Description: Challenge to denial of approvals necessary for development of single-family home on Connecticut coast.
-
A Piece of Paradise, LLC v. Borough of Fenwick Zoning Board of Appeals
Case Documents:
Filing Date Type File Action Taken Summary 12/23/2015 Memorandum of Decision Appeal of zoning board determination dismissed. Connecticut Court Upheld Denial of Approvals for Single-Family Home Where Owner Had Not Considered Sea Level Rise. A Connecticut Superior Court rejected a property owner’s challenge to the denial of variances and coastal site plan approval for a single-family home on a parcel in the town of Old Saybrook that was formerly part of a larger parcel containing Katharine Hepburn’s home. Among the reasons cited by the court for upholding the decisions of the Borough of Fenwick Zoning Board of Appeals was the owner’s failure to consider impacts on coastal resources, including impacts of sea level rise. Citing a 2010 report on climate change impacts prepared by a subcommittee to the Governor’s Steering Committee on Climate Change, the court noted that the required review was “underscored by the likely impact on Long Island Sound from rising sea levels—with estimates ranging from twelve to fifty-five inches by the end of the century.”