Saying they’re aggrieved as adjacent landowners, neighbors of Grace Farms last month sued the Planning & Zoning Commission for its approval of changes to the Lukes Wood Road organization’s special permit earlier this year.
P&Z “acted illegally, arbitrarily and in abuse of the discretion vested in it” by approving Grace Farms’s request to relocate a religious institution office to Puddin Hill Road for staff parking, allowing the organization to host “casual attendance” activities events on site with mission-aligned for-profit entities and easing reporting requirements to the town, according to a complaint filed June 8 state Superior Court.
In addition, “[t]he pre-hearing public notice of the Commission’s consideration of the application was defective” and P&Z’s chair “presided over and fully participated in the public hearing on the application, and then purported to recuse himself on the basis of a conflict of interest following the close of the public hearing,” according to the complaint, filed by attorney David Sherwood of Glastonbury-based Moriarty Paetzold & Sherwood on behalf of Tim Curt and Dona Bissonnnette of Smith Ridge Road.
The New Canaan Zoning Regulations also prohibit P&Z from approving a Special Permit for any property where there’s an existing zoning violation, Sherwood noted in the complaint.
“The draft resolution prepared by the New Canaan Town Planner and distributed to the Commission on the afternoon of the meeting at which the application was approved and which served as the basis of that approval was incomplete and replete with internal contradictions and errors,” the complaint said. “The Commissioners were confused during their deliberations to the point that they failed to understand what they were voting on, and so could not have reached a consensus on Commission action on the application.”
P&Z is represented by the town attorney’s firm, Westport-based Berchem Moses PC, according to Connecticut Judicial Branch records. No answer yet has been filed. Grace Farms on July 7 joined the suit as a defendant.
Grace Farms has been involved in multiple yearlong lawsuits with neighbors as well as the town.
The organization began facing zoning issues within months of opening in late-2015. After hearing concerns from municipal officials as well as neighbors about activities there, the then-town planner said during a Zoning Board of Appeals meeting in May 2016 that Grace Farms may be running afoul of the specific terms and conditions of its permit.
After looking into the matter, officials asked Grace Farms to come back and amend its 2013 zoning permit. The organization complied, while downplaying comments that Grace Farms founders had made during past P&Z hearings regarding the intended use of its campus. After P&Z approved the amended permit in 2017, on dozens of conditions, both Grace Farms and neighbors sued the town. The ZBA has heard multiple appeals regarding Grace Farms, including one in 2019 regarding new uses of its “operations center” building, an appeal that was denied. The neighbors in that case sued the town following the denial, and won.
P&Z opened its public hearings on the most recent Special Permit application from Grace Farms in February, and held monthly public hearings through May. The plaintiffs are asking the court to declare the Commission’s decision this year as “null and void.”
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