In January of 2023, Attorney Jim Perito received a positive decision for his client, HC2 Associates, LLC (“Owner”). The Hamden Planning and Zoning Commission approved our client’s site plan application for their site, 2323 Whitney Avenue to establish a brewery and restaurant in a former restaurant site in downtown Hamden. However, the Plaintiffs, Tri-Star Realty LLC and 2330 Whitney Avenue, LLC, owners of a competing restaurant appealed the approval on the basis of inadequate parking.
Later in 2023, a 2nd application was filed by the Owner to clarify in further detail the parking logistics, based on rights to park on adjacent and nearby parcels. The Owner included their plan to have extra parking as is their right, at another site they own, 2321 Whitney Avenue. The application was again approved by the commission and the plaintiff appealed once more. The brewery continued to fit out the site at 2323 Whitney Avenue while the plaintiff’s appeals were pending.
Seeing that the appeals had not delayed the project, the plaintiff filed an “application for temporary restraining order” to stop construction until the appeals are resolved which resulted in depositions that proved the plaintiffs were not aggrieved. Attorney Perito challenged the plantiff’s assertion of aggrievement, stating the plaintiff lacked standing to appeal because they did not abut or were within 100 feet of the subject property. The Court agreed that the plaintiff did not establish statutory aggrievement and granted the motion to dismiss the plaintiff’s appeals for lack of statutory aggrievement.