James and Linda Quella hosted the spring gala at their estate in Sharon.
Alexander Wilburn
Latest News
DEEP denies Cornwall’s composting grant
Mar 26, 2025
CORNWALL — Communal composting plans have hit a snag in Cornwall.
“We got a letter from the [Department of Energy and Environmental Protection] saying their compost grant was oversubscribed and due to the tough competition, they could not award us a grant for our efforts to establish a composting program here in town,” said First Selectman Gordon Ridgway.
The denial is the most recent setback in a multi-year effort to start composting at the Transfer Station.
The selectmen discussed next steps at a meeting of the Board on March 18.
“We’re not coming up with a quick solution at the Transfer Station,” said Ridgway. “This makes the need for people to compost at home that much more real.”
Selectman Jennifer Markow revisited the idea of a bucket program in which the town would purchase specialized bins to be distributed for home composting.
Ridgway said there is money in the Transfer Station budget that could be used for such a program, but he wanted to get feedback from the Conservation Commission.
“They were talking about doing a survey,” said Ridgway.
Discussion will resume at the selectmen’s next meeting Tuesday, April 1, at 7:30 p.m.
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Salisbury real estate transactions
Mar 26, 2025
These two commercial/office buildings in Lakeville on 195 and 199 Main St., owned and 75% occupied by National Iron Bank, were sold for a total of $2.05 million. The bank branch will continue to operate at this location.
Christine Bates
SALISBURY — Three residential and two commercial properties sold in February, bringing the median price of a single family home up to $947,500, a new record high and a 31% increase over February three years ago.
There are currently 17 houses listed for sale with 12 listed above $1 million. The summer rental market is starting to activate with 15furnished summer and seasonal rentals available starting at $13,000 a month.
February transactions
14 Spruce Drive — 4 bedroom/5 bath ranch on 6.3 acres sold by Caryl J. and Russell J. Riva Jr. to Andrew Foley and Anna Castelo for $1,850,000.
94 Salmon Kill Road — 3 bedroom/4 bath home on 28 acres sold by Ann Torre Bates to Michael S. Shuster and Deborah A. Morel for $3,675,000.
199 and 195 Main St. — Occupied commercial buildings sold by National Iron Bank to 144 MSEH LLC for $710,325 and $1,330,675 respectively.
19 RailroadSt. — office building/garage on 0.74 acres sold by Laurie A. Grusauski to Sharon Electric Company LLC for $425,000.
23 Chatfield Drive — 2 bedroom/1.5 bath ranch sold by Anna L. Kuba to Mary Patricia Walsh for $525,000.
*Town of Salisbury real estate transfers recorded as sold between Feb. 1 and Feb. 28, 2025, provided by the Salisbury Town Clerk. Transfers without consideration are not included. Current market data courtesy of Smart MLS and Info Sparks. Compiled by Christine Bates, Real Estate Salesperson with William Pitt Sotheby’s International Realty, Licensed in Connecticut and New York.
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Two affordable homes are being built in Salisbury using modular construction methods.
Alec Linden
SALISBURY — Concrete foundations of two new affordable homes have been dug and poured on Perry Street, and Salisbury Affordable Housing Commission Chair Jennifer Kronholm Clark is thrilled at the progress.
“It’s really exciting,” she said in a recent interview. “We haven’t had a big construction project like this in a decade at least.”
Kronholm Clark, who also vice chairs the Salisbury Housing Trust, a non-profit that has overseen the addition of 17 affordable home opportunities to Salisbury since 2002, explained that the next steps are relatively straightforward.
The new units are modular homes, meaning they are mostly constructed off-site at a manufacturing facility, then quickly assembled on top of the foundation.
She said that each home will be delivered to town in four pieces, for a total of eight, between April 1 and 3. The units will be staged temporarily at the Lakeville Town Grove until their installation on the 3rd.
The upper portion of Perry Street will be closed for most of the day on the 3rd as the homes are put in place, in a process involving a “really huge crane” that Kronholm Clark promised will be “dramatic.”
Once in the ground, she expects the remainder of the work to be completed quickly and the homes to be move-in ready sometime in May.
The 1,500 square foot, 3 bed and 2 bath houses will be available for purchase only at a price range between $250,000 and $280,000 which includes a $25,000 forgivable down payment assistance loan.
Eligibility requirements for ownership are that the buyer be a first-time homeowner, and that the total gross household income is below the area median income: $80,000 for one person, $91,400 for two, $102,800 for three, and $114,200 for four. The Trust will prioritize those in need of a three-bedroom home.
