Frustrated By Rock-Crushing Noise, Neighbors Sue Ansonia ZBA

ANSONIA — All residents of the city’s Westwood Road section want for Christmas this year is some peace and quiet.

Since Burns Construction began rock-crushing operations earlier this year on its property at 16 Riverside Dr., neighbors have said the constant noise, dust and fumes have impacted their lives.

Residents, led by Andrew Mark, Leonard Marazzi and Chris Rogers, formed the Westwood Association in October and since filed a lawsuit last month against the Ansonia Zoning Board of Appeals for allowing what they claim is an illegal operation.

There’s always been a construction company below my property, I grew up in this neighborhood so I was used to the noise,” said Mark, who lives next to Burns Construction.

But the noise that has developed since Burns took over is intolerable. They start sometimes at 6:30 in the morning and don’t stop until 4 in the afternoon. We could hardly open the windows this past summer the noise was so bad. The noise is constant. There is a lot of clanking and rumbling all day long.”

Mark, who often babysits for his two-year old grandson, said one day when the toddler was enjoying his kiddie pool in grandpa’s yard, even he asked what all that noise was.”
I can tolerate construction noise, but this is different,” Mark added. We lived with it for 20 years, but this is just above and beyond. And the smell from them making asphalt is horrible.”

Residents submitted a petition to the city containing more than 100 signatures, claiming rock crushing is a violation of the city’s own zoning regulations, dating back to 1998. The Milford attorney the group hired, Kevin Curseaden, said there’s nothing on the city’s books that allows rock crushing, not only on Burns’ site, but anywhere in Ansonia.

Nowhere in zoning regulations is rock crushing a permitted use,” Curseaden said.

But the city is siding with the construction company.

It is the city’s position that the use is allowable on that parcel,” said Corporation Counsel John Marini. Further, the use was permitted by the zoning official. This parcel is zoned as a contractor’s yard, and the use was specifically permitted by the zoning official earlier this year.”

A virtual meeting held last month to discuss the appeal ended as quickly as it started.

The appeal by the residents was quickly dismissed by the ZBA after Marini intervened and informed residents that the ZBA had no jurisdiction over the matter. Marini suggested the appeal be filed in Superior Court if neighbors want to compel the ZEO to do something.

According to the lawsuit filed in November by Mark against the Ansonia ZBA:

  • Rock-crushing was specifically prohibited at the address back in 1998, and the prohibition was upheld by a court decision in 2004
  • Rock-crushing is a prohibited use in general in the city
  • The city’s ZEO failed to correct the problem
  • The city attorney incorrectly decided the ZBA did not have jurisdiction over the matter

Marini said Burns received the Ansonia ZEO issued a permit allowing rock-crushing at the site in February, and that the timeline to challenge the permit has expired.
Curseaden, the lawyer for the neighbors, said the issuance of the permit was questionable.

If Burns’ went to the Planning and Zoning Commission and asked for a special permit, that’s fine … there would’ve been an opportunity for a public hearing, and that’s how it should have been done,” Curseaden said. But it hasn’t been done that way, and something is being hidden.”

Curseaden said residents’ concerns are falling on deaf ears.

The neighbors aren’t being given a fair opportunity to be heard,” he said.

Stratford Attorney Barry Knott, representing Burns Construction, said the property is zoned industrial and is a contractor’s yard.

Rock crushing is a permitted use in a contractor yard,” Knott said. My client is not seeking to disturb the land, and the prohibition against rock crushing doesn’t apply here. This is the same position taken by the Zoning Enforcement Officer, the Zoning Board of Appeals and the city’s corporation counsel.”

Meanwhile, the ZBA was scheduled to meet again 7 p.m. Dec. 14, at which time the issue could have been discussed.

Rock Crush Ansonia by The Valley Indy on Scribd

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