RYA CORP. v. Planning & Zoning Commission

• Decision Date: 01 March 2005
• Citation: 867 A.2d 97,87 Conn. App. 658
• Court: Connecticut Court of Appeals
• Parties: THE RYA CORPORATION ET AL. v. PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION OF THE TOWN OF ENFIELD.

87 Conn. App. 658

867 A.2d 97

THE RYA CORPORATION ET AL. v. PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION OF THE TOWN OF ENFIELD.

(AC 24106), (AC 24105).

Appellate Court of Connecticut.

Argued October 19, 2004.

Officially released March 1, 2005.

Bishop, McLachlan and Peters, Js.

Maria N. Stavropoulos, senior assistant town attorney, with whom, on the brief, was Christopher W. Bromson, town attorney, for the appellant (named defendant).

Kathryn S. Hale, for the appellants (intervening defendant James Laughlin Sperry et al.).

Dorian Reiser Famiglietti, with whom was Joseph P. Capossela, for the appellees (plaintiffs).

Opinion

PETERS, J.

In these consolidated appeals, a trial court sustained an appeal by a developer and a landowner from the decision of a planning and zoning commission denying their subdivision application because of the poor condition of an abutting town road. In their appeals to this court, the commission and neighboring intervenors have raised two principal issues. They maintain that the court lacked subject matter jurisdiction because the plaintiffs did not establish their aggrievement and standing to pursue their appeal. They further maintain that, on the merits, the court should have upheld the commission's denial of the subdivision application, either on the ground stated by the commission or on alternate unstated grounds supported by the record before the commission. We affirm the judgment of the trial court.

The plaintiffs, The RYA Corporation (RYA) and Myers Nursery, Inc. (Myers, Inc.), appealed to the trial court from a decision of the defendant, the planning and zoning commission of the town of Enfield (commission), denying their application for approval of a residential subdivision in Enfield. Myers, Inc., the owner of the property, had consented, in writing, to the filing of the subdivision application. RYA, the subdivision applicant, is a corporation wholly owned by Werner O. Kunzli, with whom Myers, Inc., had contracted for the development of the property. In the commission proceedings and in the trial court, several neighbors (intervenors)¹ were permitted to intervene to oppose the subdivision application.

The trial court sustained the plaintiffs' appeal. The court acknowledged that the proposed subdivision would front on the west side of Laughlin Road in Enfield, a town road that is narrow and unpaved. It held, nonetheless, that the commission lacked the authority to deny the plaintiffs' subdivision application on this ground. The court also considered and rejected the merits of the intervenors' environmental claims. In response to two motions to dismiss that had been filed by the commission and the intervenors, the court further concluded that it had subject matter jurisdiction to hear the plaintiffs' appeal because each of the plaintiffs was aggrieved and had standing to pursue the appeal.

The commission and two intervenors² filed separate appeals that we have consolidated for hearing and resolution. The appellants renew here the issues that they raised at trial. Procedurally, they claim that the court improperly found that it had subject matter jurisdiction to hear the plaintiffs' zoning appeal. Substantively, they claim that the court improperly set aside the decision of the commission, which, in their view, should have been sustained either on the ground on which the commission expressly relied or on other grounds that allegedly were established by the record of the proceedings before the commission. We are not persuaded and affirm the judgment of the trial court.

I SUBJECT MATTER JURISDICTION

It is common ground that the trial court's subject matter jurisdiction to hear the plaintiffs' appeal depended on the plaintiffs' showing that at least one of them had standing to challenge the decision of the commission and was aggrieved by its outcome. See General Statutes § 8-8 (j). In their respective motions to dismiss, the commission and the intervenors claimed that neither of the plaintiffs had made either jurisdictional showing. They appeal claiming that the trial court improperly denied their motions to dismiss. We affirm the conclusion of the trial court that it had jurisdiction to hear the plaintiffs' appeal on its merits.³

In Gladysz v. Planning & Zoning Commission, 256 Conn. 249, 255-57, 773 A.2d 300 (2001), our Supreme Court reviewed the standards that determine whether an appellant in a land use case is aggrieved and has standing to appeal. The court stated: "The terms aggrievement and standing have been used interchangeably throughout most of Connecticut jurisprudence. We previously have stated that the question of aggrievement is essentially one of standing . . . . Although these two legal concepts are similar, they are not, however, identical. Aggrievement is established if there is a possibility, as distinguished from a certainty, that some legally protected interest . . . has been adversely affected. . . . We specifically have applied this standard to cases involving zoning disputes. . . . Because aggrievement is a jurisdictional question, and therefore, the key to access to judicial review, the standard for aggrievement is rather strict. T. Tondro, Connecticut Land Use Regulation (2d Ed. 1992) p. 535." (Citations omitted; internal quotation marks omitted.) Id.

