Schuchmann v. City of Milford

689 A.2d 513, 44 Conn. App. 351, 1997 Conn. App. LEXIS 58
CourtConnecticut Appellate Court
DecidedFebruary 25, 1997
Docket15275
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 689 A.2d 513 (Schuchmann v. City of Milford) 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
Schuchmann v. City of Milford, 689 A.2d 513, 44 Conn. App. 351, 1997 Conn. App. LEXIS 58 (Colo. Ct. App. 1997).

Opinion

SHEA, J.

In this action, the plaintiff, Anna Roller Schuehmann, sought a writ of mandamus ordering the defendant sewer commission of the city of Milford to approve her application for a sewer permit for property at 952 Boston Post Road, which she and other members of her family owned.1 The commission had denied the application on the ground that the sewage being discharged from businesses on adjoining land also owned by plaintiff and her family already exceeded the limit established by the Milford sewer regulations for the acreage of both the adjoining property and the land that was the subject of the application. The trial court concluded that the regulations did not prohibit the issuance of a sewer permit for that property and ordered the commission to issue the permit. The defendants, the city, the sewer commission and the individual commissioners, have appealed from the judgment. The principal issue raised in the appeal involves the application to subdivided land of sewer regulations that limit the volume of sewage that may be discharged into the municipal sanitary sewerage system from a particular property according to its acreage and its zoning classification.

The trial court held that a subdivided parcel was entitled to a sewage discharge permit for the estimated quantity of sewage to be generated from the proposed use of that parcel as long as the limit established by the sewer regulations for its acreage and zoning classification was not exceeded. The court ruled that the circumstance that, as a result of the subdivision, the quantity of sewage being discharged from the two build[353]*353ings on the remainder of the land owned by the plaintiff would exceed the limit applicable to its reduced acreage did not affect her entitlement to a sewer permit for the subdivided parcel based on its acreage and zoning classification as provided by the regulations. We agree with that determination. As another ground for its judgment, the court ruled that the provision of the sewer regulations on which the defendant commissioners had relied did not apply to commercial property, such as 952 Boston Post Road. Although we affirm the judgment, we disagree with that conclusion.

There is no dispute about the facts. The plaintiff owns a triangular parcel of land, approximately one acre in area, situated at the intersection of Boston Post Road and Locust Street in Milford, on which there are three commercial buildings known as 952,962 and 972 Boston Post Road. The building at 952 Boston Post Road is presently vacant, but the plaintiff proposes to lease it for use as a retail bakery and coffee shop, for which she needs a sewer permit. A pizza restaurant is operated in the building at 962 Boston Post Road, and other businesses are conducted at 972 Boston Post Road.

In May, 1993, the plaintiff applied to the Milford sewer commission for a permit to connect a proposed retail bakery and coffee shop at 952 Boston Post Road to the existing sewerage system. A lateral sewer pipe extends from the main sewer line in Locust Street almost to the street line at the rear of that building. The defendants have not controverted the statement in the plaintiffs brief that the building is connected to the sewerage system and that the commission has allowed it to use the system in the past. The commission denied the application because the estimated additional sewage that would have been generated by the proposed business would have caused the total quantity of sewage from the three buildings on the property to exceed the amount allowed by the sewer regulations for the [354]*354acreage of the property. The plaintiff did not appeal from that determination.

In August, 1993, the plaintiff applied to the Milford planning and zoning board for permission to subdivide the entire property on which the three buildings are located into two one-half acre2 parcels. The building at 952 Boston Post Road would be situated on the west parcel, and the other two buildings would be on the east parcel. The city engineering bureau approved the map filed with the application and the planning and zoning board approved the subdivision application on September 7,1993. No representative of the sewer commission appeared at the public hearing to oppose the plaintiffs application for the subdivision.

On January 10, 1995, more than one year later, the plaintiff once again applied to the Milford sewer commission for permission to connect the building at 952 Boston Post Road to the main sewer line in Locust Street for the proposed use of operating a retail bakery and coffee shop. The application indicated that the estimated sewage that would be discharged into the sewerage system would be 587 gallons per day and that the maximum daily discharge allowed by the sewer regulations for a one-half acre property was 764 gallons. On March 2, 1995, at the conclusion of the public hearing on the application, the commission voted to deny the application on the ground that the additional sewage from the two buildings on the east parcel, when added to that to be discharged from the proposed bakery and coffee shop, would exceed the amount allowed by the regulations for the entire property. The commissioners were not persuaded that the plaintiff, despite the subdivision, was entitled to have the two parcels considered [355]*355separately for the purpose of determining the maximum sewage discharge limit under the regulations.

Because there is no provision for an appeal from the denial of a sewer permit application by the Milford sewer commission, the plaintiff brought this mandamus action seeking an order directing the sewer commission to issue a sewer permit for 952 Boston Post Road in accordance with her application. The trial court held that, because the property was now subdivided, the sewer commission could not lawfully add the amount of sewage from the buildings on the east parcel to the estimated amount of discharge from 952 Boston Post Road in determining whether the regulations would be violated by granting the permit. Since it was undisputed that the maximum discharge limit would not be exceeded without the addition of the sewage generated by the buildings on the east parcel, the court ordered the sewer commission to issue the permit.

I

The charter of the city of Milford provides for the appointment of a sewer commission of five members and vests in that commission “all the rights, duties and authority of sewer commissions as set out in the general statutes.” Milford City Charter, art. IV, § 9. That commission also acts as the city’s water pollution control authority pursuant to General Statutes § 7-247,3 which [356]*356authorizes such an agency to “establish and revise rules and regulations for the supervision, management, control, operation and use of a sewerage system, including rules and regulations prohibiting or regulating the discharge into a sewerage system of any sewage or any stormwater runoff which in the opinion of the water pollution control authority will adversely affect any part or any process of the sewerage system . . . .” This provision does not vest the commission with the discretion to deny an application that complies with its regulations because of considerations not set forth in the regulations, but requires that the statutory powers of a water pollution control authority be exercised through the regulations it is directed to adopt.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Dauti Construction, LLC v. Water & Sewer Authority
10 A.3d 84 (Connecticut Appellate Court, 2010)
AvalonBay Communities, Inc. v. Sewer Commission
853 A.2d 497 (Supreme Court of Connecticut, 2004)
Biarelli v. Maple Grove Memorial Park, No. Cv98-0358403s (Sep. 12, 2002)
2002 Conn. Super. Ct. 12221 (Connecticut Superior Court, 2002)
Rocky Hill Assoc. v. Rocky Hill Open Space, No. Cv96 0564975 (Sep. 24, 1997)
1997 Conn. Super. Ct. 8632 (Connecticut Superior Court, 1997)
City of Bridgeport v. Town of Stratford, No. Cv 89 0257140 (Jul. 21, 1997)
1997 Conn. Super. Ct. 7324 (Connecticut Superior Court, 1997)
Schuchmann v. City of Milford
692 A.2d 818 (Supreme Court of Connecticut, 1997)
Siriphol v. State, No. Cv 96 0053053 S (Mar. 3, 1997)
1997 Conn. Super. Ct. 1964 (Connecticut Superior Court, 1997)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
689 A.2d 513, 44 Conn. App. 351, 1997 Conn. App. LEXIS 58, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/schuchmann-v-city-of-milford-connappct-1997.