Shelton Scrutinizes Daycare Proposal

The Shelton Planning and Zoning Commission has sought has sought a legal opinion on whether a proposed a child daycare in a Platt Road residence meets the intent of zoning regulations.

Members of the PZC reached an informal consensus at a meeting on March 12 that the applicant, Kids Zone Realty LLC, wanted to use the special exception regulation in a way it was not designed for when it was created 15 years ago.

The regulation allows homeowners to operate commercial daycare businesses in their own homes, even in an R‑1 residential zone, in accordance with state law. It was enacted in the 1990s when there was a shortage of daycare options for Connecticut parents.

Planning and Zoning Administrator Rick Schultz told the commission at the meeting that this is the first ever application for the special exception, but the members were skeptical about it, and Planning Consultant Anthony Panico agreed with their concern.

Panico, participating electronically from his winter home in Florida, said he didn’t believe the Kids Zone application met the intent of the zoning regulation and he advised the commission to request a legal interpretation before acting.

“I have serious reservations about it,” he said.

Commission Chairman Ruth Parkins said it looked to her as if the application would turn a residential house into a business with a rental apartment downstairs.

Kids Zone, owned by Shelton resident Deborah Ullrich, already operates a daycare business in a commercial zone along Long Hill Cross Road. Last fall, the Zoning Board of Appeals denied its petition for a new daycare center in a residence at 7 Platt Road at the corner of Long Hill Avenue, so Ullrich applied to the PZC under the special exception.

To satisfy the requirement that the operator run the daycare business in his or her private residence, Ullrich proposed to create a basement apartment to house the manager of the daycare facility. At a public hearing on Feb. 27, she said the apartment rent would be figured into the manager’s salary.

But numerous Long Hill Avenue neighborhood residents opposed the application, saying that it would change the character of the residential neighborhood.

Click here to read more about the hearing.

In other actions at the meeting, the PZC extended the discussion period for a proposed 262-unit apartment complex at 784 Bridgeport Avenue, behind Bertucci’s Restaurant, until April 25. The applicant, Talbot Partners LLC, offered the extension. The commission has a meeting scheduled for April 24, which is when it might make its decision on the proposal.

The commission indicated in February it favored reducing the number of units to 228, eliminating one of the complex’s multi-unit buildings.

The PZC also rescheduled the public hearing on the Hawk’s Ridge development to the April 24 meeting date.

The Hawk’s Ridge applicant has proposed 60 single-family houses and an 80-unit multi-family condominium complex on a 40-acre tract bounded by Long Hill Cross Road, Beard Sawmill Road and the Route 8 expressway.

Click here to read more about that proposal.

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