Canaan
Planning and Zoning sees
BY KAREN BARTOMIOLI
09/25

Longtime Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) Chairman Martin McKay has stepped down as a regular member. He will instead fill the remainder of an alternate seat. That term expires with the 2009 elections.

McKay’s letter saying he is resigning for personal reasons was read at a special P&Z meeting held Sept. 3. It was followed by the commission’s approval of a recommendation by McKay to install Peter Brown as the new chairman.

The commission also voted to move Norman Tatsapaugh from alternate to regular member. That decision, however, can only be a recommendation. The Board of Selectmen appoints P&Z members to fill vacancies. It met in a special session Sept. 16, approving the appointment of Tatsapaugh to a term that expires in November 2011.

Change is what P&Z is often about, and a look at two newly proposed property uses, during a regular P&Z meeting Sept. 17, gave committee members a chance to review zone change procedures.

It is a matter that often delves into  issue of prior uses, and what might be “grandfathered in” as nonconforming uses.

At that meeting, commission members also were encouraged by town residents to maintain the town’s business-friendly nature.

An application is set to go to a public hearing Oct. 15 on a special exemption to convert a single-family home at 218 Ashley Falls Road into a two-family home. The permit would come under regulations for multifamily homes.

P&Z began grappling with a proposed zone change.

Wayne Zinke has been conferring with the commission over an approximately 4-acre parcel at 33 Sodom Road, where he lives. He plans to sell the land to Joseph Gulotta, who wants to build a pole barn for storage of excavation equipment. It is currently zoned residential/agricultural. Zinke wants to change it to commercial.

Zoning Enforcement Officer Karl Nilsen explained the procedure for a zone change. It can be proposed either by the property owner, or P&Z. But during the course of discussion, it became unclear if it is even needed. Zinke ran a recycling business there previously, and his partner stored excavating equipment there. If the new use is deemed the same as the old use, the noncomforming use may be allowed to be resumed there.

The next step is for P&Z members to visit the property to get a sense of what its most appropriate use would be. The acreage is adjoined mostly by active sand and gravel pits, as well as some homes. While it appears the proposed use would fit with existing uses in the immediate area, Nilsen warned that grandfathering of a nonconforming use considers only how that particular property is zoned, not how property around it is used.

However a potential zone change is approached, it would need to go first to the Northwestern Connecticut Council of Governments (COG) for a regional planning review, and to a public hearing. The COG is an organization made of nine first selectmen from Northwest Corner towns.

Soon, regional planning chores will be handed over to a new Northwestern Connecticut Regional Planning Collaborative.

Consultant Chris Wood told commissioners at their Sept. 17 meeting that this collaborative will officially begin work on Sept. 30. They are offering advice and looking for suggestions from local planning agencies.

Jocelyn Ayer manages the Web site — nwctplanning.org — which provides links to zoning regulations in all area towns, news articles pertaining to land use and information pertaining to all sorts of planning issues, including affordable housing and economic development.



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