"Conversely, the standard for determining whether a party has standing to apply in a zoning matter is less stringent. A party need have only a sufficient interest in the property to have standing to apply in zoning matters. . . . [I]t is not possible to extract a precise comprehensive principle which adequately defines the necessary interest . . . ." (Citations omitted; internal quotation marks omitted.) Id., 257.

"Standing is not a technical rule intended to keep aggrieved parties out of court; nor is it a test of substantive rights. Rather it is a practical concept designed to ensure that courts and parties are not vexed by suits brought to vindicate nonjusticiable interests and that judicial decisions which may affect the rights of others are forged in hot controversy, with each view fairly and vigorously represented. . . . These two objectives are ordinarily held to have been met when a complainant makes a colorable claim of direct injury [that] he has suffered or is likely to suffer, in an individual or representative capacity. Such a personal stake in the outcome of the controversy . . . provides the requisite assurance of concrete adverseness and diligent advocacy." (Emphasis added; internal quotation marks omitted.) Broadnax v. New Haven, 270 Conn. 133, 153, 851 A.2d 1113 (2004).

The trial court based its determination that each of the plaintiffs was classically aggrieved and had standing on the following findings of fact. "Myers Nursery, Inc., is a Connecticut corporation which is wholly owned by Louis Myers. It is the owner of record of the property which was the subject of this appeal. RYA Corporation is a Connecticut corporation wholly owned by Werner O. Kunzli. RYA is a real estate developer. The [plaintiffs] had entered into an agreement concerning their rights and responsibilities for the codevelopment of various parcels of land, including the subject property. Myers [Inc.] gave its consent to RYA and its agents or representatives to file the application for the subdivision approval. The application was accepted by the defendant commission with full knowledge of the agreement between the plaintiffs. During the entire application process and for a substantial period of time thereafter, the defendant commission never raised any issues concerning RYA as the applicant with the consent of Myers [Inc.] and the involvement of Myers [Inc.] as the property owner."

The court decided that Myers, Inc., and RYA were classically aggrieved because the agreement between Myers, Inc., and Kunzli gave both Myers, Inc., and RYA a specific, personal and legal interest in the approval or disapproval of the subdivision application. The court further decided that Myers, Inc., had standing as the owner of the property and that RYA had standing as the applicant and proposed developer of the property.

Our review of the court's determination that it had subject matter jurisdiction to hear the plaintiffs' appeal is limited to an inquiry into whether the facts on which the court relied in finding aggrievement and standing were clearly erroneous. Fox v. Zoning Board of Appeals, 84 Conn. App. 628, 635, 854 A.2d 806 (2004). Although the appellants have challenged some of these findings of fact, we conclude that, on the present record, the court's decision must be sustained.

The appellants challenge three related findings of fact. They claim that the court erroneously found that (1) the plaintiffs had entered into an agreement for the development of the Myers, Inc., property, (2) the agreement between Myers, Inc., and Kunzli was an agreement between the plaintiffs, even though RYA was not named therein, and (3) the agreement provided RYA with financial benefits as the developer of the property.⁴

The difficulty with these contentions is that we do not know the underlying facts on which the trial court based its findings. The appellants might have asked the court for further articulation on this ground, but they did not do so. Practice Book §§ 60-2 and 66-5. On the present record, it is plausible that the court's factual analysis of the case was based on unstated subsidiary findings of agency. Specifically, the court might have found that RYA filed the subdivision application as Kunzli's agent because Kunzli testified that he, in fact, was RYA Corporation.⁵ The court also might have found that RYA filed the application as Myers, Inc.'s agent because Myers so testified.⁶ The court had no reason to disregard this testimony, which was not contradicted by other evidence at trial and was admitted into evidence without objection.

The appellants maintain, however, that various provisions of the agreement between Myers, Inc.,...