The location offers the best opportunity to address what they described as a longstanding shortage of senior housing while minimizing impacts to the park, they said. During public comment, New Canaan Housing Authority Chairman Scott Hobbs voiced support for giving the proposal a full public review. Hobbs stressed that affordable housing and senior living should not be viewed as the same issue. He called Waveny LifeCare Network “an amazing contributor to our community” and said Connecticut’s growing elderly population makes additional senior housing increasingly important. In 2019, the organization proposed a 70-plus-unit senior living development on Oenoke Ridge abutting St. Mark’s Episcopal Church property.