Date: Fri 08-Jan-1999

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDYG

Quick Words:

Gary-Frenette-zoning-violation

Full Text:

An Enforcement Officer's Unending Tour Of Newtown's Zoning Violations

(with cuts)

BY ANDREW GOROSKO

Gary Frenette drives a blue Town of Newtown pickup truck down a long steep icy

dirt road in Pootatuck Park past a variety of houses on a variety of lots.

Some properties in the sprawling, hilly development along the Housatonic River

south of Silver Bridge hold well-kept small houses on tiny lots.

But other properties have ramshackle cottages sitting next to accumulations of

scrap metal, unregistered cars, used lumber, machine parts, and junk.

As town zoning enforcement officer, the most common type of complaint Mr

Frenette handles concerns accumulations of debris.

Pootatuck Park isn't the only part of town where there are problems, Mr

Frenette explains, as a ride through Newtown this week demonstrated. Other

blatant violations of the zoning regulations exist at addresses on Hemlock

Road, Lori Lynne Circle, South Main Street, Church Hill Road, Jeremiah Road,

Cherry Street and Anthes Avenue.

Mr Frenette is currently handling dozens of zoning violations through his

office in Canaan House at Fairfield Hills. As the zoning enforcement officer,

Mr Frenette interprets the zoning regulations and enforces known violations,

seeking to have violators comply with the rules, and taking violators to court

if they don't comply.

Currently, about five violations are in court and more court actions are

planned, said Mr Frenette, who started working for Newtown last May.

"I've probably got 30 (violation) files on my desk," and there's probably many

more unknown violations, he said.

Mr Frenette's enforcement work largely stems from complaints made to him by

people who live and/or own property near the violations.

On Monday, Mr Frenette said Trudeau's Service Center, a tire shop at 47-49

South Main Street, had failed to comply with a court order to remove numerous

illegal advertising signs from its property in violation of the zoning

regulations.

"I have to write up a letter to Joe Walsh," Mr Frenette said of his plans to

inform the town's litigator of Trudeau's failure to comply with the court

order. When the town won a judgment against Trudeau in December, a judge also

ordered the firm to pay a $12,000 fine for its various violations.

Both the town and the borough now plan general crackdowns on sign violations,

using the Trudeau judgment as a precedent.

Of his approach to handling zoning violations, Mr Frenette said "You have to

be diplomatic. I always try to knock on the door, or send out a letter if

there's no one home."

"As long as someone's making progress, I'm not going to bring them to court,

because that would only make the situation worse," he said.

If violators cooperate and work to correct their problems, solutions can be

achieved across time, Mr Frenette said. If violators don't cooperate, then it

becomes a matter for the town's attorneys, he said.

But going to court isn't something the town does lightly, he points out,

noting that seeking a court order to correct a zoning violation can cost the

town $5,000 to $10,000 in legal expenses.

Gravel Mining

Mr Frenette wheels his town pickup truck northward up the narrow Button Shop

Road, turning left onto the dead-end Hemlock Road.

A new two-story colonial house lies south of Hemlock Road in what seems like a

lunar landscape. The attractive blue, unoccupied house sits in a broad

excavated bowl of land barren of vegetation.

The builder, realizing that the homesite was rife with valuable gravel,

decided to mine the property of its mineral riches in conjunction with new

home construction, Mr Frenette explains.

Because mining the homesite violated land use regulations, Mr Frenette is

making the builder bring back material to the site to re-establish the grade

of the land that existed before the illegal gravel mining occurred.

When the site is repaired, a required "certificate of occupancy" for the house

can be sought from the town building department. Until then, it's just a brand

new empty house sitting in a worked-out gravel mine.

Mr Frenette drives his pickup truck up Bear Hills Road and onto Lori Lynne

Circle, a short dead-end street in Botsford. At the end of the road adjacent

to its turnaround, a resident has amassed a panoply of vehicles, machine parts

and general debris the presence of which has annoyed the neighbors for years.

The town has been involved in enforcing the zoning regulations there for 20

years, and town is in court yet again with the violator over the problem, Mr

Frenette said.

As Mr Frenette motors down an icy Cricket Lane he spots a particularly blatant

example of junk accumulating in a residential yard. He stops and takes notes

for his enforcement file, preparing information for a visit he'll be making to

the property owner to seek compliance.

On his trek through town, Mr Frenette also stopped at residences on Jeremiah

Road, Cherry Street and Anthes Avenue where old junked vehicles, discarded

building materials and general debris have accumulated.

He makes mental notes, comparing the properties' current condition to what

they looked on his last visit in planning what steps to take to get them

cleaned up and in compliance with the zoning regulations.