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Stratford ZBA approves variance for 1950 Main Street conversion to three apartments
Summary
The Zoning Board of Appeals granted a variance allowing Lordship Properties LLC to convert a preexisting mixed-use building at 1950 Main Street into three residential units, finding the TOD regulation’s 70% one-bedroom requirement impractical for a three-unit conversion; the vote was 5-0.
The Stratford Zoning Board of Appeals unanimously approved a variance for Lordship Properties LLC to convert an existing mixed-use building at 1950 Main Street into three residential units, allowing two one-bedroom units and one two-bedroom unit where the town’s transit-oriented development (TOD) rules call for at least 70% one-bedroom units. The board voted 5-0 to grant the relief following discussion about the regulation’s practical effect on very small projects.
Attorney Barry Knott, representing Lordship Properties, said the structure — a 1942 building previously used as a medical office — can be converted internally to two one-bedroom units on the first floor and a two-bedroom unit on the second floor without exterior changes. “That regulation says that you’ve gotta have 70% of the units in whatever complex you are developing have to be 1 bedroom units,” Knott said, explaining that arithmetic makes the requirement unattainable for a three-unit project because two of three units equals 66.7%.
Knott also told the board that the proposal uses far fewer bedrooms than the TOD density allowance would permit; he described the application as low-impact and consistent with the regulation’s intent to encourage housing near the Stratford railroad station. Board members said they have encountered the same mathematical impossibility for small conversions and concluded the variance sought was a minimal, reasonable accommodation of a drafting glitch in the new regulations.
Parking, which was raised during the hearing, was described as more than adequate for the proposed conversion. No members of the public spoke in opposition and no conditions were placed on the approval beyond standard permit compliance.
The motion to approve was made and seconded, and roll call votes were recorded: Commissioner Carroll, Commissioner Lynch, Commissioner Wheeling, Commissioner Gaguland and the chair all voted in favor. The board recorded five yeas and zero nays and granted the variance.