An information session detailing the application and purchase process will be hosted on April 10 at 7:30 p.m. on Zoom.
The Trust asks that those looking to purchase a home complete a pre-application form by April 15, which may be received by emailing Lindsay Larson at LindsayL@thehousingcollective.org.
The completion of the Perry Street houses will mark a major milestone for the Salisbury Housing Trust, which has been discussing developing affordable housing on the lot since 2013. The site was formerly home to a dry-cleaning service who vacated the property in the 1990s and left “an environmental mess,” according to Kronholm Clark. The land was then transferred to the town, who approached the Trust about developing affordable housing on the site in order to secure a state-funded grant to clean it up.
She said that the neighbors were congenial and supportive of the plan, with many preferring to see homes on the property rather than an empty brownfield. Kronholm Clark said that she hopes the installation of these new homes demonstrates to the community that affordable housing is a positive presence on Salisbury’s landscape.
A 2024 report from Torrington-based non-profit Northwest Connecticut Community Foundation found that the median home value in Salisbury grew from $473,369 to $807,848 between 2017 and 2024.
Ensuring that there are homes available far below that margin is paramount to maintaining the region’s younger workforce, she said.
“It’s important to have these options so that we don’t just become, you know, a community with a bunch of second homeowners,” she maintained.
The Perry Street project is part of a broader regional effort organized by the Litchfield County Center for Housing Opportunity to bring similar modular homes to several other locations in the county. Two more homes within the program are planned for installation in Salisbury on Undermountain Road, a proposal that has seen some controversy but which Kronholm Clark is optimistic will see broken ground soon after.
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Neighbors of Wake Robin Inn sue P&Z
Mar 26, 2025
Wake Robin Inn is located on Sharon Road in Lakeville.
John Coston
LAKEVILLE — Angela and William Cruger of Wells Hill Road have filed a lawsuit against Salisbury’s Planning and Zoning Commission, claiming a May 2024 amendment to the town’s zoning regulations was legally invalid.
The Crugers were formally intervenors in a public hearing of an application to expand the Wake Robin Inn that spanned several continuations in late 2024. As intervenors, they argued against the development on the grounds that the area’s ecology would be negatively impacted. The applicant, ARADEV LLC, ultimately withdrew its application in December after the Planning and Zoning Commission indicated it was likely to deny the proposal as it stood.
In January, ARADEV LLC returned before the Commission to hold a pre-application discussion, indicating that the group is likely to reapply with an amended plan.
The Crugers’ representative attorneys, Perley Grimes and Allison Noteware of law outfit Cramer & Anderson LLP, filed the suit against the Commission on Feb. 28, alleging that the Commission acted unlawfully when it changed the town’s zoning regulations to allow hotel development in the “RR1” — Rural Residential One — zone via special permit.
The suit claims that the Commission failed to adequately notify neighbors and the general public of its intention to amend the regulation. Specifically, the appeal states that P&Z acted in violation of Connecticut General Statute 8-8(r), which requires zoning boards to sufficiently publicize hearings and actions. The suit demands that the Superior Court declares the amendments null and void, and that the Commission is ordered to “restore the RR1 regulations in full as in existence prior to May 6, 2024.”
The suit also alleges that the Commission engaged in “spot zoning” by amending the regulation, as ARADEV LLC had requested that P&Z change the regulation several months before they actually did. In the language of the suit, the Commission acted “in favor of [ARADEV LLC] to permit an intensified use incongruous with the residential zone in which it is situated in violation of the law and public policy.”
The suit complains that the amended regulations would “injuriously affect [the Crugers]” by disturbing peace and quiet in the neighborhood and lowering their property values by increasing traffic, augmenting commercial operations at the Inn and raising noise levels in the neighborhood.
The Land Use Office and P&Z have repeatedly denied that they favored the project when amending the regulations. An October memo written by Land Use Administrator Abby Conroy and P&Z Chair Michael Klemens states that the Commission did not deem that the proposed regulation change by ARADEV LLC was acceptable “as it likely constituted spot zoning (a zone change that benefits a single property) and was not broadly applicable to the entire town.”
The letter goes on to affirm that conversations surrounding changing the zoning regulations governing “transient accommodations” had been in progress for years: “Although ARADEV LLC’s request provided the impetus for [P&Z] to initiate a regulation amendment, [P&Z] ultimately adopted their own language which addressed a number of long-standing regulatory problems concerning transient lodging.”
P&Z established a “public notice registry” to notify interested parties of future applications “initiated by P&Z,” such as a regulation change, Klemens and Conroy announced in the letter.
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