ANSONIA – Members of the planning and zoning commission voted 4 – 1 July 27 to allow rock-crushing at the Burns Construction facility on Riverside Drive, after a legal battle resurfaced before the commission earlier this year.

Commissioners Jared Heon, William Phipps, Maureen McCormack and Dana Haigh voted to approve the permit application. Heon said the matter would resolve a dispute between Burns Construction and neighbors on South Westwood Road.

Commissioner William Malerba voted against the permit approval. Commissioner Kenneth Moffatt abstained.

“I think this is long overdue and needs to be resolved one way or the other at this point. It’s been left up in the air far too long, and it’s put people in a predicament on both sides,” Heon said.

The permit allows Burns to crush rocks for one year. There are restrictions on work hours and the number of rock-crushing machines onsite. The permit can be extended for another year when it expires.

The approval also requires Burns to provide two contacts for city staff to reach with resident concerns. Burns is also required to contract with an acoustical engineer to do noise studies.

Dispute Resurfaced After Court Settlement

Burns Construction first received a permit to crush rocks on Riverside Drive in 2020. However, rock-crushing was not a permitted use in the city’s zoning regulations at the time.

Neighbors Leonard Marazzi, Christopher Rogers, and Andrew Mark sued the city’s planning and zoning commission and Burns Construction over quality of life issues relating to rock crushing in October 2021.

The neighbors and their attorney repeatedly said rock-crushing was never spelled out as a permitted use in the city’s zoning code, and the permit should not have been issued.

Former Mayor David Cassetti’s administration had argued rock-crushing is OK, as long as the materials being crushed don’t originate onsite.

In September 2021, the city’s planning and zoning commission voted to add “rock-crushing” to the city’s zoning regulations with parameters.

The neighbors reached a settlement agreement with Burns Construction in July 2022. The settlement agreement included terms that would allow the rock-crushing operation to go ahead, with some restrictions.

One of the settlement terms required Burns Construction to apply for a special permit from the City of Ansonia to operate its rock crushers within 60 days. However, the company did not apply for the permit by the deadline.

Neighbors Said Burns Ignored Settlement

In August 2025, the city received a complaint from a neighbor saying that Burns wasn’t complying with the terms of the settlement agreement, according to Heon.

Burns Construction applied for a new rock-crushing permit in January 2026, more than three years after the settlement-imposed deadline had passed. The company continued crushing rocks while the application was pending.

In March, zoning enforcement officer Ronda Porrini said she would issue a cease-and-desist order for Burns to stop crushing rocks until the dispute was resolved.

Marazzi, Rogers and Mark – the three neighbors who sued in 2021 – have shown up regularly to recent planning & zoning meetings to say that quality-of-life issues have continued and that the terms of the settlement agreement haven’t been met.

Attorneys for Burns Construction said the company’s owners are happy to meet with neighbors and that certain terms of the agreement, such as a tree line buffer that was supposed to be planted, are complicated because the company has to negotiate planting with neighbors who own land along the buffer.

The July 27 permit approval does not include any language relating to the tree buffer. Heon said it falls outside the scope of what the planning and zoning commission can do.