By Thane Grauel

WESTPORT — The Zoning Board of Appeals has once again taken up the case of the troublesome trash bins at Chabad Lubavitch.

The site at 79 Newtown Turnpike formerly was Three Bears Restaurant. It was converted to a place of worship a decade ago. A few years ago, it had permission to locate the dumpsters where a playset was instead placed, displacing the bins.

The ZBA in July denied a variance for the unscreened dumpsters off Wilton Road, but did retroactively grant a variance for a play structure that was installed without an application or permits.

In October, Chabad Lubavitch’s representative, Cathy Walsh, brought the dumpster request to the Planning and Zoning Commission. It would not grant a zoning permit because the dumpsters remained unscreened, and Chairwoman Danielle Dobin she did not want to grant something the ZBA had denied.

So, Walsh was back before the ZBA on Tuesday night. The board lacked a quorum and could not vote, but it had a brief and difficult discussion about the issue.

“Everything has been relocated, has been screened,” Walsh told the ZBA, adding that it had been approved recently by the Conservation Commission.

“We’re asking for your variance,” she said.

Chairman Jim Ezzes asked if the location of the dumpsters is the same as the board had approved in 2018.

“It appears to be a different location,” Deputy Planning and Zoning Director Michelle Perillie said.

Member Liz Wong asked what hardship Chabad Lubavitch is claiming for the variance. “Why do you need a different location compared to what we approved?”

“The approval you did in 2018 … there’s no longer a spot there. That’s where the playground is that you approved during the July meeting,” Walsh said. “So, we had to bring the dumpsters back out away from the playground, which is totally fenced in for the kids.”

She said the dumpsters had to be located at the service entrance off Wilton Road to keep them away from the children and visitors that use the Newtown Turnpike entrance. “It’s a safety issue,” she said.

“You just went ahead and did it, again,” Ezzes said. “You did it again. You put in a playground without anyone’s approval, and you did it again. I know what we approved in ’18, and you went ahead and changed it without anyone’s knowledge.”

“Unfortunately, you’re right, that’s the way it happened,” Walsh said.

She said it took several weeks to get a surveyor to the site, “and within that time, my client decided to build it.”

The discussion will continue at the ZBA’s Jan. 10 meeting.

Thane Grauel, executive editor, grew up in Westport and has been a journalist in Fairfield County and beyond more than three decades. Reach him at editor@westportjournal.com. Learn more about us here.