City law department changes course, blocks proposed college
Fairfield University and the Bridgeport Roman Catholic Diocese presented joint plan for the school
“(We) feel Bridgeport is passing on a unique opportunity to help the residents. We'll be talking with the clients as to what paths we will take going forward.”
Ray Rizio, lawyer for the Bridgeport Roman Catholic Diocesan Corporation
BRIDGEPORT — An effort by Fairfield University and the Bridgeport Roman Catholic Diocesan Corporation to locate a small college on the latter’s North End, Jewett Avenue property seemed to fall apart late Friday.
Just after 5 p.m., Mayor Joe Ganim’s office announced the municipal law department had concluded “a college is not a legal use” in that particular residential neighborhood, reversing an earlier decision from nearly a month ago that was being challenged by other elected leaders and activists.
The opinion the mayor revealed Friday was issued by R. Christopher Meyer, the city’s lead attorney. Ganim in an accompanying statement said he has asked his economic development staff to work with the diocese and Fairfield University “on other possible locations within the city” such as the University of Bridgeport campus in the South End.
The mayor’s statement was released as Hearst Connecticut Media was preparing to publish a report in which the municipal attorney whose March 29 opinion paved the way for the college project to proceed without a public hearing or zoning commission approval acknowledged more research was being done to fortify his conclusion.
“What you’re seeing is it’s a more complex question than what was asked of us originally,” Russell Liskov, a municipal attorney, said Thursday.
Liskov’s initial March 29
opinion was has been questioned by North End City Councilwoman Michelle Lyons, retired Superior Court Judge Carmen Lopez and former state Rep. Christopher Caruso. And Lopez, a possible mayoral challenger to Ganim in 2023, earlier this week filed a formal appeal with the zoning office.
Meanwhile the diocese’s application for a special permit was also still scheduled for a hearing at Monday night’s zoning commission meeting. And the diocese and Fairfield University had scheduled community meetings for next Thursday to try to better explain their vision and win over skeptics.
Reached by phone Friday evening Ray Rizio, the lawyer for the diocese, was unaware of Ganim’s announcement.
“The only opinion I’ve seen is this was a proper use in the zone and we’re extremely disappointed in the new opinion,” Rizio said. “(We) feel Bridgeport is passing on a unique opportunity to help the residents. We’ll be talking with the clients as to what paths we will take going forward.
As previously reported, the diocese partnered with Fairfield University on a proposal for the latter to establish a 2-year associates degree program within underutilized sections of the diocese headquarters at 238 Jewett Ave. in a mostly residential area of town.
The new college, which the parties have said will require interior but no exterior changes, would serve a maximum of 200 students from “under-represented communities ... for whom a Fairfield education has not been accessible.” Attendees would commute and not reside there.
The diocese late last year submitted an application to the zoning department for a special permit. The plan has faced some stiff opposition from some in the North End who, already battling the gradual encroachment of Sacred Heart University just over the border in Fairfield, believe it will generate too much traffic and reduce property values.
But in a March 29 legal opinion, Liskov concluded that because the Jewett Avenue building, opened in the early 1900s as a hospital, had housed Notre Dame Girls Catholic High School in the 1960s, the property remained “an educational site” for the diocese’s and Fairfield University’s purposes.
Subsequently Zoning Director Dennis Buckley in a March 30 email to City Councilwoman Michelle Lyons, who opposes the new college, informed her of Liskov’s decision. He said it meant the diocese’s application “will be withdrawn from the planning and zoning agenda,” leaving the diocese and university to proceed without the need for a public hearing or special permit.
“I know this is not the outcome you were hoping for,” Buckley wrote Lyons. “But we have to follow the direction of the City Attorney(’s office).”
But on Thursday, Liskov acknowledged Bridgeport was still seeking evidence to bolster that position.
“We are gathering as much material, historical information, as possible to be able to clarify the earlier decision,” he said.
