"We have reached a point of cavitation"

The Planning and Zoning Commissioners deliberately scheduled very little zoning business for their meeting on Wednesday night, in order to have time to devote to Commission affairs. Unfortunately, under Commission affairs, they failed again in their biweekly attempt to elect a new chair, and did no more on their bylaws than discuss how to discuss them.

Elections in Winter
Election of the chair of the Planning and Zoning Commission requires 5 votes on the 7 member Commission. Since no one political party can hold more than 4 seats, this ensures that the chair must receive at least one vote from each party. At the December 10th meeting, two Democrats were nominated for chair, Deborah Kleckowski and Barbara Plum. Kleckowski received 4 votes (3 Republican and 1 Democrat), while Plum received 3 votes (all Democrat). As neither received the necessary 5 votes, Plum asserted that she would remain chair until November of 2009.

During all of the meetings of January, February, and March (five, one was snowed out), Barbara Plum was absent, and vice-chair Richard Pelletier acted as chair. Under his leadership, the Commissioners discussed parliamentary law, state law, the city charter, and P&Z bylaws, and continued in their attempts to elect a chair. Alas, these discussions did not alter the outcome, and Plum and Kleckowski continued to be deadlocked, 4 - 3.

Cavitation in Spring
Spring has returned to Middletown, and with the unfurling of the Magnolia Blossoms, Barbara Plum returned to the P&Z on Wednesday night. Pelletier continued to act as chair, and Plum returned to being a "regular member." Pelletier again called for a vote for chair, again Plum and Kleckowski were nominated, and again Kleckowski received four votes to Plum's three. 

At this point, Les Adams, clearly exasperated by the failure to elect a chair, requested official clarification on the meaning of the word "majority". Other Commissioners, as well as Planner Michiel Wackers, informed Adams that the state and city statutes, as well as the P&Z bylaws, were very clear about what kind of a majority needed to exist for

 election of a chair. Pelletier put it best, "Webster's dictionary does not apply to this committee." Adams' rejoinder was the enigmatic, "We have reached a point of cavitation." For you, dear reader, I will offer an explication and my own interpretation of this nugget of wisdom below.

Discussions about discussions about bylaws. 

The P&Z Commission's bylaws have been periodically updated, and several commissioners have suggested revisions to the current bylaws. These suggested revisions include such things as limiting how late the meetings can go, requiring commissioners to visit the sites impacted by planning decisions, requiring attendance at a minimum number of meetings. The Commissioners spent about an hour on how to approach these bylaw revisions.

There was extensive debate over whether a "committee"or a "workshop" should be set up to suggest bylaw revisions. Those in favor of a committee said that all willing commissioners could be on the committee. All of the commissioners seemed to argue that there was not really any difference between a workshop and such a committee, while at the same time arguing quite forcefully that one or the other was far preferable. Ron Borelli's motion to establish a committee passed 5-2, with only Plum and James Fortuna voting against it.

Borelli promised to arrange committee meeting(s) that would allow all interested commissioners to attend. Almost all of the commissioners, including both Kleckowski and Plum, volunteered to work on the bylaws.

Cavitation and the Commission: a Commentary
I was flummoxed by Adams' pronouncement, "We have reached a point of cavitation," to describe the repeated failures to elect a chair. Commissioners seemed to share my bewilderment. However, a little research into the word helped me to realize that this might in fact be an apt description of the state of affairs on our city's Planning and Zoning Commission.

Cavitation occurs when the very rapid flow of a fluid over an object leads to the formation of a gas bubble on that object. When that gas bubble collapses, it generates shock waves with such enormous energy that they can cause serious damage to the object. This collapse, or cavitation, is a major cause of damage to propellers. Without knowing any more than what I learned in the Wikipedia entry on Cavitation, this kind of damage is to me an utterly unpredicted outcome of the energy of a flowing liquid.

Most of the Planning and Zoning Commissioners bring enormous energy to the affairs of the Commission. The city benefits from this energy when it is used to critically examine and deliberate over what are usually the most critical decisions a municipality can make: how to

 use its land. However, in the past six months or so, it seems at times that when the Commission turns inward, this energy causes the Commission to spin more and more rapidly in circles. Matters such as bylaws, the Plan of Conservation and Development, and election of officers seem particularly susceptible to this. Like water flowing rapidly over a propeller, all of this energy may have unintended and damaging consequences to the functioning of the Commission.

Engineers, using the principles of fluid dynamics, can design propellers to prevent and/or withstand cavitation. It is in the interest of all the residents of the great city of Middletown for the Planning and Zoning Commission to do the same for their affairs.

