Town officials will consider a settlement offer made on behalf of a Rilling Ridge woman who sued the Planning & Zoning Commission last year after the appointed body denied her application to build a tennis court.
Under a proposal filed by Amy Tucci’s lawyer, Joel Green of Bridgeport-based Law Offices of Green and Gross, P.C., the tennis court would move two feet closer to an existing swimming pool than originally proposed, would include more robust landscape screening and would have a four-millimeter-thick pad “applied to the entire surface of the court” to “significantly reduce the noise level associated” with its use.
The proposed settlement also calls for no lighting, use from 6 a.m. to sundown and no commercial use (Tucci originally had filed an application to operate a boutique commercial gym at home, later withdrawn).
P&Z denied the application one year ago. At the time, Tucci applied to P&Z for a Special Permit that would allow a tennis court to be located within a 150 feet of the street (see page 55 here), and for a second permit allowing for soil disturbance of more than 10,000 square feet of area in order to (page 149). While some commissioners argued that P&Z has approved applications for similar Special Permits in the past and noted that the court is designed to be just 52-by-115 feet (versus a standard size of 60-by-120), others said it’s inappropriate to approve a tennis court in the front yard and found that the application didn’t meet all Special Permit criteria.
Ultimately, last year, P&A voted down a motion for approval (that included conditions regarding screening) by a 4-3 vote. Neighbors attending P&Z hearings spoke in opposition to the application, citing concerns about noise, lower property values, increased impervious surfaces and runoff.
The Commission is scheduled to take up the proposed settlement as part of a special meeting at 6 p.m. Tuesday.
According to Connecticut Judicial Branch records, an Oct. 22 hearing is scheduled in the Tucci case.
So now have residents suing P&Z for actually following the Town ordinances??
And is this a “small” tennis court or a surface to accommodate multiple pickleball courts, which would be horrific for the neighbors.
It’s for a single tennis court. Tucci’s property is on a curve and it will be in her backyard. Multiple pickleball courts? That’s a No and has NEVER been considered.