Williams Files Appeal Against Tolland Village Area Regulations

Property owner Stephen Williams has filed an appeal against the Tolland Planning & Zoning Commission, claiming that the commission is setting mandatory guidelines in areas where it should only act as an advisory body, amongst other claims. 

The Planning & Zoning Commission is currently preparing the record to respond to Williams' appeal.

Williams, who owns a little over 13 acres of land in the designated Tolland Village Area, accuses the commission of dedicating or exacting the land from property owners in a number of ways.

The paperwork proposes that the commission’s design guidelines may be used as “binding regulations” that could give the commission the power to deny developments on the basis of aesthetics, which Williams’ representations cites as  “in excess of the Commission’s powers under the Zoning Enabling Act.”

The design guidelines suggest that building colors come from the “Colonial or Victorian historic color palettes” and that “native stones of the Tolland area” should be used, when possible.

The commission ruled that the design guidelines could not be used to deny an application at the June 13 meeting.

The appeal also takes issue with the commission’s request for “connectivity” between parcels of land, which Williams claims in the paperwork, “practically confiscates” the landowner’s property by leaving them few, commission-controlled development options.

Williams, in the appeal, also takes issue with the commission’s public hearings, saying that the commission made substantial changes to the regulations, based on property owner input, but did not make the revisions public for the next hearing, on June 13. Therefore, he claims that he did not time or the knowledge to respond to the committee’s changes.

Planning & Community Development Director Linda Farmer confirms that the commission made changes to the regulations based on the feedback from the May 23 public hearing. She said that the commission also made an effort through either its members or consultants to reach out to the owners involved in the Tolland Village Area.

“The Planning & Zoning Commission and consultants did devote time explaining Tolland Village Area to business and property owners in the area,” she said.

Farmer also said that other property owners have granted access easements to allow possible connectivity between lots. For example, she said that Tolland’s Fieldstone Commons and Meeting House Commons have both granted access easements so that the adjacent lots may be connected in the future for the convenience of traffic and customers.

The Planning & Zoning Commission approved the . Williams filed the appeal within the 15-day limit.

According to Farmer, the regulations are still valid, pending further developments in the case.

Williams could not be reached for comment. He is represented by attorney Timothy S. Hollister of Shipman & Goodwin, LLP, according to the filed appeal.