Konigsberg v. Bd. of Aldermen of New Haven

• Decision Date: 14 August 2007
• Docket Number: No. 17842.,No. 17841.,17841.,17842.
• Court: Connecticut Supreme Court
• Parties: William KONIGSBERG et al. v. BOARD OF ALDERMEN OF the CITY OF NEW HAVEN et al. William Konigsberg et al. v. City Plan Commission of the City of New Haven et al.

930 A.2d 1

283 Conn. 553

William KONIGSBERG et al. v. BOARD OF ALDERMEN OF the CITY OF NEW HAVEN et al.

William Konigsberg et al. v. City Plan Commission of the City of New Haven et al.

No. 17841.

No. 17842.

Supreme Court of Connecticut.

Argued April 11, 2007.

Decided August 14, 2007.

Joseph P. Williams, with whom were Matthew Ranelli and, on the brief, Sheila A. Huddleston, Hartford, for the appellants (defendants in each case).

Robert A. Fuller, Wilton with whom was Bernard A. Pellegrino, New Haven, for the appellees (plaintiffs in each case).

BORDEN, KATZ, PALMER, ZARELLA and NORKO, Js.

KATZ, J.

The present controversy is comprised of two separate zoning appeals brought by the plaintiffs, seven individuals who own residential property in the city of New Haven (city), against the defendants, various city agencies and officials, seeking to prevent the construction of a new school in the East Rock neighborhood of the city.¹ The plaintiffs' first appeal (Docket No. SC 17841) concerns the decision of the city's board of aldermen (board of aldermen) approving amendments to the zoning ordinance and the zoning map of the city, submitted by the New Haven city plan department (plan department) to facilitate the use of certain property for the construction of the school. The plaintiffs' second appeal (Docket No. SC 17842) concerns the decision of the New Haven city plan commission (plan commission) approving a site plan application submitted by the city's board of education (board of education) for the construction of the new school on a site affected by the zoning amendments. Because the site plan application was designed to conform to the amended zoning regulations contested in the first case, the parties agree that the validity of the plan commission's approval of the site plan application in the second appeal is conditioned on the validity of the amendments at issue in the first case.

The appeals were consolidated and thereafter tried to the court, Hon. Anthony V. DeMayo, judge trial referee, who, exercising the powers of the Superior Court, rendered judgments sustaining the plaintiffs' appeals, concluding that the board of aldermen had abused its discretion by approving amendments that were inconsistent with the city's comprehensive plan and that the plan commission, therefore improperly approved the site plan application on the basis of the illegal amendments. The court declared null and void each of the zoning amendments in the first case and the site plan approval in the second case. Pursuant to General Statutes § 8-8(o), the defendants appealed from the judgments of the trial court to the Appellate Court. Thereafter, pursuant to General Statutes § 51-199(c) and Practice Book § 65-1, we transferred the consolidated appeals to this court. We now reverse the judgments of the trial court.

The record in the present case is voluminous. Because the trial court's decision is predicated principally on whether the board of aldermen acted consistently with the substantive limits of its authority under the city's comprehensive plan, we set forth in detail the steps undertaken before the board of aldermen adopted the amendments at issue. The following facts and procedural history are, however, of necessity, edited for efficiency.

We begin with a brief explanation of the authority vested in the defendant city agencies involved in this appeal. The board of aldermen is vested with zoning authority for the city. See 19 Spec. Acts 1006, No. 490 (1925). In this capacity, it is charged with enacting zoning regulations "in accordance with a comprehensive plan" that is designed to, inter alia, "facilitate the adequate provision for . . . schools. . . ." Id., § 2.² Pursuant to this grant of authority, the board of aldermen has adopted a zoning ordinance regulating zoning for the city. The plan commission is vested with the responsibility for creating a "comprehensive plan for the systematic and harmonious development of the city. . . ." See 16 Spec. Acts 897, No. 243, § 2 (1913). Pursuant to the city zoning ordinance, the plan commission also is responsible for reviewing regularly the effectiveness and appropriateness of the city zoning ordinance and for making recommendations to the board of aldermen on such changes as it sees fit. See New Haven Zoning Ordinance §§ 61(c), 64(a) and (b). The plan department is the professional planning staff of the plan commission.

