7/9/2024 Easton Zoning Board of Appeals
We, the undersigned residents of Easton, would like to ask you to disallow the Special Permit (SP-24-01) granted by the Easton Planning and Zoning Commission, which allows the cabinet business to construct a detached 3000-4000 square foot factory on its lot.
We, the undersigned, stand in solidarity with Easton citizen Dan Lent and the concerns expressed in the Citizens for Easton letter. These arguments and others warrant a thorough review and potential nullification of Special Permit 24-01.
We do not believe this is a “Public Hearing” meeting despite being labeled a “Public Hearing” in the posted agenda. This is because it has not been properly noticed.
We support Citizen Lent’s understanding that this is a Zoning Board meeting in which public comment is allowed. We believe there should be an actual “Public Hearing” in the future, properly noticed, as Lent explained in his letter to you today (7/9/24).
We encourage the Board to make clear to the Selectmen and the Land Use Consultant that it is not their power to decide whether an appeal to this Board is valid. That decision is yours alone to make. Please ask the Selectmen not to do this in the future.
Town Counsel and the Land Use Consultant (who is not an attorney) have claimed that citizens who did not own property that bounded the cabinet factory land had no standing to bring a complaint to the Zoning Board of Appeals or to bring a lawsuit. We accept Lent’s interpretation that he has standing under the General Grievance concept.
Furthermore, we believe that since the town owns the EMS Building, which abuts the property, and this building is owned in common by all Easton residents, Lent, under the Town Council’s theory, also has standing both to complain to the Zoning Board of Appeals and to bring a case in Court.
Below are some of our concerns. We fully support arguments advanced by Lent and the Citizens for Easton and urge you to nullify Special Permit 24-01
Background:
Easton Planning and Zoning (P&Z) recently decided to allow an existing home-based cabinet manufacturing business, under a “Special Permit,” to construct a new 3000-plus-square-foot manufacturing facility on the same lot as the two-bedroom, two-bathroom house the business has been operating out of. The old home and the new factory will share a one-and-a-half-acre residentially zoned non-conforming lot next to the Easton Medical Services Building.
This has significant implications for the future of our community, and this decision should be overturned at the Zoning Board of Appeals for the reasons below:
Manufacturing violates our zoning.
Our zoning does not permit manufacturing. The fact that this business has been allowed to operate historically as a home-based business does not justify its expansion to a new 3,000-plus square-foot facility. Two wrongs don’t make a right.
This is no longer a home-based business.
How can this be called a home-based business if it requires a new 3,000-square-foot factory separate from the home?
The precedent is alarming.
The lot is zoned residential; if we allow a 3000-square-foot factory to be built next to a house to manufacture cabinets, what is to prevent every owner of a conforming or non-conforming residential lot in Easton from applying to build a factory on their property and operate a manufacturing business? Our prohibition on manufacturing and commercial enterprise is what keeps Sport Hill Road from looking like Route 25 in Monroe.
The proposal violates our Accessory Structure rules.
Our Accessory Structure rules limit the size of structures. The idea was to allow small, detached apartments to be built on conforming lots for storage and in-law apartments. It was not to build 3000-plus-square-foot commercial facilities on lots with existing homes.
Community Septic Concerns
Easton Ordinance 405 does not permit Community Septic Systems. That means you cannot hook two structures to a single septic system. This prohibition keeps drinking water clean by keeping housing density low.
The plan for the Cabinet factory includes a community septic. The Easton, Weston, Westport Health District tells us the State approved a septic system that would allow the construction of up to a 4,500-square-foot structure with three half baths. The proposed 3,000-square-foot building could grow in size.
Possible unintended consequence-Create a manufacturing boom in Easton?
Could Easton become a haven for small businesses to avoid onerous regulation? We have been told that the Occupational Health and Safety Department and the Department of Labor have no jurisdiction over home-based businesses. If true, that exemption could incentivize small businesses to relocate here to reduce compliance costs. Is this what the town wants?
Increased non-conformance
The existing house sits on a non-conforming one-and-a-half-acre residential lot. Now, they can build a factory on the lot. Our zoning says that if you are on a non-conforming lot and make a new structure, you must reduce the non-conformance. This seems to increase it.
Watershed concerns:
The lot is classified as a GAA watershed and abuts a reservoir. If we allow manufacturing, is this the place for it? Do we want to set the precedent you can build factories next to reservoirs on GAA watershed land?
Conclusion:
If we permit the construction of this factory, we do not see how Planning and Zoning can deny any other Easton landowner who wishes to do the same. And if the hypothetical landowner is rejected, wouldn’t he sue the town?
And wouldn’t the landowner have a good argument, given that we permitted it once already? We imagine our litigation costs rising if this permit is permitted.
Why are we opening this Pandora’s box?
Angie Brunetti Kathy Kuhn Ralph Kuhn Anonymous 1
Bev Dacey Ken Ward Dwight Senior Anonymous 2
Dave Antonez Wade Hudson Grant Montsarrat Robert Santangelli
Rosa Santangelli Dana Benson Nick Jhilal Bart Senior
Ann Manusky Steve Landa Anonymous 3 Anonymous 4
Margaret Montsarrat
