By Thane Grauel

WESTPORT — The owner of the office complex at the corner of Morningside Drive North and Post Road East is suing the town over its property assessment.

NO Real Estate LLC, which owns 1 Morningside Drive North, filed its suit in Bridgeport Superior Court on May 15. It was later transferred to New Britain Superior Court, which handles such real estate cases.

The four-page complaint states the town’s assessor has overvalued property, and improperly applied a 10 percent penalty to the 2022 Annual Income and Expense Report.

“The Assessor has improperly determined the true and actual value of and has over-valued and over-assessed the properties and/or has improperly assessed a penalty,” the suit reads.

An appeal had been filed with the town’s Board of Assessment Appeals, but “its petition for change of the assessment had been heard and the board elected not to conduct an appeal hearing relating to said property.”

“The aforesaid assessment of the properties for the year 2023 and/or the penalty assessed was grossly and/or manifestly excessive, unreasonable, disproportionate, unlawful, not in accordance with a uniform percentage of true and actual value, discriminatory to the plaintiff, and disproportionate with the assessments and/or penalties of other taxpayers owning similar property located and assessed within the Town of Westport,” it reads.

The suit seeks a reduction in the assessment, a refund for taxes it says have been overpaid, interest and legal costs.

The town’s law firm, Berchem Moses, has filed an appearance in the case but has not responded to the complaint. A trial date has not been set.

Office complex also seeks to legalize parking

The office complex is the same one that is seeking a variance to legalize its parking layout.

The LLC in late May applied to the Zoning Board of Appeals after it says it was told a previous zoning approval for the parking was issued in error.

It needs a variance for off-street parking at the complex, which has three buildings.

The Fairfield law firm Russo & Rizio, LLC, is handling the zoning case and the assessment lawsuit.

Most of the spaces are occupied by offices, said a letter from lawyer Christopher Russo, but one of the buildings contains a “healthcare professional use.”

“This healthcare professional use was approved for occupancy and use by the Westport Planning and Zoning Department and the Town of Westport in 2014,” Russo wrote.

“Now, a new healthcare professional user seeks to occupy this space, which consists of approximately 2,076 square feet in floor area,” he wrote to the ZBA. “However, during the process in obtaining a permit, it was determined that the prior approval for the existing healthcare professional office use was issued in error due to insufficient off-street parking from the conversion from a professional use to a healthcare professional use, as the latter has a higher parking requirement under the Westport Zoning Regulations.”

Russo said that over the last decade, off-street parking has not been a problem at the site. But the new healthcare use is being required to get a variance.

The variance request does not yet appear on a ZBA agenda.

Thane Grauel grew up in Westport and has been a journalist in Fairfield County and beyond for 36 years. Reach him at editor@westportjournal.com. Learn more about us here.