Date: Fri 17-May-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDYG

Quick Words:

Borough-ZBA-interior-lots

Full Text:

Borough ZBA Rejects Plan For Interior Lots Off Main Street

B Y A NDREW G OROSKO

The Borough Zoning Board of Appeals has decided against issuing zoning

variances that were requested by a development group seeking to build four

single-family houses on an unusually shaped piece of land in the borough, near

the intersection of Main Street and Sugar Street.

Newtown Borough, Limited Liability Corporation, represented by Attorney John

R. Byrk of Fairfield, sought approval from the board to build the four houses

on 11 acres that abut Main Street, Sugar Street and the cul-de-sac at the

intersection of Lincoln Road and Roosevelt Drive. Narrow sections of the

parcel extend outward to the streets.

The property's street addresses are 15 Main Street, 7 Main Street, and 12

Sugar Street. The land is in an R-1 Zone.

The applicant had received wetlands construction approvals for the project

from the Conservation Commission. If the proposal had received Borough Zoning

Board of Appeals approvals for the zoning variances, it would still have

required a residential subdivision approval from the town's Planning and

Zoning Commission (P&Z).

Mr Byrk is the managing member of Newtown Borough, LLC, which also lists

Michelle Ashelford and Gus Curcio as members.

In order to obtain zoning variances, the applicants sought to prove to the

appeals board that "hardships" exist in connection with the development of the

property. But appeals board members decided that such hardships didn't exist,

so they didn't grant the variances to the applicants.

The property for which the partnership sought variances has insufficient road

frontages for development under the borough zoning regulations.

In a statement of hardship submitted by the applicant to the Borough Zoning

Board of Appeals, Mr Byrk wrote that although the borough zoning rules require

a minimum road frontage of 150 feet in the area proposed for development,

previous development, much of which predates the borough zoning regulations,

has resulted in no portion of the 11 acre parcel having sufficient road

frontage to meet the borough zoning rules. Mr Byrk notes that many other

properties which were developed before the borough zoning rules went into

effect have much less road frontage than the rules now require.

Besides the requests for lot-frontage zoning variances, the applicants sought

a variance in connection with the placement of a house on one of the four

proposed lots.

Although the proposed lot is more than five acres in a zone where a minimum

one acre lot is required, site conditions prevent placing a house within a 135

foot square which contains no more than 20 percent wetland soils. The zoning

regulations require such a house placement.