Homeowner Files Suit Against Developer, Middletown Zoning Board

A lawsuit filed in Superior Court today by a High Street resident charges the city zoning commission’s recent approval of a zoning change was illegal and requests the decision be reversed.

City Counsel Brig Smith received the writ for the city, filed by Neubert, Pepe & Monteith, PC, on behalf of Jennifer Proto, owner of 390 High Street in Middletown, who claims the zoning commission’s approval March 13 was “arbitrary, capricious, illegal, in abuse of its discretion and ultra vires [‘beyond its powers’].” She is suing the Middletown Planning and Zoning Commission and Acquisition Holdings, the parent of Centerplan Companies.  

The request for a drive-through and restaurant-retail complex in the city’s historic district along Washington Street passed unanimously at the last planning and zoning commission meeting. Then, in a packed city hall council chambers, with many seated on the floor and watching proceedings on the lobby television, six commissioners approved Centerplan Company’s request for a mixed-use development special exception.    

Most notably, the suit charges one or more commission members received evidence after the public hearing through private communications. 

On March 14, Attorney Jared Proto, Jennifer Proto’s husband, filed a freedom of information request on behalf of an unknown client with the town clerk’s office requesting all communications “between and any individual or entity involving the proposed zoning changes.” Both Jared and Jennifer Proto declined to comment on the suit.  

Listed as subjects of the FOI are every member of the planning and zoning commission, including the two alternates, planning director Bill Warner, deputy planning director Michiel Wackers, Smith, deputy city attorney Kori Wisnecki, zoning enforcement officer Bruce Driska, planning department secretary Susan Nesco, and architect Jeff Bianco.  

The suit also claims the commission approved the application despite procedural irregularities, the zoning text amendment is inconsistent the surrounding neighborhood, the Comprehensive Plan, and the Plan of Conservation and Development for Middletown, and doesn’t “advance the health, safety and welfare” of the community.  

“A large, five-story building with chain store tenants on the ground floor and a large parking lot will transform a quiet family neighborhood where Mrs. Proto and her husband raise their child into a mini Main Street,” the suit details. “Hundreds of cars and the attendant pollution will change the nature and character of the neighborhood, forcing families like the Protos to potentially find other housing.”  

At the Feb. 27 zoning hearing, according to the Middletown Eye, Jennifer Proto “presented research on the economic value of historic districts to the city. She cited an extensive study of real estate values in several towns in Connecticut, which demonstrated that protection of historic neighborhoods increased the value of real estate. Proto suggested that this was in part because protected neighborhoods offer stability and predictability to potential homebuyers.”

The statement that she read at the Feb. 27 hearing, printed in the Middletown Eye, indicates she has a master’s degree in public administration and worked in government for nearly a decade, including 3½ years as a non-partisan fiscal analyst for the Connecticut General Assembly.