Town Becomes Formal Party in Legacy Theatre Lawsuits

New Haven Superior Court Judge Thomas J. Corradino has granted a motion to make the town of Branford a formal party to two Legacy Theatre lawsuits after attorneys agreed the town’s involvement was necessary to achieve a stipulated judgment to settle the case. The final issue? Parking spaces. If this works, the hope is the theater may open in 2017. 

The idea that the town would be willing to become a party to the lawsuits was announced at a Stony Creek Association (SCA) meeting in mid-November by Attorney Mark K. Branse, who represents a group of neighbor-abutters who live on Thimble Islands Road. In becoming a formal party to the litigation, the town, in effect, agrees that any judgment reached among the four parties will be binding on the town.

The Legacy Theater group, led by artistic director Keely Baisden Knudsen, purchased the former Puppet House property at 128 Thimble Islands Road in March, 2013 with the intent of opening a repertory theater. The town’s Zoning Board of Appeals in November, 2014 upheld the town’s Zoning officer’s approval of Legacy’s tenant-fit-up application, a decision that spawned two lawsuits, one brought by the Stony Creek Association against the ZBA and another brought by a group of neighbors who live on Thimble Islands Road. These lawsuits are yet to be resolved nearly four years after the purchase.

The abutting neighbors, now called co-plaintiffs, split off from the SCA’s lawsuit, saying they had a different set of needs without explicitly saying what they were. They hired their own attorney, the Branse & Willis law firm, a firm whose specialty includes municipal law and zoning. In the end it came down to seven designated parking spaces, four for the theater and three for the residents, all located on a town road. Branse said in a prior interview. They would be reserved for three families from 4 to 8 p.m., when the theater’s patrons are arriving for a performance. 

At a Stony Creek Association (SCA) meeting this week, it was announced that Bill Aniskovich, the town attorney, would meet Wednesday at his office with the other lawyers.

They included the attorney for the co-plaintiffs-abutters, Caleb F. Hamel of the Branse &Willis law firm in Glastonbury (standing), Timothy Lee, of Fasano Ippolito & Lee in New Haven who represents the SCA and James R. Strub of Secor, Cassidy & McPartland in Waterbury (seated), who represents the Legacy Theatre.

It was the first time the four attorneys came together at the table to try to resolve the parking issue, the only remaining open question before them. Parking is the one issue left blank and subject to a separate stand-alone document in the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that each of the parties has signed and adopted. The parties now have each other’s MOU. It is expected the two MOU’s will likely be combined for the final stipulated judgment agreement. 

The meeting at Aniskovich’s law office at Brenner, Saltzman & Wallman in New Haven lasted about an hour. Strub said yesterday that it was a very productive meeting. “All the parties are engaged in the process,” he said, adding that the four attorneys plan to meet with the judge on Jan. 30, their next scheduled court date, to give the judge a status report. “We will be looking for the judge’s oversight of the steps necessary toward a final settlement,” Strub said. Caleb also told the Eagle that “it was a productive meeting.” Neither attorney would provide details of the discussion and it appeared a stipulated agreement would not be completed by that date.

Town Attorney’s Role

When word came at the SCA meeting that the lawyers planned to meet with Aniskovich, the SCA board seemed relieved. Despite numerous requests over the months from residents and SCA board members, Aniskovich has not attended any meeting to discuss the town’s role in the case in part he has said because he did not want the town to take sides in what has often been a series of acrimonious, mean-spirited confrontations.

So it came as no surprise when Eleanor Stach, who lives at 140 Thimble Islands Road, and is one of the main neighbor-abutters, asked: “Is Aniskovich going to be there?” Someone replied, “It’s at his office. So maybe he will be there.” Stach and other abutters have been vocal in seeking the town attorney’s presence.

Stony Creek residents have complained openly that Aniskovich does not return their phone calls. Several residents spoke about asking First Selectman Jamie Cosgrove for his help in getting Aniskovich to answer or return their phone calls.

But the co-plaintiffs-abutters represent only one group.

At a previous meeting, Strub, who represents Legacy, explained that he has worked with Aniskovich on various Legacy issues in recent months. “Bill Aniskovich has consistently said if all the parties are on the same page then the town would come in …What Aniskovich did not want to get into was a series of conflicts among the existing parties,”Strub told the Eagle in November.

Strub said what a proposed stipulated agreement ​“allows us to do and I have had discussions with Bill Aniskovich, it allows us to move forward if all the other parties are in agreement. It will be Bill who will work directly on behalf of the town.”

Branse, who also represents the co-plaintiffs- abutters, explained in November that what Aniskovich did not want to do was to pit different factions against one another; he did not want to put the town in the position of taking sides. ​“If the SCA agrees with seven parking spaces, we can walk out of this room tonight with this totally resolved,” Branse said at the November meeting.

The SCA approved the proposed stipulation idea, including the parking requirements for neighbors by 6 – 5 vote, with the SCA president breaking the tie. A number of board members who voted nay said they were still unclear about the parking issue. One question raised that night was whether the stipulated judgment would bypass the police department or the Representative Town Meeting, the town’s major legislative body.

Aniskovich also represents the Zoning Board of Appeals, which in November, 2014 upheld the town’s Zoning officer’s approval of Legacy’s tenant-fit-up application. That decision was appealed by the SCA in part because there was no public hearing.

Since then, the parties have held extensive discussions, including discussions with the judge. Their memorandums of understanding, which they have signed, define the uses for the theater and the non-uses ( rap concerts and hard rock and heavy metal concerts, for example, are banned); the hours of operation, the months of operation, the noise level, traffic issues and the lone hold-out: parking ( ​“to be addressed in a stand-alone document.”) Should the final settlement talks fail, these agreed to decisions, hammered out over the past two years would become moot.

Dan Bullard, the president of the SCA, said on Tuesday night that he believes ​“the parking will be contentious.” He is seen here writing.

“I don’t have any knowledge of that,” he added. ​“It’s a personal opinion. Let’s watch out. It may not work. Let’s be careful.”

Typically town parking issues are raised and resolved by the town’s police commission, its traffic committee and the town’s police chief, Kevin Halloran. So far neither has been involved in any public discussion on the rights of residents or the theater to have special designated spaces by their property on Thimble Islands Road during certain times of day. But cities have dealt with this type of issue in one form or another in the past and the judge and the lawyers might come up with a solution. 

Nor has the issue of enforcement been publicly aired. Bullard observed that the one thing the SCA does not do is enforce parking. What role the police commission or the RTM might play in a stipulated agreement regarding enforcement is yet to be aired.

As Yogi Berra, the baseball player once said, ​“It ain’t over till it’s over.”
###