Date: Fri 10-Jan-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDYG

Quick Words:

P&Z-Hawleyville-zone-change

Full Text:

P&Z Rejects Hawleyville Zone Change Proposal

B Y A NDREW G OROSKO

Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) members have unanimously turned down a

request to rezone a section of Hawleyville from R-2 Residential to P-1

Professional as was requested by a property owners group interested in

preventing the land being put to uses its membership considers undesirable.

In a January 2 vote on the zone change request, P&Z Chairman John DeFilippe

and members Thomas Paisley, Stephen Koch and Daniel Fogliano voted in

opposition.

In the request, the North Newtown Homeowners Association had proposed rezoning

from R-2 Residential to P-1 Professional a 183-acre section of Hawleyville

bounded on the east by Hawleyville Road, on the west by Farrell Road, and on

the south by the Maybrook railroad tracks right-of-way.

The association sought the zone change to prevent the acreage from being put

to uses its members consider undesirable, such as multifamily housing.

In a discussion on the request which took place before the P&Z vote, Mr

Paisley said a long-awaited planning study on the developmental potential of

Hawleyville is entering its final stages.

Public discussion on an interim version of the development report was slated

for January 7. (See related story).

It would be premature for the P&Z to grant any zone change for land in

Hawleyville before the results of that study are clear, Mr Paisley said.

"I also have some problems with it," Mr DeFilippe said of granting a zone

change.

The association seeking the zone change didn't demonstrate that the change is

warranted, he said.

In a recent letter to the P&Z, the Housatonic Valley Council of Elected

Officials (HVCEO) asked that the P&Z defer any Hawleyville rezoning until the

continuing study of the economic development potential of Hawleyville is

completed.

The association's zone change proposal drew strong criticism in December from

the owner of a large portion of the land who doesn't want it rezoned.

In a letter to the P&Z, Maryann Kiely of Smoke Rise Ridge, the managing

partner of J&M Realty Company, said rezoning the real estate company's

holdings won't bring economic development. The homeowners association wants to

prevent development, according to Mrs Kiely. She termed the rezoning proposal

a devious plan to keep much of Hawleyville open space land.

In the letter, Mrs Kiely called the zone change proposal "ridiculous."

Professional office areas need to be in the center of town, near hospitals,

courthouses, and municipal offices, not in Hawleyville, she wrote.

"There is no need for large professional zones," she stressed.

If the North Newtown Homeowners Association's rezoning proposal is approved,

every neighborhood association in town would seek to rezone land to control

development, Mrs Kiely stated in the letter.

Attorney Thomas Frizzell, representing J&M, told P&Z members the company owns

four lots which would be affected by the rezoning proposal. Those lots cover

115 acres. J&M is the sole owner of the lots and the homeowners association

has no financial interest in them, Mr Frizzell said.

The association has no legal standing to seek a rezoning of J&M's property and

thus the P&Z has no jurisdiction to act in such a matter, he said. The

property owners reserve the right to legally appeal actions taken by the P&Z,

according to the lawyer.

"A zone change application is a very serious matter...This application should

not be here...Putting a P-1 zone in Hawleyville is a dream," Mr Frizzell had

told the P&Z.

The current R-2 zoning in the area is intended to primarily allow construction

of single-family houses on building lots of at least two acres.

The proposed rezoning to P-1 would allow construction of office buildings of

less than 10,000 square feet, containing up to five professional offices, on

parcels of at least one acre. Such offices can be occupied by professional

people including real estate and insurance sales, and medical and dental

laboratories. The P-1 zoning allows single-family homes with or without

professional offices. Office buildings larger than 10,000 square feet would be

allowed by special exception on lots larger than one acre.

The P-1 zoning designation is intended to foster land uses such as

professional office parks.

Converting the zoning to P-1, however, would double the potential housing

density on the land from minimum two-acre to minimum one-acre lots.

In mid-1995, a portion of the area proposed for rezoning was eyed as the site

for a 100,000-square-foot exhibition hall called the Connecticut Exposition

and Performance Events Center (CEPEC), a proposal which the P&Z rejected after

strong public protests from Hawleyville residents.

Realizing that another huge development proposal might be in the offing,

members of the neighborhood association proposed the zone change as a way to

promote what they consider structured, desirable growth.

The future development of Hawleyville has long been under scrutiny and many

land uses have been suggested for the area.