SEYMOUR — The lawyer for a proposed trucking school on Pearl Street said he’ll return to court to force the town’s planning and zoning commission to approve his client’s application.
Background
Allstate Commercial Truck Driving School wants to move from Shelton to Seymour.
The town’s planning and zoning commission rejected the school’s special use permit application in March 2007, saying it didn’t fit into the neighborhood.
The trucking school appealed the decision in court — and won.
The commission attempted to appeal that decision, but Appellate and Supreme courts refused to hear the case.
That left the commission and trucking school attorney Dominick Thomas in a standoff — and neither side budged at Thursday’s night planning and zoning meeting.
Deja No
The commission voted — unanimously — to again reject Allstate’s application.
Commission members said they reviewed Allstate’s most recent application — and previous public hearing minutes from 2007 — and determined that nothing had changed in the application to make them
change their minds.
Last month, Tim Lee, the commission’s attorney, said that the commission was not ordered to approve the application — which is opposed by neighbors who worry what a trucking school will do to property values.
Thomas, meanwhile, filed a motion Wednesday in Superior Court in Milford for a writ of mandamus, which is essentially an order to force the town to honor the previous court rulings.
Reaction
“Basically, they lost the case and if you listen to what they did tonight, they said they’re denying it for the same reasons as the case they lost,” Thomas said.
Thomas said Allstate may also file a motion of contempt against the town and seek sanctions, which, he said, would have the town paying for attorney’s fees, among other costs.
“They have refused to sit down and speak with us. They have refused to sit down and discuss it, so we will have to discuss it in court,” Thomas said.
“It’s very frustrating,” said Allstate co-owner Chris Maiorano. “It’s cost us a lot of time and a lot of money. It’s a shame. We’ve tried to be good guys throughout the process.”
Clifford Strumello, the commission’s chairman, said he is not worried about Allstate’s plans to continue the legal fight.
“That’s their privilege. I don’t feel threatened by anybody,” he said.
