The neighborhood museum on Long Ridge Road, the city’s only Scenic Road.
DANBURY – An unaffiliated church has dropped its plan to buy an 18-acre ridgetop property after public protests by neighbors along the city’s only Scenic Road.
A representative for the church known as BRN gave no reason in a letter last week withdrawing an application for zoning breaks that the church needed to complete the deal.
At issue was how traffic and water quality on Long Ridge Road would be affected by the sale of the Institute for Children’s Literature to a church run by the Rev. Gerardo Zendejas, a former member of a breakaway community of Catholic priests known as the Society of St. Pius X.
The manor house on the 18-acre property owned by The Institute for Children’s Literature.
Homeowners who formed an association to resist the plan said the victory was more than just the defeat of a threat to the pastoral character of the neighborhood.
“We learned so much about our neighborhood by meeting people we have lived next to for years,” said Martha Rhodes, president of the Long Ridge Neighborhood Preservation Association. “This is a wonderful opening to start new relationships.”