Caserta v. Zoning Board of Appeals

610 A.2d 713, 28 Conn. App. 256, 1992 Conn. App. LEXIS 277
CourtConnecticut Appellate Court
DecidedJuly 14, 1992
Docket8665
StatusPublished
Cited by25 cases

This text of 610 A.2d 713 (Caserta v. Zoning Board of Appeals) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Connecticut Appellate Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Caserta v. Zoning Board of Appeals, 610 A.2d 713, 28 Conn. App. 256, 1992 Conn. App. LEXIS 277 (Colo. Ct. App. 1992).

Opinion

Landau, J.

This case is before this court on remand from the Supreme Court. Initially, we concluded that the defendant zoning board of appeals did not have subject matter jurisdiction to hear the plaintiff’s appeal. Caserta v. Zoning Board of Appeals, 23 Conn. App. 232, 580 A.2d 528 (1990). The Supreme Court, after granting the defendant’s petition for certification, reversed our decision and remanded the case for our consideration of the underlying substantive issue. Caserta v. Zoning Board of Appeals, 219 Conn. 352, 593 A.2d 118 (1991). The sole issue to be decided on remand is whether the trial court applied the proper scope of review to the board’s determination that the zoning enforcement officer was without authority to issue the requested permit and that the permit was improperly issued because the nonconforming use has been abandoned. We conclude that it did not.

The pertinent facts are set forth in Caserta v. Zoning Board of Appeals, supra, 219 Conn. 353, and Caserta v. Zoning Board of Appeals, supra, 23 Conn. App. 232, and will be restated only briefly here. The plaintiff is the owner of a parcel of property that includes a twenty unit hotel-rooming house that was in use as such prior to the adoption of zoning in Milford.1 The plaintiff applied to Peter Crabtree, the zoning enforcement officer of the city of Milford, for a zoning permit. Crabtree granted the permit and then subsequently revoked it on the order of Angelo Marino, chairman of the planning and zoning board. The plaintiff appealed the revocation to the zoning board of appeals and was informed by letter dated April 22, 1988, that the board was upholding the revocation on the ground that the permit had been improperly issued and that the nonconforming use had been abandoned. The plaintiff appealed to the Superior Court. The Superior Court sustained the plaintiff’s appeal.

[258]*258In its memorandum of decision, the trial court stated that the board failed to “state upon its record the reason for its decision” to affirm the revocation of the plaintiffs permit as required by General Statutes § 8-7. It further found that Crabtree granted the plaintiffs permit in his capacity as zoning enforcement officer and that he complied with the zoning regulations relating to the plaintiff’s application.2 Finally, the trial court concluded that the zoning permit had been improperly revoked because the criteria for revocation as set forth in State v. Tedesco, 175 Conn. 279, 397 A.2d 1352 (1978), had not been met.

“An administrative agency such as the board in the instant case is called on to determine the applicability of the law to a given state of facts presented to it. The trial court [has] to decide whether the board correctly interpreted the regulation and applied it with reasonable discretion to the facts. Pascale v. Board of Zoning Appeals, 150 Conn. 113, 117, 186 A.2d 377 (1962).” Thorne v. Zoning Board of Appeals, 156 Conn. 619, 620, 238 A.2d 400 (1968); see also Miniter v. Zoning Board of Appeals, 20 Conn. App. 302, 308-309, 566 A.2d 997 (1989). “ Tn applying the law to the facts of a particular case, the board is endowed with a liberal discretion, and its action is subject to review by the courts only to determine whether it was unreasonable, arbitrary or illegal.’ . . Schwartz v. Planning & Zoning Commission, 208 Conn. 146, 152, 543 A.2d 1339 (1988), quoting Toffolon v. Zoning Board of Appeals, 155 Conn. 558, 560-61, 236 A.2d 96 (1967).

[259]*259“[If] a zoning authority has stated the reasons for its actions, the reviewing court ought to examine the assigned grounds to determine whether they are reasonably supported by the record and pertinent to the considerations the authority was required to apply pursuant to the zoning regulations.” (Citations omitted.) Beit Havurah v. Zoning Board of Appeals, 177 Conn. 440, 444-45, 418 A.2d 82 (1979). The court is restricted to determining whether the board’s findings are reasonably supported by the record and whether the reasons given were pertinent reasons for the board’s actions. Horn v. Zoning Board of Appeals, 18 Conn. App. 674, 677, 559 A.2d 1174 (1988). These limitations clearly apply to a trial court’s review of a zoning board decision as well as to our review of the trial court’s decision.

The board argues that the trial court applied an improper standard of review in sustaining the plaintiff’s appeal. Specifically, the board argues that, in reaching its conclusion, the trial court improperly considered the actions of the zoning enforcement officer rather than the entire record on which the board relied. We disagree, but conclude that the trial court did not properly consider whether the board correctly interpreted the regulations and applied them with reasonable discretion to the facts. See Miniter v. Zoning Board of Appeals, supra.

Initially, we note that the trial court was correct in concluding that the board failed to “state upon its record the reason for its decision” to affirm the revocation of the plaintiff’s permit as required by General Statutes § 8-7. This alone, however, is not sufficient justification for the trial court’s sustaining the plaintiff’s appeal. In Gagnon v. Inland Wetlands & Watercourses Commission, 213 Conn. 604, 569 A.2d 1094 (1990), the plaintiff appealed from a decision of the inland wetlands commission on the sole ground that [260]*260the commission failed to state on the record the reason for its decision. Our Supreme Court concluded that the trial court improperly sustained the plaintiff’s appeal and held that the long established rule requiring a search of the administrative record in appeals from planning and zoning authorities to determine if there is an adequate basis for the action taken, applies with equal force to an appeal from an inland wetlands commission. Id., 608.

The trial court’s reliance on this inadequacy, alone, does not mandate a reversal of its decision because this was not the sole basis on which it sustained the plaintiff’s appeal. The trial court also relied on the fact that the board improperly determined that Crabtree was not authorized to issue the plaintiff’s permit and that the board improperly affirmed the revocation of the permit.

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Bluebook (online)
610 A.2d 713, 28 Conn. App. 256, 1992 Conn. App. LEXIS 277, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/caserta-v-zoning-board-of-appeals-connappct-1992.