Berchem Moses

Town Hasn’t Issued RFP for Legal Services Since 2012

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The town hasn’t issued an RFP for legal services in a full decade, officials told NewCanaanite.com in response to a public information request. New Canaan issued for legal services in May 2012, according to Mimi Pitt, the project coordinator for the town who fields requests made under the Freedom of Information Act. The last time RFPs were issued for internal and external auditing services were June 2016 and March 2012, respectively, Pitt said. The three RFP issuances all date to the administration of former First Selectman Rob Mallozzi. The current first selectman, Kevin Moynihan, was elected in 2017.

Berchem Moses

Town Exceeds Legal Budget by 32%

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The town exceeded its budget for legal fees by 32% in the fiscal year that ended June 30, documents show. The total spent in legal fees—$395,947.42 against a budget of $300,000—does not include expenses incurred as part of the town’s purchase of an Elm Street building earlier this year, according to a legal bill approved July 26 by the Board of Selectmen. (Those fees, which the Board of Finance later “re-classified,” had already exceeded $43,000 by January, past bills show.)

During the Board’s meeting, Selectman Kathleen Corbet asked about the $8,000 monthly retainer that New Canaan pays to Berchem Moses PC, the town attorney’s firm. “Relative to the full amount of the budget, about 20%, is that similar to what other towns are?” Corbet asked during the meeting, held in Town Hall and via videoconference. “Is that typically what we should expect in terms of the overall budget, the retainer cost?”

Referring to Town Attorney Ira Bloom, First Selectman Kevin Moynihan responded, “I don’t know exactly what other towns pay but I’m told by Ira that we are in the ballpark.

Berchem Moses PC

Property Owner Joins Lawsuit Against P&Z as Defendant

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The owner of properties planned for a mixed-use development at the edge of downtown New Canaan last week filed a motion to intervene as defendant in an active lawsuit regarding the Planning & Zoning Commission’s approval of the project. Tom Sanseverino has joined P&Z as a defendant in an appeal brought by neighbors regarding a 12-unit residential building and 315-square-foot commercial space planned for Husted Lane, a short dead-end that runs behind the northwest corner of Locust Avenue Lot. The plaintiffs— a limited liability company that owns 46 Main St. and the Oenoke Association, whose condos are located on Heritage Hill Road—are seeking to undo P&Z’s October approval of multiple applications filed on Sanseverino’s behalf. 

Initially filed last November, the suit appears to have been re-filed Jan. 5 in two separate complaints, according to Connecticut Judicial Branch records—one appealing Special Permit and site plan approval, the other appealing a zoning boundary change. 

According to the latter complaint, P&Z’s approval of the applicant’s request to change the zoning boundary from the B Residence Zone to the Retail B Zone “was illegal, unlawful, arbitrary” and in abuse of the Commission’s powers.

Around Town

‘Our Volunteer Commissioners Deserve Better’: Judge Rules Against Town in Lawsuit Brought by Neighbors of Grace Farms

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A judge this month ruled against the town in its decision to uphold the issuance of a zoning permit for an interior renovation of a former residential dwelling at Grace Farms.

Neighbors of the Lukes Wood Road organization in July 2019 appealed the town zoning enforcement officer’s decision to issue the permit, saying, in part, that the Planning & Zoning Commission should have been consulted—or even designated as the deciding body—as to whether the work amounted to a disallowed, more intense use of the “Operations Center” at Grace Farms.

If so, that could amount to a violation of the organization’s existing special permit, according to neighbors David Markatos and Jennifer Holme, represented in the legal matter by attorney Amy Souchuns of Stamford-based Hurwitz Sagarin Slossberg & Knuff LLC. Yet the Zoning Board of Appeals—without specifying why—denied their appeal by a 4-1 vote at its November 2019 meeting, prompting the neighbors to sue the ZBA the same month. On May 10, after about 18 months of litigation, Judge Marshall Berger of the state Superior Court in Hartford ruled against the ZBA (and Grace Farms Foundation, which joined the suit as a defendant after filing a motion to intervene in January 2020). In a 15-page decision that is at times strongly worded, Berger noted that the ZBA’s role “was limited and it was up to the [Planning & Zoning] commission to decide if the construction constituted a violation” (his italics). “Under that reasoning, after all the time the board devoted to this issue and the time and expense of this appeal, should this court dismiss the appeal, the [P&Z] commission might thereafter decide that the construction did indeed constitute a violation of the special permit thereby promoting a new enforcement action.

Berchem Moses

Property Owner’s Lawsuit Heads Toward Trial

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A lawsuit filed against the town last year by the owner of an 8,700-square-foot commercial building on Elm Street is headed toward trial, court documents show. A remote pretrial conference is scheduled for Dec. 3 in the matter of the property owner’s appeal of the town’s decision to preserve its assessment of 111 Elm St. In an October 2018 revaluation, the town assessed the two-story structure at $3,063,480, a figure that is “grossly excessive, disproportionate and unlawful,” according to a lawsuit filed April 18, 2019 by attorneys Gary Klein and Liam Burke of Stamford-based Carmody Torrance Sandak & Hennessey LLP. 

The property owner, a Bristol-based limited liability company whose principal lives in Palm Beach, Fla., sought relief from the New Canaan Board of Assessment Appeals but that appointed body made no changes, “thereby denying the relief the Applicant requested,” according to the complaint. “The applicant is aggrieved by the decision,” it said.