Timber Trails Corp. v. Planning & Zoning Commission

610 A.2d 620, 222 Conn. 380, 1992 Conn. LEXIS 197
CourtSupreme Court of Connecticut
DecidedJune 3, 1992
Docket13970
StatusPublished
Cited by45 cases

This text of 610 A.2d 620 (Timber Trails Corp. v. Planning & Zoning Commission) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Connecticut primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Timber Trails Corp. v. Planning & Zoning Commission, 610 A.2d 620, 222 Conn. 380, 1992 Conn. LEXIS 197 (Colo. 1992).

Opinion

Shea, J.

These appeals were consolidated for trial as well as appeal, and separate judgments in each case were rendered by the trial court on the same date, December 18,1989, ten days after its rendition of judgment in the companion case of Timber Trails Corporation v. Planning & Zoning Commission, 222 Conn. 374, 610 A.2d 617 (1992) (Timber Trails I). In that case this court has on this date rendered judgment invalidating an amendment to the zoning regulations of the town of Sherman adopted on October 2,1978, increasing the minimum lot size requirement in zone B from 40,000 square feet to 80,000 square feet and making land in zone B subject to the requirements of zone A, for failure to comply with the requirement of General Statutes § 8-3 that a copy of the proposed amendment must be filed in the office of the town clerk “for public inspection at least ten days before” the public hearing.

Both cases arise out of the action of the defendant Sherman planning and zoning commission on . February 21,1980, approving the application of Timber Trails Corporation, the plaintiff in the first case, and a defendant in the second case, for a twenty-two lot subdivision of its land with modifications that reduced the number of lots to sixteen and also imposed several conditions. In the first case, the corporation, claiming that its application should have been granted without modification, appealed from that decision to the Superior Court, which dismissed the appeal. In the second case, five persons1 owning property abutting or in the vicinity of the proposed subdivision also appealed from the decision of the commission approving the subdivision, and [383]*383an additional plaintiff, The Timber Trails Property Owners Association, was later admitted on motion. The trial court held that the commission had illegally approved the sixteen lot subdivision because the lots contained less than 80,000 square feet of area in violation of the zoning amendment that this court has nullified in Timber Trails I, and accordingly rendered judgment sustaining the appeal of the property owners and their association, effectively invalidating the commission’s action in approving a sixteen lot subdivision subject to specified conditions.

After obtaining certification, the corporation appealed from both judgments to the Appellate Court, and we transferred the appeals to this court pursuant to Practice Book § 4023 and General Statutes § 51-199 (c). The corporation has raised eight issues in support of its claim that the judgments in each case should be reversed, but our decision in Timber Trails I, invalidating the amendment increasing the minimum lot size in the applicable zone for the subdivision to 80,000 square feet, has mooted some of them and others are now also moot.2 The remaining issues are: (1) in [384]*384the first case, whether the modifications and conditions imposed by the commission on its approval of the subdivision plan were equivalent to a failure of the commission to act on the corporation’s application within the time allowed by General Statutes § 8-26d; (2) in the second case, whether the association, which owns no property in the area, may prosecute a zoning appeal by virtue of the aggrievement of one or more of its members; and (3) in both cases whether the commission abused its discretion in modifying the application and in approving it for sixteen lots, subject to the conditions imposed. We conclude that the commission’s approval of the application subject to modifications and conditions fulfilled the statutory requirement for action on the application within the time prescribed, that the association had the requisite standing and that the commission did not abuse its discretion. Accordingly, we affirm the judgment dismissing the corporation’s appeal in the first case and reverse the judgment sustaining the appeal of the association and the individual plaintiffs in the second case.

I

In the first case, the corporation claims that its application for a twenty-two lot subdivision filed on August 2,1979, was automatically approved, pursuant to General Statutes (Rev. to 1979) § 8-26,3 when the [385]*385commission did not take valid action on that application within sixty-five days after the public hearing on it. Specifically, the corporation maintains that, although the commission was authorized by § 8-26 to “modify and approve” its application, the commission’s conversion of the twenty-two lot plan into a sixteen lot plan changed the subdivision application so fundamentally that it cannot be considered a mere “modification” of it. Relying on this court’s decision in Carpenter v. Planning & Zoning Commission, 176 Conn. 581, 409 A.2d 1029 (1979), the corporation further claims that the commission acted outside its statutorily granted author[386]*386ity when it conditioned approval of the subdivision application on the corporation’s ability to obtain approval of its water system by the Connecticut department of business regulation, division of public utility control (DPUC).4 We are not persuaded that the commission acted illegally either by altering the corporation’s plan or by placing this condition on its approval. Consequently, we reject the argument that the twenty-two lot application was automatically approved because the commission failed to take proper action within sixty-five days of the hearing.

Some background information is necessary for the proper analysis of this claim. On August 2, 1979, the corporation filed with the commission an application for a twenty-two lot subdivision to be located in an area in Sherman known as the Valley Lake section. A public hearing on the application was held on September 28, 1979. On November 6, 1979, the corporation consented to a sixty-five day extension of time and, on January 4,1980, agreed to another sixty-five day extension. At a special meeting on February 21, 1980, the commission voted to approve the application with “[m]odifications and contingent approval until [the DPUC] approves water system and its bonding and the Commission is assured there will be no downgrading of water service to the present residents.” The modifications included withholding approval of two lots and combining several other lots or portions thereof, and resulted in the approval of a sixteen lot subdivision.5

[387]*387A

In its appeal to the trial court, the corporation raised the claim that the twenty-two lot application was automatically approved because the commission’s action on the application was legally improper and thus was no “action” at all within the meaning of § 8-26. The trial court rejected the claim because it had concluded that the amendment to the zoning regulations increasing the minimum lot size to 80,000 square feet, which we have since invalidated in Timber Trails /, was valid and applicable to the corporation’s application.

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Bluebook (online)
610 A.2d 620, 222 Conn. 380, 1992 Conn. LEXIS 197, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/timber-trails-corp-v-planning-zoning-commission-conn-1992.