Mulching Prohibition

Appealed In Court

The owners of a wood mulching business on Mt Pleasant Road in Hawleyville have sued the Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) over the town’s decision to stop the business from grinding and selling mulch.

In a lawsuit filed October 27 in Danbury Superior Court, Jane M. Payne and her son, Charles Payne, seek to have a judge overturn the ZBA’s recent decision, which upheld Zoning Enforcement Officer Gary Frenette’s order last May 5 that Connecticut Wood Recycling and Mulch, LLC, of 138-142 Mt Pleasant Road stop making and selling mulch there. The business formerly was known as Payne’s Nursery.

Mr Frenette’s rationale for the cease-and-desist order is that “a wood processing, dyeing and recycling business in a B-2 business zone is not a permitted use in that zone.”

The ZBA held a public hearing on the matter September 3. The town’s ordering the firm to stop mulching stems from neighbors’ complaints that the operation poses a noise and vibration nuisance.

The town had a November 13 court return date in the case.