Planning and Zoning Commission Still Without A Chair

Again Wednesday night, for the third month in a row, the Planning and Zoning Commission voted on electing a new chair for the commission.

Again, with Democratic candidates Deborah Kleckowski and Barbara Plum nominated, the commission voted, with written ballots. Kleckowski got four votes, Plum three. Neither was elected since five votes are needed.

Commission members continued the parlimentary bickering about whether the Commission actually had a chair. Kleckowski suggested that Plum, who had been the chair, should not be listed on municipal stationery as the chair.

Commissioner Ron Borrelli spoke angrily about the commission's inability to elect a chair.

"If you're gonna vote for some who appointed herself chair, and appointed herself to three other commissions, and hasn't been here for four months to attend meetings," Borrelli said. "Then you're voting, along party lines, for someone who shouldn't be chairman, or a commissioner. Let's elect someone else. Let's move on."

Democrat Barbara Plum, who has served as chair of P&Z for several years, leaves Middletown, and the state, for an annual winter vacation each year.

In other parliamentary matters, the commission passed a mercy rule - a revision to their bylaws, which states that all Planning and Zoning meetings must end by 11 pm, with some exceptions allowing meetings to absolutely end by midnight.

Planning and Zoning: "No" to sober, "Yes" to drug drive thru, and still no chair

Planning and zoning denied a special exception to a residential recovery house for patients recovering from drug and alcohol addiction, and approved plans for a drug store with a drive-thru window, in a meeting that began on Wednesday evening and ended early Thursday morning. They also approved applications by Middletown Water and Sewer department, a subdivision of the Home Depot Plaza, and a proposal from the Conservation Commission. And in the news that isn't news department, they failed to elect a chair.

Sober House
Wendi Clark was before the Commissioners with a proposal for a special exception to allow up to 9 unrelated individuals to live as a family in a two family home at the corner of Loveland and S. Main Street (Eye story). She was represented by a very articulate attorney, Greg Kirschner, who works for the CT Fair Housing Center, based in Hartford. Kirschner presented the legal background that he argued made it impossible for the Commissioners to deny Clark a special exception. Geen Thazhampallath, interim deputy attorney for the City, also gave legal opinions.

Kirschner and Thazampallath both agreed that the Fair Housing Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act prohibit discrimination in housing on the basis of disabilities, and both agreed that addiction constituted a disability. Both agreed that special accommodations for the disabled were appropriate. They disagreed, however, on whether those accommodations of necessity included the right to living in a group home in a Mixed Use (MX) zone in which both businesses and residences co-existed. Kirschner argued that the Commissioners had absolutely no basis for denying a group of addicts the right to live in this house if they would not deny a traditional family that same right. Thazampallath countered that the Commissioners did have the right to uphold zoning regulations.

Many members of the public weighed in on this application, mostly in opposition. Ralph Wilson, an attorney who has represented many clients at Planning and Zoning hearings (including later this evening the Drive-thru Drug Store), has his offices immediately adjacent to the proposed Sober house. He spoke passionately about the effect of the Sober House residents' cars on access to his property. He was outraged at what Kirschner had told the commissioners, "I'm mad, and this is why I'm mad: This is a bunch of hogwash this guy's giving you." He urged the commissioners to deny the application and offered his services to the city if there was a lawsuit.

Common Council member Earle Roberts spoke about the importance of maintaining a definition of a family that was just like the one he grew up in. Mayor Sebastian Giuliano, who said that he had previously represented Wendi Clark, argued forcefully against the sober house, saying that this was not a situation of a group of disabled people pooling their money to rent a house in the same way that a family would, this was a situation of a landlord making a lot of money renting out individual rooms or beds to people who may or may not stay for very long, "This is a rooming house, masquerading as a sober house."

Edward Madison, former member of the New Haven Planning Commission and overseer of a network of sober houses, spoke to the Commissioners of the importance of resolving sober house issues administratively, not through planning commisions. He said this was the best way to reach a decision that was not unduly influenced by the political pressure that a public hearing includes. He said that litigation could be extremely expensive, noting that the city of West Haven spent $750,000 to take a case to the Supreme Court.

The commissioners unanimously denied the application for an exception, citing the lack of suitable parking space. After the meeting, I asked Attorney Kirschner for his reaction to the ruling. He said that he would be speaking with the City's attorney to try to work out a plan for the sober house that would not involve litigation. He said, "The last thing we want to do is to go to court, but sometimes that's the only option."

