Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the special planning and zoning commission meeting for Tuesday, 05/10/2026. This public meeting, is pursuant to state law that there is no physical, location for the meeting, and the meeting is being held electronically and live streamed at westportct.gov. Hang on one moment. This meeting will also be shown on Westport's optimum government access channel 79 subject to availability, and the public may, of course, attend and after testimony and offer testimony during the meeting, by using the meeting link provided in the agenda prior to the meeting. The meeting agenda is available on westportct.gov on the meetings list and calendar web page.

And, of course, written commitment comments, may be submitted, prior to the public meeting, and they should be sent to pandz@voiceportct.gov prior to 12PM on the day of the meeting if intended to be distributed by the PNC commission. Any comments that come in after 12PM on the day of the meeting will be, entered into the record and distributed after on the next business day. Meeting materials, of course, are submitted and available on westportct.gov, and the web page is p and z pending applications and recent approvals. So today's special, planning and zoning meeting agenda is being is being, attended by commissioners Mike Kalis, myself, Paul Leibowitz, Michael Kenmeyer, Brie Injeski, and I am expecting Patrice Zuccaro when she gets a chance. This is a, a meeting where we are going to vote to go into executive session.

Prior to going into voting for executive session, I'd like to, canvas the, commissioners that are here. I have personally invited, mister Jake Keenan along with, attorney Ira Bloom, Michelle Pirelli, to come join us and help us in our deliberations for today's executive session. Do you all agree with that with that effort? Yep. That invitation Sounds good.

Hey, Paul. I think Keith mentioned Matt Suter as well from his office.

Sorry. Yes. I didn't see his name up there, so hopefully he's And Matt Suter as well will be joining us. So, with that, I'd like to make a motion to go into executive session. Do I have a second?

Second.

Thank you. All those in favor, aye. Aye. Aye. All right.

All right. So ladies and gentlemen, I'll meet you over at the executive session. Thank you very much. And, of course, we are here, to discuss and potentially vote on the issue, of both the draft stipulation for judgment regarding Margaret e Virus versus Planning and Zoning Commission as well as memorandum of decision for Hills Point Cove LLC versus planning and zoning commission. So let's see if we got this right.

First of all, I wanna make sure all of my commissioners are back. One, two, three, four. Alright. So we're just waiting on Mike who I'm sure will be

Michael is joining now, Khalise.

Alright. Let's let him, load up. So what I'd like to do is I would like to, in I have invited our town attorney here, and I'd, I'm just going to ask him to briefly explain, what it is we're voting on regarding, Margaret Wyres versus planning and zoning. Just give us, some substance, and then we can call the vote. And then I'll have him do the same thing for the memorandum of decision for Hills Point Cove. Mister Bloom, are you with us?

Yes. I am. Can you hear me?

Yes. Thank you.

Okay. Good afternoon. My name is Ira Bloom. I'm Bertram Moses, town attorney. My partner here, Matt Studer, works on our land use department, is also here. This case was filed by the folks who live at 3 Meadowbrook Lane. Margaret Wyres is the first name plaintiff. And this was an appeal of your approval of the Long Lot School. It was filed in a timely manner. Attorney Green represented them.

We've been negotiating over a resolution to this case for many months. And I'm pleased to report that we do have proposed stipulation for judgment, which is dated March 4. It's been signed already by attorney Green on behalf of his clients. It's been posted on the on the town website, so, hopefully, the folks have had a chance to read it. Their house backs up to to long the new long lot school and the old long lot school.

And they had concerns about landscaping, etcetera, etcetera. In in quick summary form, they were going to get a certain number of trees. They're going to get now 14 trees along the the perimeter between their property and and the school property. There's a there's a warranty which will extend for eight years on those trees. There's a natural wooded area, wall shown on the maps that are attached here, which is further buffer.

And there's one tree down that's gonna be taken away and replaced. And then we gave them, some some guarantees that if other trees fall, the town will replace them. Certain a certain caliber of tree, and and it's all defined in this in this document. So, those are, in essence, the the key provisions. There's another provision in terms of their, their fence.

Should there be any damage to the fence, the town will take care of that. So I think those are the the main points of their agreement. It does not have anything to do with the, with the school or with the future of the school except for, their their small buffer area and the the 14 trees. So there's there's a it's it's it's very defined in terms of what the town will have to do going forward. It's it's very, very clear in terms of the parameters, which is what we wanted from our perspective so that, everybody knows what what the responsibilities are.

