20, 2024
63 Main Street, a 6 bedroom, 3.5 bath house with garage/apartment on 8.16 acres sold by Star Herrmann to Jonathan and Deborah Newcomb for $1,875,000.
March 25, 2024
177 Interlaken Road, a 4 bedroom/4 bath house sold by Nathan Family Trust to David Nathan for $1,462,500.
March 28, 2024
333 Main Street, a commercial building, sold by Roger and Christiana Rawlings to 333 Main Street LLC for $545,000.
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The coming of AI
May 01, 2024
Last weekend a group of us attended the New York Press Association 2024 conference in Saratoga Springs, New York, where editors, publishers, reporters, and advertising sales people gathered to take the collective pulse of the news industry and learn from each other. LJMN Media, Inc., the new nonprofit umbrella for The Lakeville Journal and The Millerton News, was right at home with the hundreds of other organizations that wanted to scope out what lies ahead for our industry.
We’ve all heard the stories about the troubles facing the industry. What we don’t hear enough is how much communities rely on a credible local news report to keep up with life in their own backyard. Studies tells us that readers are more likely to trust local news than national news and that has been the case for a while.
As we met in seminars and gathered together in the large hall of the historic Gideon Putnam resort hotel, it was readily apparent that the industry’s future depends on preserving that trust in local news. Over and over the point was made that the default for news readers was for local news.
It came as no surprise that AI (artificial intelligence) was a hot topic among journalists and business leaders. Many featured speakers had been lined up to present seminar discussions on AI. Many of those same speakers also began by noting that at other recent engagements they had been drafted to cover the topic. A recent sampling of journalists across the board revealed that 28% of them are using AI right now. Another 20% plan to look into it. Surveys of news organizations show 60% of newsrooms have no policy in place on AI. Another way to put it is to say that most people are adopting a “wait and see” approach. However, some college professors at the conference said they believe the responsible thing to do is prepare their students for what’s to come: more reliance on AI.
There’s consensus that AI will likely provide new efficiencies in the workplace, Ten years ago the Associated Press began using AI to automate stories about corporate earnings, freeing up reporters and editors from the drudgery of repetitive work. There also was a consensus that AI definitely is coming. In fact, it is here. And there was awe at the pace that machine language is learning.
An important message to everyone at the NYPA conference was to be transparent with readers about AI. If you are using it in your newsroom, tell your readers. The Pulitzer Board, which administers the Pulitzer Prize for achievement in newspapers, magazines, literature and music, required journalism entries in 2024 to disclose the use of AI in researching, reporting or presenting stories to readers. Five out of the 45 finalists had relied on AI in their work.
We don’t use AI in our news coverage at The Lakeville Journal or The Millerton News. We’re curious about its ability to offer efficiencies. But our stories and photographs still are produced by our very human staff. That approach now has a technical label: it’s called human-centric. When and if we ever tiptoe into AI to help us do our job, we will share our approach with you. That, too, is a human-centric approach.
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