Another pharmacy with a drive-thru window
In October, the P&Z approved plans for the congregation of the Shiloh Christian Church to build a new Church Building between Coe Avenue and Old Saybrook Road (Eye Story). On Wednesday night, the P&Z commissioners heard a proposal to build a Walgreens store with a Drive-thru pharmacy on the property they would be vacating.

Over 50 members of the Shiloh congregation, which will be able to build a new church with the money from Walgreens, came to support the drug store project. Sonja Manjon, as Vice President at Wesleyan, also came to support the construction of the Walgreens Store. Several residents of neighborhoods around the site expressed great concern about the traffic on surrounding streets. Other residents expressed concern about the lack of any plans to improve pedestrian or bicycle traffic. Elizabeth Emery pointed out that the professional traffic engineer failed to provide any information whatsoever on any traffic other than automobile traffic.

After hearing from dozens of members of the public, the commissioners debated whether the proposal should be approved. Only Catherine Johnson opposed the project. She said that the city was getting precious little in return for providing a special exception that greatly increased the value of the property. Commissioner Quentin Phipps said that his support for the project was reluctant, other commissioners expressed unabashed enthusiasm for another drive-thru pharmacy. The commissioners approved the project with two amendments: they encouraged the addition of a new cross-walk across East Main Street, and they asked the developer to make 10 of the 65 parking spaces not of asphalt but rather lined with a surface pervious to water.

Other approvals
The commissioners approved three separate projects by Water and Sewer: a water main extending from Moody School out Country Club Road to across I91, a storage building on Berlin Road, and a Bartholomew Road pumping station. They also approved a subdivision of the lot containing the Home Depot on Washington Street, to accommodate plans for a Price Chopper in that plaza. These all passed without substantial controversy.

The Conservation Commission proposed a change to the 1993 Plan of Conservation and Development, to designate the Merriam Tree Farm property as "suitable for acquisition as open space." This is necessary for the city to use money recently aproved by Common Council for the purchase of the development rights. This proposal did not generate much controversy, although one member of the public, Jeff Pierce, did say, "All this designation of open space is a bunch of hooey." Several members of the Conservation Commission spoke to the importance of the Merriam property for open space preservation. The P&Z commissioners unanimously approved the designation.

Still no chair.
In the absence of Barbara Plum, who in December (Eye Story) proclaimed herself chair because she was the last commissioner to have been so elected (in 2007), Richard Pelletier acted as chair for this meeting. Commissioner Pelletier rearranged the order of the agenda considerably from what was posted, to the consternation of several Shiloh congregation members, who were forced to wait with their children until nearly midnight for a decision on the Walgreens application. Commissioner Pelletier said that he had rearranged the agenda for good reasons, but this was apparently done without the knowledge of other commissioners, two of whom apologized for the change in agenda.

Early Thursday morning, Pelletier called for nominations for a chair. Barbara Plum and Deborah Kleckowski were both nominated, although neither was present for the meeting. The voting was inconclusive, as neither candidate garnered the 5 votes necessary for election.

Still no chair at P&Z

The interim deputy city attorney, Geen Thazhampallath, rendered a definitive opinion on a topic which generated much parliamentary law discussion among Planing and Zoning Commissioners at their last meeting, on January 14th.  At issue was whether seated alternate P&Z commissioners could vote during the annual election of officers. [Faithful readers will recall that vice-chair Richard Pelletier, acting as chair in the absence of Commissioner Barbara Plum, did not want a vote for chair to occur until that issue was resolved. Commissioners Catherine Johnson, Ron Borrelli, and Deborah Kleckowski all argued, in vain, that seated alternates have the full powers and authorities of a regular P&Z member.]

Democratic Town Committee chair Daniel Russo rendered his opinion at the January 14th meeting that seated alternates do not have the right to vote for officers.  This opinion was unambiguously and forcefully rejected by Attorney Thazhampallath:

1. Should a distinction be made between the powers vested in a seated alternate P&Z commission member and a regular P&Z commission member?

No, seated alternate P&Z commission members are vested with the full powers and authorities of a regular P&Z member.

2. Do seated alternate P&Z commission members possess the right to vote during an election of officers?

Yes, inclusive in the vested powers and authority of a seated alternate member is the right to vote during the annual election of officers.

Thazhampallath cited both Connecticut General Statutes and the 2004 Revised Middletown P&Z Commission By-Laws to support his opinion.  

