Elderly housing plan fades with defeat

back

Want to support Global Action on Aging?

Click below:

Thanks!

Elderly housing plan fades with defeat

By AMY BETH PREISS
Norwich Bulletin, June 12, 2003

VOLUNTOWN, CT - A proposed zoning amendment that could have led to an elderly housing complex was unanimously defeated Wednesday, but the applicant said he would still fight for the project.

Carl Grenier applied for amendments to the town's zoning regulations that would have permitted -- with a special exemption -- a housing development for people 55 and older.

The Planning and Zoning Commission denied the request, saying such a development did not fit with the town's rural character and its development plan.

Grenier disagreed, adding that 25 percent of residents surveyed wanted elderly housing.

"I am amazed they think they are above the law," Grenier said, threatening to sue the town. "State statutes say zoning shall encourage a development of housing opportunities, including opportunities for multifamily dwellings to promote housing choice and economic diversity in housing."

Grenier said he will return because 10 years of work and money he spent on the project is at stake.

"I think their actions are out of line," he said. "I am amazed with the conflict. All the players weren't there for the whole process. We provided them with more than ample information. This was predetermined. One person steered this behind closed doors."

Grenier's lawyer, Edward Berdick, challenged several things before the vote, including a question of conflict of interest.

Berdick said commission member Carl Anderson represented a family involved in a lawsuit with Grenier in the 1990s.

Anderson told the commission's lawyer he felt there was no conflict of interest.

He voted against the application.

Commissioner member Flo Harman, who made a motion to table the matter, stepped down from the vote because Berdick questioned her absence from a public hearing held on the proposed change.

Harman said she listened to most of the tapes and read all the documents pertaining to the application.

"I didn't want to give anybody a chance to say this board is biased because I wasn't at the hearing," she said. "He (Berdick) brought it up. He was trying to look for a loop hole and he didn't find it."

Berdick said: "It's a shame they couldn't just say they didn't want the concept before when we asked them."