Thomas Breen photo
Zoning board’s Al Paolillo, Sr. (left) just before ditching fellow commissioners Anne Stone, chair Mildred Melendez, and Sarah Locke.
New Haven’s zoning board was poised to discuss and vote to settle a lawsuit brought by the new owners of the Hotel Duncan.
Then Al Paolillo, Sr. got up. He left the building. And possibly delayed any resolution for months more.
Such was the unceremonious conclusion to Tuesday night’s regular monthly meeting of the Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) in the municipal building at 200 Orange St.
After nearly two hours and over a dozen zoning relief votes on items ranging from a relocated childcare service in West River to a proposed strip club on Wallace Street, the board planned to close out its meeting by discussing the terms of a proposed settlement in the Hotel Duncan lawsuit.
AJ Capital Partners, the Chicago-based developer in the process of converting the former Hotel Duncan at 1151 Chapel St. into a 72-room college-themed boutique hotel, sued the zoning board in March to contest the board’s denial of its requested hotel liquor permit and on-site parking reduction.
Paolillo was the zoning board member at the February meeting who moved to deny the developer’s applications after fellow members Sarah Locke and Shirl Wilkins raised concerns about community support for the project.
For the past two and a half months, Assistant Corporation Counsel Roderick Williams has defended the zoning board in the Duncan lawsuit up at the Hartford-based Land Use Litigation Docket, to which the case had been transferred at the end of April.
As the board reached the “Litigation” section at the end of its agenda Tuesday night, Williams recommended that the four zoning members present hear, discuss, and vote on the proposed settlement.
Attorney Carolyn Kone, who represents the Hotel Duncan redevelopers, moved from the back to the front row of the now empty meeting room to listen in on the closing conversation.
“Originally, this was going to be in executive session,” Williams said. But one member of the five-board panel, Wilkins, never showed up for the meeting. That left just Paolillo, Locke, Anne Stone, and chair Mildred Melendez available to participate.
Wilkins’ absence affected every aspect of Tuesday night’s meeting. Applicants seeking a variance, which requires four affirmative votes to pass, needed a unanimous vote of approval from the four members present, with no room available for a single nay vote or abstention.
But even four affirmative votes could not allow the body to go into executive session and discuss the terms of the legal settlement in private per state law. Lacking a quorum, Williams recommended the board instead discuss and vote on the proposed settlement in public.
“If there will not be an executive session,” he said, “then you could hear the terms of the settlement and make a vote on it here as we are today, as long as there is a quorum. So I could explain the terms of the proposed settlement.”
“It’s required that it be on the record,” city zoning director Jenna Montesano said.
Then Paolillo packed his files, got up from his chair, and walked to the door just a few feet to his right.
“Al, you don’t have to vote,” Montesano said. “You could recuse yourself. But if you leave, we lose quorum, and then we are paralyzed as a commission. So if you wouldn’t mind staying, that would be helpful. You don’t have to participate. You could recuse yourself.”
“Or you could vote against it,” Williams added.
Paolillo gestured towards the door, took one last look at the group, and then left the building.
“OK, so …” Montesano said.
“We’ve lost quorum,” city zoning staffer Nate Hougrand said with dismay. “The meeting’s over.”
“Thanks everyone,” Williams said.
Since the BZA takes an annual August recess, Montesano said, discussion of the terms of this proposed settlement won’t be able to take place until September, or at an earlier special meeting if so convened.
Williams said that the Hartford docket judge has scheduled a July 26 hearing date to approve or reject the proposed settlement between the Hotel Duncan owners and the zoning board.
But the judge won’t be able to approve or reject it without the zoning board first voting on the proposed settlement. Without a special meeting, that will have to wait until September.
Kone, forlorn in the front row, declined to comment on the suddenly scuttled meeting.
“I Don’t Comment On Ongoing Litigation”
City attorney Roderick Williams, city zoning staffer Nate Hougrand, and city zoning director Jenna Montesano.
After the meeting, the Independent reached out to Paolillo to find out why he left before the discussion of the settlement could take place.
“First of all,” he said over the phone, “all that’s ongoing litigation. I don’t comment on ongoing litigation.”
When asked why he left the meeting early, Paolillo said, “That’s for the two parties to straighten out. I’m not discussing ongoing litigation.”
When asked to clarify how his thoughts about the ongoing litigation affected his walking out on his fellow board members without providing an explanation, he said, “Like I said, I don’t comment on ongoing litigation.”
He was asked about the apparent requirement, as outlined by Williams during Tuesday night’s meeting, that the board discuss and vote on the settlement before the Hartford judge can act on it. “We already voted on those matters. Whatever they want to do is their prerogative,” Paolillo responded. “That’s for the corporation counsel and whoever else is bringing the litigation against to work out.”
hmmm....did the union tell him to walk out?