Legal Action Filed On Behalf Of Four Town Fairgrounds Owners

SOMERS, CT — Members of the Somers Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) and a dozen residents who filed a successful appeal overturning a decision by the town's zoning enforcement officer (ZEO) regarding use of the Four Town Fairgrounds were served with legal papers Wednesday morning, generated by an attorney representing the owners of the property.

Attorney Dorian R. Famiglietti is taking legal action on behalf of the Union Agricultural Society of Somers, Enfield, Ellington and East Windsor Inc. (UAS), a non-stock corporation which has owned the fairgrounds property at 56 Egypt Rd. since 1960. The matter is pursuant to a March 16 decision, passed by a 4-1 vote, to sustain an appeal brought by neighbors of the fairgrounds, overturning a ruling by ZEO Jennifer Roy last summer regarding "off-season" rentals of the grounds.

Roy said based on more than 60 years of precedence, a special use permit was not required for such events, deeming them to be legal non-conforming usage. A group of more than a dozen residents of Sunshine Farms Drive, Little Sorrel Lane and Country Fair Drive, a subdivision built in the late 1980s which abuts the fairgrounds, filed an appeal of Roy's decision through attorney John Parks.

After several delays, the ZBA hearing began on Feb. 9, but was immediately continued to Feb. 18 due to Parks' illness. More than three hours of testimony was heard on both Feb. 18 and March 2, and the board voted to uphold the neighbors' complaint after about 80 minutes of discussion on March 16.

Board member Andy Rockett moved the board grant the appeal, with findings that the decision does not pertain to the Four Town Fair, the 4-H Fair "or any other such agricultural fairs, all of which are permissible." He added, "No other valid non-conforming use was established" by the UAS, and "the burden of proof establishing municipal estoppel was not met."

Board chair Dean Hills and members Dan Thayer, Susan Peck and Rockett voted in favor of the motion, with board member Doug Stebbins opposed.

Society members contend the revenue from off-season property rentals is essential to operation of the Four Town Fair, a fixture for over 180 years, and stopping those rentals after so many years would likely mean the UAS would not have enough funds to continue the fair.

Among the issues listed in the legal complaint, issued Wednesday and obtained by Patch, is:

"The action of the ZBA in modifying the ZEO Decision and reversing it with regard to all events except agricultural fairs was illegal, arbitrary and capricious, and in abuse of the discretion vested in it in one or more of the following ways:

a) The pre-hearing public notice of the ZBA's consideration of the Appeal was defective.

b) The decision was either (1) in direct conflict with the evidence presented during the hearings held on the Appeal; or (2) unsupported by the weight of the evidence presented during the hearings held on the Appeal.

c) The decision was contrary to substantial evidence in the record that supported a finding that the Plaintiff's continued uses of the Property could not be prevented for virtue of municipal estoppel; and

d) The ZBA's decision is confiscatory and so unreasonably infringes upon the Plaintiff's vested property rights that it results in a taking of the Property for which the Plaintiff is entitled to just compensation, per Article 1, Section 11 of the Connecticut Constitution."

Society members contend procedural errors were made related to state legal notice requirements, claiming the legal notice read into the record at the start of the Feb. 9 hearing had only been published once in a local newspaper, and had not been posted on the town's website. By state law, legal notices for formal petitions to zoning boards of appeals must be published in a local newspaper at least twice. Initial publication must be between 10 and 15 days before the hearing, and the second is required at least two days prior to the hearing.

In its claim for relief, the UAS requested "the decision of the ZBA be reversed as it relates to all events other than agricultural fairs; the ZEO Decision that the fair, social and other recreational events conducted on the Property be permitted to continue as legal and valid non-conforming uses of the Property [be] affirmed in its entirety; that the Plaintiff be compensated to the unlawful taking of the Property; such other legal and equitable relief as the court may deem necessary and appropriate."

The citation instructs the ZBA members and the 12 persons cited as Parks' clients in the original appeal paperwork to appear in Rockville Superior Court on May 18. Those clients are:

• Angela and Richard Koehler, 43 Sunshine Farms Dr.
• Diane Lopes, 11 Little Sorrel Lane
• Renee and Cliff Pasay, 42 Little Sorrel Lane
• Sharon and Tony Renzoni, 20 Little Sorrel Lane
• Melissa and Edward Caye, 5 Little Sorrel Lane
• Steve and Nicole Rancourt, 37 Sunshine Farms Dr.
• David Minney, 31 Country Fair Dr.

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