Pfister v. Madison Beach Hotel, LLC

Citations

• 197 Conn. App. 326

Syllabus

The plaintiffs, residents of the town of Madison, brought an action seeking, inter alia, a permanent injunction prohibiting the defendant H Co., a hotel in Madison, and the defendant hotel property owner from hosting public outdoor summer concerts. H Co. has been in operation since before the adoption of the Madison zoning regulations in 1953 and, therefore, its operation as a hotel and a restaurant was grandfathered as a nonconforming preexisting use in a residential zone. In 2012, H Co. began sponsoring a free public summer concert series on a strip of land located immediately adjacent to the hotel property. This strip of land is part of a town park, which has existed since 1896, and was also grandfathered as a preexisting nonconforming use in a residential zone. The concert series consists of one concert per week and was scheduled, organized, and funded by H Co., which obtained the requisite permits from the town to host the concerts. During the concerts, H Co. sold food and beverages from its property to both hotel guests and concert attendees. Since 2012, there have been numerous complaints by nearby residents regarding the noise and traffic created by the concert series. The plaintiffs thereafter brought the present action, claiming that the defendants violated Madison zoning regulations by hosting the summer concert series on the town park, thereby illegally extending and expanding nonpreexisting, nonconforming uses of the hotel property. On appeal, the defendants claimed that the trial court erred in concluding that the zoning restrictions applicable to H Co., which would prohibit it from hosting such concerts on its own property, also applied to H Co.'s ability to host a concert series on town park property. Held: 1. The trial court erred in concluding that H Co.'s use of the town park to host a public concert series violated the permissible uses of the park under the Madison zoning regulations because the court improperly considered the restrictions applic