Meanwhile Rizio, who earlier this month had confirmed his intention to withdraw the special permit application based on Liskov’s initial conclusion, said earlier Friday he was prepared to move forward with a presentation at Monday’s planning and zoning meeting. But, Rizio added, he hoped the commission would open the hearing, then grant a continuance to accommodate ongoing efforts by the diocese to reach out to neighbors.
“Both the university and diocese think this is a great project and don’t want the politics of this to mess it up,” he had said.
Lyons, Lopez and Caruso have been poking holes in Liskov’s March 29 statement and this week filed an appeal to overturn it. Lopez in particular has argued the Notre Dame school use is different from a college and should not automatically give the diocese and Fairfield University a free pass to avoid zoning commission and public scrutiny.
Lopez has also questioned the lack of publicly available land records that would prove, as Liskov wrote in his March 29 opinion, that in the 1960s and 1970s the planning and zoning commission granted “prior approvals” and “several special exceptions” to 238 Jewett Ave. including for “an educational site.” She, Lyons and Caruso have asked for and not received that documentation from the city.
Liskov had told Hearst Connecticut Media that Buckley had that paperwork. Buckley did not return a request for comment this week, and a request sent to Ganim’s communications staff to try and obtain the prior approvals and exceptions Liskov cited from the zoning department was referred back to Liskov after consulting with the municipal law department.
Liskov on Thursday said he has a few zoning index cards dating back to the 1960s and early 1970s with “hand notations” allowing the high school, an auditorium and a gymnasium. He also said the city is continuing to research whether the authorized use of 238 Jewett Avenue for a high school can be applied to what the diocese and Fairfield University want to do.
Asked if his March 29 opinion was premature, Liskov said no. He said he was asked by municipal zoning and economic development officials to determine if the site was approved for educational purposes.
“I was not asked whether or not a university was allowed to go there,” Liskov said. “Educational purposes are permitted. So I think people jumped to the conclusion as to what is permitted. My opinion doesn’t say a university was allowed to go there.”
But, Lopez said, the diocese’s application made it clear that a college was planned, and Liskov went ahead and issued his March 29 opinion without enough information to back it up in court should a lawsuit be filed to stop the project.
“I don’t care about your ‘index cards,’” she said earlier Friday before Ganim’s announcement.
Lopez also cited a January memorandum on the diocese’s and Fairfield University’s proposal from Bridgeport’s economic development office which stated, “Upon review, it does not appear that any pre-existing approvals relating specifically to a school use exist.”
As those questions continue to swirl, the diocese had scheduled a pair of “open house” meetings with representatives from that organization and Fairfield University for April 28 — one at 10:30 a.m., the second at 6:30 p.m. — at 238 Jewett Ave. to explain their vision to the community and answer questions.
“They will be open to all who are interested, and we are hoping that our neighbors in particular turn out to learn about the plans,” Brian Wallace, a spokesman for the diocese, said earlier this week.
Lyons has complained she was never properly informed about the new college and would not participate in the open house. And Caruso said, “If they really wanted the neighborhood’s input, they would have invited them in months and months ago. They’re worried now.”
Rizio has pointed out that of the possible developments allowed at 238 Jewett Ave., a 200-student, non-residential college would have the least impact. The land is zoned as “mixed residential,” which the city’s regulations define as “intended for ... a wide mix of multiunit housing types, including multi-unit houses, rowhouses, small apartment buildings, and larger apartment buildings.”
Lyons has a recent history of successfully beating back North End development.
Five years ago she fought an effort by the city to purchase the Jewett Avenue site to relocate Classical Studies Academy Magnet school there.
And she also helped convince the zoning commission in early 2019 to reject a plan for a private Florida developer to purchase another prime piece of North End real estate — Monticello Gardens apartment complex on Park Avenue — for a 600-bed, privately owned and managed dormitory for Sacred Heart students.
Sacred Heart last year quietly purchased Monticello Gardens. The university recently said, “At this time there are no specific plans for the property.”
Concluding his statement Friday, Ganim said, “While I really like the concept by Fairfield University and the positive impact it will make in the lives of Bridgeport youth, I do believe we should protect our neighborhoods from such intense use.”