By Ken Valenti

WESTPORT–The Town of Westport and the owners of the Old Mill Grocery and Deli are considering their response to a recent judge’s ruling halting zoning rules that would allow alcohol sales at that store and two other town businesses located in residential areas.

The ruling overturns Text Amendments 846, passed by the Planning and Zoning Commission in November 2024, and an earlier version, 843. Owners sought permission to sell alcohol, including to customers sitting at 10 tables in the shop at 222 Hillspoint Road. 

But a group of the store’s neighbors sued to overturn the new rules, arguing that the permission was not properly granted. Judge Dale W. Radcliffe agreed in a Feb. 18 ruling in Superior Court in Bridgeport. 

“It is clear that this attempt to shoehorn commercial establishments as permitted uses into residential zones in Westport is a transparent tactic designed to circumvent the prohibition against expanding nonconforming uses,” Radcliffe wrote.

The ruling listed the other businesses impacted as The Country Store, 332 Wilton Road and the Porch at Christie’s, 161 Cross Highway, which has been replaced by Gruel Britannia Westport.

Westport Town Attorney Ira Bloom and leaders of the Soundview Empowerment Alliance, a non-profit that owns the store, said no decision has been made whether to appeal the ruling. Bloom said he needs to consult with the Planning and Zoning Commission and First Selectman Kevin Christie, as well as the alliance’s attorneys, on what to do next. The parties have 20 days to petition the Appellate Court to accept the case, he said.

“We’re in the process of digesting the decision and trying to decide the best course of action,” Bloom said. “We continue to disagree with the court’s analysis of the text amendment.”

But James W. Hood, chairman of the alliance, objected to the judge’s ruling and said the case filed by one group of residents threatened a  “community gem” appreciated by thousands.

“There is an irony here,” he said. “We’re talking about a place that has existed since 1919. It’s really…old. It’s been here before any of the people complaining about it.”

The store has sold alcohol at times in the past, and even looks better now than in other times.

“This building has never looked more friendly, more charming more New England,” he said.

Joel Green, an attorney for the residents who sued over the rules, told the Westport Journal on Friday afternoon that he would provide comments on the issue.

The Planning and Zoning Commission argued that the business fosters “a strong sense of community,” and generates jobs and tax revenue. The town also argued that the change is consistent with the 2017 Plan of Conservation and Development that promotes efforts to maintain neighborhood and community character.

Judge Radcliffe agreed with the residents that the amendments create an improper expansion of a non-conforming use to avoid the more standard course of seeking a variance, which requires showing that zoning laws create a hardship for a specific property use. He also ruled that a proposed limit on the sale of alcohol to 50 percent of all sales were improper. State law prohibits rules that limit alcohol sales by percentage of receipts and does not grant a municipality to establish limits on alcohol sales in its zoning, Radcliffe said.

He said the residents’ claim that the text amendments amounted to “spot zoning” did not apply because the town commission had not tried to create an independent zoning district with its new rules.

Ken Valenti

^{_{A career journalist and lifelong resident of the New York City region, Ken Valenti has enjoyed decades of reporting local, regional and national news in New York and Connecticut. Topics of special interest are development, the environment, Long Island Sound and transportation. When not reporting, he’s always on the lookout for the perfect coffee shop or used book sale.}}