Dumping Flouts Zoning Laws

Bob Percopo heard trucks and chainsaws behind his house start up at about 6:30 a.m. on Friday, he said.

Now that the leaves have fallen, he could see right through the woods to where a landscaper has been illegally processing wood and dumping debris 90 feet onto an adjacent property owner’s land. The town plans to take action.

Percopo’s property abuts a plot owned by Paradise Landscaping on Crestway in Hamden. Paradise has been conducting a wood-splitting operation for almost two months since Hamden issued an order to stop all activities on the property. It has also dumped logs, dirt, and other debris onto two properties to the East, one home to a Cube Smart storage facility and the other home to an industrial building. A site plan submitted to the town by Paradise’s surveyor shows that in some places, Paradise has encroached 90 feet beyond its property line.

“As soon as it’s light out you can hear the chainsaws,” said Percopo. He said he works from home, and hears sawing, wood splitting, and hauling on the property all day, six days a week. They take a break on Sundays, he said.

In 2017, the Planning and Zoning Commission approved an application for the landscaper’s property, but the landscaper never got a zoning permit, which it needed before it could begin any work. Rusland Boyarski, who operates Paradise Landscaping, also never got a certificate of zoning compliance (CZA), or a certificate of occupancy (CO), which are required before Paradise can start using the property.

On Sept. 16, Hamden Zoning Enforcement Officer Holly Masi sent Boyarski a cease and desist order, which required him to stop all activity on the property. He has not complied. The lack of a zoning permit was due partially to a bureaucratic error, but without the CZA or the CO, he is not supposed to do anything other than bring the site into compliance with the plan approved by the Planning and Zoning Commission. (And he still doesn’t have the zoning permit, so he’s not even supposed to do that yet.)

Boyasrki also ran afoul of New Haven’s zoning laws in 2016. Read about that here and here.

Boyarski had claimed that he was processing wood because it needed to be removed to prepare the site. Town officials, however, said it’s clear that was not the function of the wood processing, since the logs are being spilt into firewood.

Once the cease and desist order was issued, it was Boyarski’s responsibility to stop all work of any kind anyway.

The town planned to issue a zoning permit after an Oct. 10 meeting. But then zoning officials examined the property the next day and found the encroachment onto neighboring properties, they said. So they requested a list of new demands that Boyarski must meet before they will issue the permit. Boyarski has not complied with many of them, they said.

Town officials were supposed to meet with Boyarski’s lawyer, Joseph Porto, on Friday, but the meeting was postponed until Monday.

“I’m hopeful and optimistic that following the meeting, we’ll have a plan, and we’ll go about executing that plan,” Porto told the Independent.

Operating without the necessary documents is one thing, but dumping onto other people’s property, said zoning officials, is particularly bad.

“This is the most egregious violation I’ve seen in my 17 years in this department,” Masi (pictured) told the Independent.

Besides ignoring the town’s cease and desist order, and subsequent orders to stop activity, Paradise has violated the commission-approved site plan in a number of ways, according to officials. Work has encroached onto three different neighboring properties, two of them east of the lot (where Cube Smart is) and one of them to the west (though only by a foot). On the northern end, work has encroached by about ten feet into a 50-foot buffer zone next to residential properties. On the western end of the site, Paradise has excavated on a slope where no work was authorized. On an adjacent property that Paradise also owns, it has been storing vehicles without a permit to do so.

On a map showing the existing conditions of the site that Boyarski’s surveyor submitted a few days ago (above), Masi highlighted each violation in yellow.

When the Independent visited the site Friday afternoon, no work was being done, though a few people were on the site. Percopo and his neighbor Helene Lion said the landscaper had been doing work earlier in the day.

Since the Independent last visited the site in October, ​“no trespassing” signs have appeared where the property meets Crestway.

The hill on the western side of the property (left of building in photo above), where no work was authorized, now shows barren rock and soil. Piles of dirt, rocks, and logs now cover the rest of the property.

East of the lot, on Sherman Avenue where Cube Smart sits, logs and dirt are just visible over the top of the storage building (above). The dumping has encroached 90 feet beyond the property line on that side, according to the surveyor’s map of current conditions. Davis said the dumped material appears to consist of logs, dirt, and rocks. He said it seems to be a few feet deep, but that it’s hard to tell. The town has asked for Paradise to provide information on what exactly it has dumped and how much it has dumped. Paradise has not provided that information.

Encroachment onto neighboring properties, said Assistant Town Planner Matt Davis, creates a particular headache for zoning officials. The zoning department can order Paradise to carry out remediation on its own property, he said. It cannot, however, order the landscaper to do anything on a neighbor’s property, though it will be Paradise’s responsibility to clean up its neighbors’ land.

“Unfortunately he created a very difficult and substantial and complicated problem,” said Davis. ​“In layman’s terms, it’s a mess,” and it will require ​“taxpayer resources to resolve problems they created.” He added that the cleanup is Paradise’s responsibility.

On Nov. 1, Assistant Town Attorney Tim Lee sent a letter to Porto, enumerating a list of demands that, if not met, ​“will result in Hamden seeking any and all remedies available by law, including but not limited to, injunctive relief.”

“Is That The Moon?”

Lynn Percopo said that she and her husband Bob recently began to notice light streaming through a window in their bedroom at night. She said she wondered: ​“Is that the moon coming through?”

It turned out to be security lights on Paradise’s building. Zoning permits in Hamden require that no light from an industrial property illuminate adjacent properties.

The Percopos and Lion all said it was odd that no work was happening Friday afternoon. They said that work usually lasts all day, starting early in the morning.

“I can’t even come out here and enjoy the summer, because it’s going all the time,” said Lion as she stood in her backyard looking through the trees at the operation below.

Bob Percopo pointed through the tree trunks to a dumpster filled with firewood. He said workers place a wood splitter next to a conveyor belt that carries the split logs and deposits them into the dumpster.

“I live in Seattle, Washington, and have an active logging operation going on in my backyard,” he joked. He said that over the last few years, Paradise has cut down trees and cleared vegetation from its property. He said he wants local businesses to succeed, but that heavy machinery and logging should not be disturbing a residential neighborhood.

After Monday’s meeting, town officials will decide whether to seek an injunction against Paradise, bringing matters into the hands of a court.

As for dumping materials 90 feet onto someone else’s property, said Davis: ​“That’s a big oops.”