Markatos v. Zoning Board of Appeals

Citations

• 346 Conn. 277

Syllabus

The proposed intervenors appealed from the trial court's denial of their motion to intervene in the plaintiffs' administrative appeal. The New Canann Planning and Zoning Commission had amended an existing special permit relating to certain residentially zoned property owned by G Co., allowing the operation of a philanthropic or eleemosynary 278 FEBRUARY, 2023 346 Conn. 277 Markatos v. Zoning Board of Appeals institution subject to certain specifically enumerated conditions. Condi- tion six prohibited any material change in the approved use or intensifica- tion of any use, unless specifically authorized. Condition thirty permitted a former dwelling on the property to be used as an operations center. Subsequently, G Co. obtained a zoning permit authorizing the creation of new offices within the operations center. The plaintiffs appealed from the issuance of the zoning permit to the named defendant, the Zoning Board of Appeals of the Town of New Canaan, claiming that the creation of the new offices violated conditions six and thirty of the amended special permit. The board denied the appeal, and the plaintiffs then filed an administrative appeal in the trial court. Thereafter, the proposed intervenors, who owned land abutting G Co.'s property, filed a motion to intervene in the plaintiffs' administrative appeal but later withdrew it. Following a hearing in the administrative appeal, the trial court con- cluded that the board could not have properly assessed the validity of the zoning permit because it had not made a finding as to whether the construction and resulting increase in office space and employees constituted an improper intensification, change in use, or both. The trial court further concluded that the commission, rather than the board, was the appropriate body to clarify the language related to the intensifi- cation of uses in condition six of the amended special permit, and, accordingly, the court remanded the matter to the board for consultation with the c