Several residents who live in Shelton’s Long Hill Avenue area came out in opposition Feb. 27 at City Hall to a zoning application for a daycare center in a Platt Road house.
They said the business would increase traffic and change the character of their residential neighborhood.
But the applicant, Deborah Ullrich of Kids Zone Realty LLC, argued that the proposal has been a permitted use in a residential zone for years.
A public hearing on Ullrich’s proposal went on for almost three and a half hours until everyone had had their say.
The commissioners closed the public hearing Feb. 27 but didn’t issue a decision.
While Shelton zoning regulations allow people to run daycare center out of their homes in a residential zone, in this case Ullrich, a city resident, would own the home and the daycare center — but someone else would live there, presumably paying rent to Ullrich.
Ullrich’s lawyer, Fred Anthony, who is also Shelton’s Judge of Probate, said that Ullrich plans to have an employee live in a basement apartment in the converted one-family house at 7 Platt Road, which she bought last year.
The arrangement would allow the daycare center operate upstairs, he said.
Critics said Ullrich’s plan to have an employee live in the building instead of living there herself violated the intention of the zoning regulations.
“It’s meant for a person to use a portion of their house as a daycare center, not to purchase a house for use as a daycare center,” said James Cordone, a lawyer representing the Martino family, who live at 453 Long Hill Ave., next door to the Platt Road house.
The critics also included Shelton Board of Aldermen President John Anglace, who made much the same point.
Anglace represents the city’s Third Ward and lives on Long Hill Avenue.
“A child daycare business, and I stress ‘business,’ does not belong in an R‑1 zone,” Anglace said.
Anthony presented the site plan, which calls for relocating and widening the driveway, erecting three light poles with fixtures, constructing a parking area with nine spaces, building a fenced-in children’s play area behind the house and adding landscaping.
He said the Kids Zone daycare facility would cater to children ages 5 – 12 (kindergarten to sixth grade) and would conduct a business day from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. to provide before-school and after-school child care. He estimated it would serve up to 20 children at a time, although that number would be set by state regulators after the facility receives all of its local approvals.
Anthony also presented a traffic study that said the proposal would have a negligible effect on local traffic and a real estate report that claimed it would also have no effect on neighborhood property values.
Those who spoke in opposition to the project disagreed on both points.
They argued that the site improvements would alter the character of the property and that parents and school buses picking up and dropping off children during the morning and evening rush hours would surely increase traffic.
They said an approval could touch off a rash of similar applications that would threaten the character, and property values, of residential zoning districts throughout the city.
“If we allow this, it will open up a can of worms,” said Susan DiMauro of Broc Terrace.
“Let’s make a precedent here and say enough is enough,” added Mike Ligi of Shelview Drive.
Ullrich runs a successful daycare business on Long Hill Cross Road. She is married to city volunteer firefighter Mike Ullrich, who was slated to be the fire department’s next chief in 2011, but Mayor Mark Lauretti refused to sign off on the recommendation.
