CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
The Hops Co. sits between a heavily commercial area and a heavily residential area.
DERBY — Members of the Derby Planning and Zoning Commission Tuesday asked their attorney and planning consultants to do more research before they’ll consider a zone text change application from The Hops Co., a popular beer garden and restaurant at 77 Sodom Lane.
The Hops Co. is a pre-existing, nonconforming use — meaning it is grandfathered to exist as a commercial use in a residential zone.
Neighbors have complained at public meetings for two months that the popular establishment is killing the quality of life in the residential zone thanks to overflow parking, litter, and noise.
Mayor Rich Dziekan gave the commissioners photographs Tuesday showing the surrounding streets clogged with parked cars and broken bottles (presumably, neighbors said, patrons boozing before or after attending the place).
Derby Police Department stats show nine calls for service between February and August — two fights, five complaints about parking violations, and two noise complaints.
The owner has a site plan looming that would make a number of changes to the property and, presumably, address the concerns. However, that site plan hasn’t been made public yet.
Since The Hops Co. exists as a grandfathered use, any changes they proposed under the current zoning rules would have to be automatically rejected by the commission because the property exists as a pre-existing nonconforming use, according to Derby officials.
So, as a way to jump that hurdle, The Hops Co. hired attorney Dominick Thomas to propose a “Derby Development District” for properties, including but not limited to The Hops Co., that can’t be addressed through traditional zoning rules.
Such development districts are commonly used to launch successful development projects in Shelton, where Thomas often represents developers.
The development district, if approved by the Derby commission, would give the ability for The Hops Co. to present a site plan detailing any changes they want to make to the property, including improving the parking situation and creating a buffer between the noise and the neighbors.
But an attorney for some 20 neighbors said the “Derby Development District” was written poorly and would allow commercial uses in Derby to encroach upon residential areas — a potential disaster for residential property values.
At Tuesday’s meeting, three members of the Planning and Zoning Commission — Ted Estwan Jr., Albert Misiewicz, and Richard A. Stankye — all indicated they had problems with the “Derby Development District,” too.
Misiewicz said he read the text for Shelton’s development districts, and those districts were far more specific over what was allowed and not allowed on a given property.
Estwan pointed out repeatedly that the commission has been listening to the neighbors’ complaints, and that part of its mission is to protect neighborhoods.
But he also pointed out that if the commissioners do nothing, the headaches will continue.
A tougher and more detailed “planned development district” of some kind, with specific rules and regulations that could dictate everything from parking to litter, could be a way to protect the neighbors, Estwan said.
In the end the commission took no action but will deliberate again next month.
Estwan, the chairman of the commission, said the Hops situation is one of the toughest zoning issues he’s had to face in 20 years on the commission.
At the start of the meeting, several neighbors complained they could not comment again on the zone text change application. But Estwan pointed out the official public hearing on the application was closed at the end of last month’s meeting and that no more comments could be entered into the official record.