So, we've talked about it in executive session, as pending litigation. And, now under our practice book, the next step would be to present it here at this public meeting, which has been noticed. Mister chairman, I would suggest that you see if there are any members of the public who would like to comment, take their take their comments. And then when you're done, I would ask for a motion to hopefully approve the stipulation for judgment in this case. We'll read the name of the case again and the docket number and it's stated March 4.

And if you do vote affirmatively on that, then tomorrow, actually, it is assigned for a hearing before the judge. That's the last part of of the process. In Bridgeport, judge Radcliffe I think it's in the morning, Matt, isn't it? Ten or 10:30?

Yeah. 10AM tomorrow morning.

10AM. Right. And, at that point, the judge has to has to review it, has to find it fair and equitable. Hopefully, he'll do that, and then he will approve it, and that'll that'll complete this this litigation.

Thank you very much, attorney Blum. Appreciate it. Alright. So the commissioners themselves have all opined. I'd like now an opportunity if anybody from the public needs to speak. You can put your digital hand up or wave at me, either one. You have an opportunity to discuss the stipulation for agreement between the viruses and planning and zoning commission. This is that chance. Alright. And seeing none, I'm gonna come back to the commissioners.

Commissioners, you've all had a chance, both through executive session, and reading through the stipulation. Before I call for the vote, mister Bloom, do I need to call out the actual memorandum, by name?

Well, I I think, you know, just to keep some formality here, I I I think you would be Alright.

I'll do that.

A resolution in regarding the case of Margaret Wyres. And by the way, I didn't wanna slide the other plaintiff

At at all.

Wyres', husband whose name is, I think it's Peter Thomas, I believe. That's what it says. Mister Trump, Ms. Wyres, and their and their suit against Planning is on a commission. The docket number, can read to you or Michelle. Go

ahead. Ahead.

Read. The approval of the stipulation for judgment, in this in this case.

Very good. And that's, FBT CV 256149986Dash s. I a motion to approve this stipulation. Do I have a second? Second. Thank you. So I'm gonna do by roll call since we're in Zoom as is required. I'm gonna start with Patricia Zuccaro. Yeah. Miss, Shivani?

Miss Shivani? At this off. Sorry. Yay. Mister Kalise? I'm sorry, miss Kalise. You got a little bit of feedback. Try that again. I'm sorry. Can you How do you do you vote on the stipulation between WIRES and Planning and Zoning Commission? I wanna move forward. So that's a yes. Mister Kammeyer? Yes. Miss Zinjewski? Yes. And I'm a yes as well. Mister Bloom, does that satisfy your needs?

It does. Thank you all.

Thank you, sir. Let's do number two. Number two is a memorandum decision for Hills Point Cove LLC versus Planning and Zoning Commission. This one is called FBTCV 246135576DashS227HillsLLC versus planning zoning commission f b t c v 246141237Dash s as well. We have discussed this in executive session, and the the commission, would like to take a vote.

The vote would be to move forward. And mister, Bloom, can you give us the exact legal definition of what we're going to of of what we're moving forward with?

Yeah. I'm gonna, ask, attorney Steuter just to give a quick one minute summary of of of what we're doing here and what we need, if if you wanna do that, Matt.

Sure. So what we're asking you to vote on this afternoon is just a resolution to allow the town attorney's office to authorize the town attorney's office to file a petition for certification requesting the ability to appeal the judge's decision in these two text amendment cases. The petition for certification would need to be filed by our office on or before March 30 of this month.

Thank you very much. I appreciate that. So, commissioners, again, the motion is to approve this. I'm gonna go around the room, individual vote. I'm gonna start with miss Patrizia Zuccaro. How do you vote? Yay. Thank you.

Miss,

Shivani? Yea. Mister Kalise? Move forward. Yes. Yes. Mister Kalise? I'm sorry. Mister Kalise? Try that. There you go. Sounds good. Yes. Yes or no? Thank you. Miss Injewski? Yes. And Mr. Leibowitz votes yes as well. Thank you for bringing this to us to get this through and finish this up. Mr. Bloom, is there anything else you require to speak?

No. I just wanna apologize to mister Thormer, Peter Thormer, t h o m e r, in the Wyris case. Miss Wyris's husband, I think I pronounced his name as Thomas. That was incorrect. So we got that cleared up. And we have, your vote on the petition for certification, which we will get filed by March 30. So thank you all.

Alright. I motion to adjourn. I'll second that. Thank you. And appreciate commissioners for coming in.

Paul, I'm sorry. Joel Green is just joining. I just wanted to let you know. I don't know if

He was on before. Oh, okay. No. It's fine. It's fine. We are adjourned.

Do we ask? Okay. Okay. Thank you. Bye bye.

Bye. Thanks.