Hamden Brings ​“Paradise” To Court

After a landscaper defied a cease and desist order from Hamden’s zoning officer for almost six months, the town is taking the company to court to get it to stop the operation and come into compliance with town regulations.

For nearly six months, Paradise Landscaping has been operating illegally on a property in northern Hamden. After it had appeared the work had stopped, town officials visited the site again and found people still working there.

So the town filed an application for a court injunction Thursday, which will mean bringing the matter before a judge at a public hearing to decide what to do.

In September, Hamden Zoning Enforcement Officer Holly Masi issued a cease and desist order against Paradise Landscaping for operating without a zoning permit or a certificate of zoning compliance. The landscaper had received zoning approval from the town’s Planning and Zoning Commission in 2017 to create a facility at 82 – 92 Crestway in northern Hamden. Before it was allowed to do any work to prepare the property, it was supposed to receive a zoning permit, which it never did. Still, the town’s Building Department issued a building permit (which it was not supposed to do because Paradise didn’t have the zoning permit), and the landscaper built a building on the property.

Paradise’s operator, Ruslan Boyarsky, told the Independent that Paradise bought the property to move its home base there. It currently operates out of a property on Fitch Street in New Haven.

Had Paradise received a zoning permit, it was still not supposed to do any landscaping operations on the property yet. The permit would have allowed it only to get the property ready to comply with the plan that the Planning and Zoning Commission had approved. It was supposed to then get a certificate of zoning compliance before it could use the property, which it never did.

After discovering the permitting issues, Masi issued a cease and desist order so the town could assess how to bring the landscaper into compliance with Hamden’s zoning laws. Paradise continued operating on the property. She later issued a citation, which notified the landscaper that it would be fined $150 per violation (of which there were five) per day.

By November, it became clear that Paradise had been creating firewood on the property. Neighbors said people were out working dawn to dusk six days a week.

In November, Masi and other zoning officials visited the site and discovered that Paradise had dumped 90 feet of debris onto two neighboring properties. In a December report, engineer James Dimeo of Juliano Associates estimated that the debris totaled almost 6,000 cubic yards. The report said it was composed of soil, rocks, and ​“tree debris.”

In February, town officials decided to file an application for an injunction against Boyarski and his operation at 82 – 92 Crestway, which court documents call 8292 Crest Way LLC.

Over the course of the nearly six months since Masi issued her initial cease and desist order, she and other zoning officials tried numerous times to get Boyarsky to stop operating on the property. They met with Boyarsky’s lawyer, Joe Porto, multiple times. They sent specific instructions of what Boyarsky needed to do to begin the process of coming into compliance.

In December, Porto sent a letter to the town in response to the town’s demands. ​“It is agreed that all orders remain in effect,” the letter began. Porto wrote that his client would not process wood on the property, as the town had ordered, and agreed to the town’s other demands.

“They had represented to us that they were not going to continue any activity,” and that they would apply for all of the necessary permits, Assistant Town Attorney Tim Lee told the Independent. ​“And then the town learned that they were continuing to perform activities up there without permits.”

On Feb. 20, Masi and Assistant Town Planner Matt Davis visited the site. Later that day, Davis described the visit in an email to colleagues. He said he and Masi saw ​“a large number of vehicles and equipment” at the site. The town had ordered that no vehicles be brought to the site unless they were there to bring the site into compliance with the site plan. Davis also wrote that someone was operating a wood splitter, though the town had specifically ordered that wood not be processed on the site. His email said that there were two large dumpsters, and one appeared to be full of firewood.

When the Independent visited the site in November, there was a dumpster of firewood there. Neighbors said they had seen people splitting wood on the property and filling dumpsters with it.

Boyarsky told the Independent that no firewood is being processed on the property. He said an employee had started up the wood splitter just that one day, and that ​“that was the only time the splitter was working up here.” He said the dumpster of firewood had been brought there from New Haven because Paradise needed a place to store it temporarily (Paradise is still not supposed to bring anything to the property for storage). 

“Right now we’re just looking to fix the issues we have and hopefully move on,” said Boyarsky. ​“We don’t want any problems with the town. We just want to fix this and move forward with whatever we have to do.”

Hamden officials and Boyarsky are scheduled to appear before New Haven Superior Court on April 6. After the hearing, a judge will determine what to enforce and how to proceed.