At tonight's P&Z meeting, during a "discussion with the public" period of the meeting, a member of the public raised the issue that seems to have driven much of the debate among commissioners over the election procedures and parliamentary law.  Elizabeth Emery, apparently referring to the annual hiatus that Commission Chair Barbara Plum takes from Middletown, said, "We should have the people we elect be at the meeting, not away for three months."  She called on city officials to remove from office anybody who misses so many meetings.  Upon being told that only the voters could remove P&Z Commissioners, she rejoined, "We're going to work that the people who don't show up don't get voted for."

Election of a chair was not on the agenda at tonight's meeting, Commissioner Johnson asked Acting Chair Pelletier to place it on the agenda for the next meeting.  

The good, the bad, and the ugly at Planning and Zoning

Poetic descriptions of Maromas provided a welcome respite from talk of lawsuits and bylaws at Wednesday's Planning and Zoning Meeting.

The Good. Maromas: Middletown's Last Frontier
The Maromas chapter of the proposed updated Plan of Conservation and Development was discussed at a public hearing. About a dozen people came to speak passionately about the issues surrounding land preservation in general, and Maromas in particular. Jeff Pierce spoke first, demanding that the city remove from all maps any designation of open space on his property, and any designation of hiking trails on his property. Mr. Pierce, with his wife Linda Pierce, own large tracts of land on Higby Mountain, and were recently issued a permanent injunction from operating an ATV park on their property. Pierce complained that special interest groups were working for the conversion of private property into public property, saying, "[people] have this fetish that it has to be preserved." Others speaking to this chapter expressed different opinions. Katchen Coley spoke for the Conservation Commission of the importance of large tracts of undisturbed land. John Leshane, who installed the Mattabessett Trail with Stan Watson of Northeast Utilities, talked about the many features that make hiking in Maromas special, including historical, geological, forests, and the presence of old quarry railroad beds which make the hikes far more gentle that they otherwise would be. Barrett Robbins-Pianka spoke of the need to build a green infrastructure for citizens.

Commissioner Ron Borelli challenged Mr. Leshane regarding the possibility that public land preservation would take away the right of a landowner to use their land. This opened up a thoughtful and respectful discussion about how to balance an individual's property rights with land conservation.

The Bad. The Lawsuit.
A lawsuit and a possible settlement led to the very unusual situation of a second public hearing on the same proposal. The proposal, to build 38 multi-family townhouse condominiums on Jackson Street, was heard in June of 2008. Then, the commission turned down the application, but did so in a way that led to a lawsuit being filed by the developer. This lawsuit went to a pre-trial, and the judge indicated that the developer would likely win, but encouraged him to speak to the city to see if a settlement could be reached. Wednesday's hearing was for the Commissioners to discuss such a settlement. Attorney Michael Dowley, representing the developer, offered convincing rebuttals to all the reasons given by the commissioners for their denial (monotonous design, lowering property values of surrounding homes, and insufficient open space). He also addressed a concern raised by commissioners about pedestrian safety on the street, saying his client would pay for a pedestrian bridge over the railroad tracks between the development and Washington Street. He repeatedly pointed out that if as expected he won the lawsuit, the developer would not need to provide this bridge.

Several of the commissioners did not appreciate this perceived threat, and discussions between Dowley and the commissioners became more and more heated. In the end, Dowley and the commissioners agreed to a meeting next week at which they would discuss what steps the developer might take to reach a settlement with the city.

The Ugly. Parliamentary Law discussed by Planning and Zoning Commissioners.
At the December meeting, neither Deborah Kleckowski nor Barbara Plum received enough votes to win election as chair, and Plum announced that she would remain chair for the year. However the city attorney has found that the board is currently operating without a chair. The dispute over this continued unabated on Wednesday. Several commissioners, including Catherine Johnson, Borelli, and KIeckowski, argued that a new election should be held every meeting until a chair is elected, and until that is done, the commission would have to operate without a chair. They also argued that an alternate member who is sitting in for a regular member (in this case, Borelli for Plum), has full voting rights. This generated extensive and sometimes heated debate about State Law, P&Z bylaws and the city charter.

The chair of the Democratic Town Committee, Daniel Russo, made an unexpected appearance at the microphone to render his legal opinion that alternate members could not vote to elect officers. Russo had been in attendance throughout the meeting, apparently for the sole purpose of sharing his opinion on this issue. Commissioner Richard Pelletier, who as vice-chair was chairing the meeting in Plum's absence, agreed with this, and refused to allow an election to proceed until the commission received further legal opinions from the City Attorney. Thus, Barbara Plum remains chair of the commssion.

Plum will not be attending any of the P&Z meetings in January, February and March.