The present dispute arises from the search for a new location for the Worthington Hooker School (school), which serves the East Rock neighborhood of the city, and historically has been located in that neighborhood. In 1998, in response to requests by families whose children attended the school and as part of a citywide effort to increase the number of neighborhood primary and secondary schools, the board of education expanded the school, which originally had offered only kindergarten through fourth grades, to include grades five through eight. Shortly thereafter, due to overcrowding, the school's facility on Canner Street could not accommodate grades five through eight, and students in those grades had to attend school in a leased building in a nearby neighborhood. Neither facility, however, was up to date in equipment, code compliance or access for persons with disabilities and neither had off-street student drop-off, staff parking, or sufficient outdoor recreation facilities. Thus, in 1999, a working group comprised of parents of students attending the school, the school principal, and a member of the board of aldermen began looking for new long-term facility options for the school.

Between the fall of 2000 and early 2002, a series of public meetings was conducted regarding the site review process in the East Rock neighborhood. In June, 2001, the working group asked the plan department to evaluate numerous sites that the group had identified in the East Rock neighborhood. The plan department issued a site selection report in December, 2001, after analyzing twenty-two potential sites according to a variety of factors including location, size, traffic, utilities, adjacencies, environmental concerns and displacement of existing homes or businesses. The plan department recommended that the city acquire two adjacent properties — 691 Whitney Avenue, which was owned by the Whitney Christian Life Center, a religious institution, and 703 Whitney Avenue, which was owned by the American Red Cross—and build a new facility to accommodate the kindergarten through eighth grades on the combined lots. The recommendation noted, however, that the American Red Cross had claimed that its federal charter rendered its parcel beyond the reach of the city's eminent domain power. The recommendation suggested that, if that were the case, the school site should be limited to the 691 Whitney Avenue parcel.

On January 9, 2002, John DeStefano, Jr., the city's mayor, held a public meeting to review the site selection report's recommendations. The plan commission conducted a public hearing on February 6, 2002, and voted to adopt the site recommendations on March 20, 2002. On April 11, 2002, the citywide school building committee voted to recommend the site at 691 Whitney Avenue, and on May 13, 2002, the board of education approved the recommendation. On June 17, 2003, the plan commission issued an advisory report recommending that the board of aldermen acquire the 691 Whitney Avenue site as part of the school construction program, noting that the abutting 703 Whitney Avenue site had been determined to be unavailable due to American Red Cross' federal charter. The board of aldermen's joint education and community development committee heard the recommendation at that time, and the full board approved the plan commission's recommendation on November 6, 2003. In furtherance of the planned school construction, the city purchased the 691 Whitney Avenue parcel in December, 2003.

Contemporaneous with the school site selection process, the city had been involved in the decennial update of its plan of conservation and development, as required by General Statutes (Rev. to 2003) § 8-23.³ On October 15, 2003, the city adopted a new "Comprehensive Plan of Development," which was accompanied by a proposed land use map indicating the planned use of the 691-703 Whitney Avenue parcel as "institutional." The plan noted the need for improved and enlarged educational facilities, and specifically recommended the construction of a new school facility at 691 Whitney Avenue to accommodate the upper grades and the renovation of the Canner Street location for the lower grades.

At the time the city purchased the 691 Whitney Avenue property, the parcel was split-zoned, and the line separating the zones bisected the existing church building on the property.⁴ The eastern side of the parcel abutting Everit Street was zoned as residential single family (RS-1),⁵ and the western side of the parcel abutting Whitney Avenue was zoned as residential high-density (RH-1).⁶ The entire parcel is 2.58 acres, and has been treated as a single parcel for planning and construction purposes since at least 1950, when the church structure currently occupying the site was erected. The church building faces Whitney Avenue but is set back near the center of the parcel. A large paved parking lot occupies most of the rear, eastern portion of the lot bordered by Everit Street.

Running along Whitney Avenue, the RH-1 district is a fully developed area that houses both single-family and multi-family residences, including some large apartment complexes. Established as part of a large scale rezoning of the city in 1963, the RH-1 district was intended, in part, to preserve the distinctive multi-family, primarily residential character of Whitney Avenue, and to prevent commercial encroachment on the urban arterial street. A number of churches, a private school, a private arts center, a fire station and a Planned Parenthood center, as well...