Saying they’re aggrieved as adjacent landowners, neighbors of Grace Farms last month sued the Planning & Zoning Commission for its approval of changes to the Lukes Wood Road organization’s special permit earlier this year.
P&Z “acted illegally, arbitrarily and in abuse of the discretion vested in it” by approving Grace Farms’s request to relocate a religious institution office to Puddin Hill Road for staff parking, allowing the organization to host “casual attendance” activities events on site with mission-aligned for-profit entities and easing reporting requirements to the town, according to a complaint filed June 8 state Superior Court.
In addition, “[t]he pre-hearing public notice of the Commission’s consideration of the application was defective” and P&Z’s chair “presided over and fully participated in the public hearing on the application, and then purported to recuse himself on the basis of a conflict of interest following the close of the public hearing,” according to the complaint, filed by attorney David Sherwood of Glastonbury-based Moriarty Paetzold & Sherwood on behalf of Tim Curt and Dona Bissonnnette of Smith Ridge Road.