A decision could be rendered Tuesday (Dec. 19) on a controversial proposal to convert a former nursing home into a high school dormitory for international students.
The Derby Planning and Zoning Commission is scheduled to meet at 7 p.m. on the second floor of Derby City Hall.
The agenda includes a continuation of a public hearing for a special exception permit application 101 Marshall Lane Manor.
The commission’s agenda also states the commission could take “possible action” on the application at Tuesday night’s meeting.
Apex International Education Partners (AIEP) LLC, based in Watertown, wants to use the building to house international students, mostly from China, who want to go to school in area private high schools in order to get into good American universities.
The public hearing on the application was wrought with anger last month, with several frustrated residents walking out.
Neighbors have complained the use doesn’t fit into the neighborhood, which consists of mostly single-family houses. They don’t like the idea of teens without their parents living in the neighborhood.
The Valley Indy streamed last month’s meeting live. It is embedded below.
The Derby P&Z already approved language that added the word “dormitory” to its zoning rules as a potential use in the neighborhood.
That earlier P&Z decision — which is separate and apart from the actual AIEP application — is being challenged in court by residents Michael Burke and Marlene Dziekan, Mayor Rich Dziekan’s cousin.
A scheduling conference on that lawsuit is scheduled for 10 a.m. Tuesday at Superior Court in Milford, and the planning and zoning commission is scheduled to discuss the lawsuit with a lawyer in a closed-door “executive session” at the end of Tuesday’s meeting.
