When the Planning and Zoning commission denied an application to build four homes on top of a rubber dump off Hoinski Way, it essentially condemned the property.
That’s according to the attorney for developer White Hills Homes, LLC.
Now the developer says the city owes it the value of the land — and the profit that would have been made off the four homes.
In legal terms, attorney Stephen Bellis, who represents White Hills Homes, LLC, says what the Planning and Zoning commission did was “inverse condemnation.”
“They say that you can’t use the land at all for development purposes. It’s like taking the land because the land doesn’t have a value,” Bellis said.
Bellis estimated the lost value of the land and lost income from home sales at about $500,000.
In November, White Hills Homes, LLC filed a lawsuit in Superior Court of Milford seeking reimbursement from the city.
The suit is scheduled to be discussed in executive session during the Board of Aldermen meeting tonight (Tuesday, Jan. 12).
The Land
A four-home subdivision is not usually a hot issue, but this particular 4.19-acre lot has about 20,000 cubic yards of rubber waste buried on it, and abuts the Ansonia gun club.
During public hearings on the matter, aldermen Gene Sharkey and Steve Blume said an 88-home subdivision adjacent to the property was originally slated to include the four acres in question — but the Planning and Zoning Commission at the time determined the area with the rubber landfill could not be developed.
Bellis, during that hearing, countered that the 88-home subdivision did not include that four acres, so there could be no restrictions placed upon it during that application process.
Bellis also said a title search of the property yielded no building restrictions on the land.
(Read another story about the hearings here.)
While none of the four proposed homes were slated to be built on the rubber dump footprint, homeowners would have needed state Department of Environmental Protection permission to dig in their backyards.
That means they would have to contact DEP if they wanted to install pools, garden or have pig roasts.
“DEP wrote a letter that said it was OK to have all these activities, but they just wanted to know about it so they could keep a record that this was going on,” Bellis said recently. “DEP said it’s not hazardous. It’s just solid waste. It’s just like if you had a rubber ball buried underneath the ground.”
But for Planning and Zoning commission members, the concerns about lifestyle and health affects were too much.
On Sept. 28, the commission unanimously denied White Hills Homes application.
Executive Session
The city had asked its insurance carrier if its policy would cover the claim.
It won’t, according to a letter dated Nov. 30 from the American Alternative Insurance Corporation.
“AAIC hereby informs the City of Ansonia that it finds no coverage under its policy,” the letter states.
The letter is included in a packet for a proposed executive session on the topic at the Board of Aldermen meeting Tuesday.
Special city counsel Thomas Welch was unable to be reached for comment Monday.
