Independent Consultant: P&Z Should Consider Limiting Events at Grace Farms, Ensure Ties to Approved ‘Religious Institution’ Use

In considering the latest bid from Grace Farms to secure after-the-fact approval for wide-ranging and intense activities on its campus, town officials should consider limiting the number, size and frequency of events there far more strictly than the organization has proposed, according to an independent, third-party consultant.

The Planning & Zoning Commission also may address the size and focus of the food service establishment operating at Grace Farms, as well as an outdoor music-playing “sound sculpture” in a pond, according to Simsbury-based consulting firm Planimetrics.

Further, any Special Permit granted by P&Z where Grace Farms is seeking to expand beyond its approved principal use as a religious institution “should tie the additional use requests to the ‘religious institution’ so that they are part and parcel of the overall operation,” Planimetrics President Glenn Chalder said in a May 23 report to the commission.

“Since the Special Permit requests are being requested for all of the parcels, it might not be prudent to have a situation in the future where a parcel is sold off or transferred in a way that would allow another club/organization/institutional use to be established on another parcel without commission review. Also, by tying the additional uses to the religious institution, this can help the commission avoid or manage a situation where the religious use is no longer active and the club/organization/institutional use is different than described or envisioned today.”

The recommendations come as Grace Farms prepares to appear Tuesday night before P&Z with its third application to amend a zoning permit approved four years ago, having withdrawn its first two. The organization was compelled to apply for an amended permit after town officials found last summer that Grace Farms since opening in the fall of 2015 had been running afoul of what P&Z had approved.

In recent weeks, it has emerged that Grace Farms must clear two hurdles with P&Z in order to amend its zoning permit, as representatives for the organization are seeking separately to re-write parts of the New Canaan Zoning Regulations to allow for they want (more on that below).

Both applications—for the text amendment to the regs and the application itself—are to come before P&Z this week, according to the meeting agenda (though, as the town planner has noted, if the Zoning Regulations changes do not fly, there’s no need to continue).

It isn’t clear whether Grace Farms is would accede to Chalder’s suggestions about how the organization is defined (as a religious institution with related additional uses) or how representatives of the Lukes Wood Road facility feel about suggestions that events there be limited far more strictly than the current application proposed.

Grace Farms officials declined to comment when reached by NewCanaanite.com.

According to Chalder, while a “management plan’” submitted by Grace Farms “may provide a way to manage the activities at the site” (his emphasis), still “the number of events requested by the applicant and the size of the events appears significantly greater than what was explained to the commission in prior applications and may exceed what the commission feels may be reasonable for the site and/or the location.”

Therefore, “the commission may wish to consider limiting the number and/or size of events each year and make this subject to annual review by the commission,” Chalder said in his report.

“In a given year, the applicant could request an increase in the number of events. At the same time, if the events are not operating the way the applicant described or the commission expected, the commission could decrease the number of events for the next year. This type of approach would encourage good management of the activities at the site.”

For example, Grace Farms may be limited in its first year under a new zoning permit to hold up to four events per year of 700-plus people—in addition to regular Sunday, Holy Day, memorial or wedding services—compared to the 12 such events it is proposing, according to Chalder, and no more than one per calendar quarter. Rather than Grace Farms’ proposed 24 events per year with 300 to 700 people, the organization may be limited to eight in an initial trial year and no more than two per calendar quarter, the consultant said. Chalder also suggested limiting the number of events with 100 to 300 people to 30 days per quarter, and no more than three days in a given week—the latest Grace Farms application fails to specify a limit for such events.

Planimetrics has been hired to review Grace Farms’ application as required by P&Z and on the religious institution’s dime.

Chalder in his report also addressed the specifics of Grace Farms’ proposed changes to the New Canaan Zoning Regulations, generally seeking more specificity than the organization’s attorneys are using in their application though apparently clearing a way for approval.

Specifically, Grace Farms is seeking to change two sections in the regs.

As it is, section 2.2 of the regulations (see page 37 here) defines principal uses as “the primary or predominant use of any lot or building.”

Grace Farms wants to change that to “uses” plural, but Planimetrics said it should be more wordy and refer to times when principal uses are allowed by the regulations, as follows: “The primary or predominant use of any lot or building except that, where multiple principal uses are allowed by these regulations, this term may be used to refer to one or more of such uses.”

Secondly, Chalder noted, Grace Farms is seeking to expand the definition of what is permitted by special permit under the regulations to say that “one or more of the following permitted principal uses may be allowed by the Commission under the procedures and criteria set forth for Special Permits…”

“If the commission is inclined to grant this request, the commission may wish to consider changing this language to read: “One or more of the following uses may be allowed by the commission as a principal use of property or an additional use of property (such as a secondary use of property) under the procedures and criteria set forth for Special Permits …”

Officials are referring to the question of whether multiple “principal uses” are allowed on a single property as a “threshold issue” for Grace Farms, meaning that it should be addressed before the larger application to amend the zoning permit is considered.

Over a period of several weeks, lawyers representing Grace Farms and attorneys for neighbors had argued about whether the New Canaan Zoning Regulations already allow for multiple principal uses. Ultimately, officials including the town planner and town attorney urged Grace Farms’ attorneys to put in for the text amendments. Though it creates a more complicated overall application and adds a new layer of approvals, attorneys for Grace Farms have insisted that seeking the text amendment changes does not amount to a concession on legal points.