Residents Take Dollar Tree Approval to Court

Three weeks following the Windsor Town Planning and Zoning Commission's (TPZC) decision to approve Dollar Tree's application to build its planned one-million-square-foot distribution center, Rainbow residents are saying "You got it wrong."

The group of residents, formed as Save Windsor's Neighborhoods, filed an appeal in Superior Court against the Town of Windsor and Dollar Tree Wednesday, challenging the Windsor commission's decision, and hoping the judicial system will side with them.

"We're appealing the decision on the zoning permit for Dollar Tree, but specifically [TPZC] made two determinations which we believe were faulty," said Keith Ainsworth, Save Windsor's Neighborhoods' attorney.

Ainsworth said the commission, based on its own regulations, was wrong in determining birds and natural resources were not under its jurisdiction, and "they then went on to consider them anyway, which I believe means they gave that issue a short shrift, but they didn't consider the impact to the grassland bird species that were identified."

According to Ainsworth, the commission considered environmental impacts when submitted by an ornithologist presented by Dollar Tree — an ornithologist, Ainsworth says, admitted he did not do a proper study of the site.

"It's our feeling the commission, in its haste to get Dollar Tree up and running, really gave short shrift to significant environmental resources," said Ainsworth.

The issue of environmental resources was chosen as the basis of the appeal, Ainsworth said, because "we feel they certainly have strong legal ground."

But there are a number of issues, Ainsworth added, that were not given proper consideration — chief among them, what he refers to as, a clash set up by the Town of Windsor when it permitted the construction of homes so closed to an industrial zone.

"You don't zone an area industrial and then permit residential homes to be built across the street from it," said Ainsworth, who refers to the clash as a fundamental failur in zoning.

"The town should be ashamed that it's done this. That's what planning is all about."

When asked why he feels certain issues were not given proper consideration when presented to town commissions, Ainsworth said, "Taxes."

"You can't just pursue tax base at the expense of anything... Clearly what's happened is they want this here, and they weren't going to let anything get in the way...

The appeal requires the town's attorney to file an appearance in 30 days, which will be followed by a schedule of briefings and, eventually, an oral argument made before a superior court judge.