New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Steakhouse at Madison’s Winter Club not off the table
MADISON — It may be a while before prime rib dinners are served at the former Madison Winter Club, where restaurateur Frasher Lulaj wants to open a high-end steakhouse, but it looks like it may happen.
Lulaj, who is poised to buy the former social and dining club for $1.185 million, had been trying since last spring to get a zone change that would allow a restaurant there.
The Planning and Zoning Commission voted Jan. 19 to continue the third public hearing on Lulaj’s proposal to include the property as part of a Planned Development District. Commission members indicated that if certain modifications were made, they expected to approve it at their next meeting Feb. 16.
After a one-and-a-half-hour hearing, Lulaj and his attorney agreed to come back a fourth time with a revised proposal.
And most everyone who testified at any of the three public hearings, spoke in support of a restaurant at 251 Boston Post Road. At this last hearing, zoners said they wanted the proposal to be narrowed down to address specifically the Winter Club property. Attorney Jeffrey Beatty, who represents Lulaj, agreed to scale down the proposal to include only the Winter Club.
It has taken months and a contentious public hearing in December for the commission and Beatty to come to this verbal agreement.
Lulaj owns La Foresta Restaurant and Wine Bar in Killingworth, a popular Italian steakhouse. The new restaurant has been long anticipated by many residents in town.
Lulaj, whose bid was denied twice — in May and Dec. 15, said he came back in January because of community support.
“What made me come here for the third time, is we’ve never had anybody against this project from day one,” Lulaj told the commission. “Not even one person, neighbor, nor anyone from the town. If we had some kind of opposition for the Winter Club to become a restaurant, I wouldn’t be here.”
Madison resident Jim Nordgren, who staunchly opposed the amendment in its earlier form, said, “Everyone wants the Winter Club approved.”
“I want to get a steak there as soon as I can,” Nordgren said.
Nordgren suggested, “Take out all the other wording except the word ‘club’ and approve it right now.”
“Mr. Lulaj can go on his way and we can have a steak,” he added.
What makes this zone change complicated?
While the Winter Club operated as a year-round restaurant for decades, it was allowed through a special exception as it is located in a residential zone. That special exception would not apply to a restaurant.
Before the consensus, members of the commission expressed concerns that the proposed zone change as worded unintentionally could open up other residential areas in town to unwanted commercial development.
During the public hearing, one opponent to the proposed law told the board that he counted some 275 properties that could be eligible for a PDD.
However, Town Planner Erin Mannix had described the original amendment as “a tool” that gives the town greater flexibility in dealing with non-conforming properties.
A PDD is an overlay zone, she explained, and can offer development opportunities for land on the edge of commercial or mixed-use zones. The district originally was proposed by former Town Planner Dave Anderson and approved by the commission in 2019.
Beatty had argued that under the town’s zoning laws, the commission has much discretionary power and authority over granting a PDD to a property owner.
“It’s not a rubber stamp or tying the hands of the Planning and Zoning Commission,” Beatty said.
“I don’t want folks to think this is some bait-and-switch approach to deceive people into thinking, “Oh we’re just asking for the Winter Club,’ and that’s going to mean there’s all sorts of other development that’s going to take place without any control or restraint by the Planning and Zoning Commission,” he said.
The zoning board also was weighing its impact on their revision of the town’s Plan of Conservation and Development, which they will be revising this year.
Beatty had stressed that his proposed amendment to the regulations simply would make the Winter Club eligible to be considered for inclusion in a Planned Development District. It is not an approval, he said.
Nordgren, who spoke in favor of the steakhouse, was opposed to the amendment as written: “I think the town is going to be outraged … this change is being considered,” he said.
“If you’re really going to include properties as of now — I count 275 properties. That doesn’t include all the neighbors of those 275 properties like me,” he said.
While many on the commission had problem with the amendment as written, Planning and Zoning Commission Chairman Carol Snow said, “I certainly think this is huge improvement over what was proposed and rejected previously.”
She said it was something to think about especially when the Plan of Conservation and Development is being updated. She described this as a “test case” for the PDD.
Beatty said he will present a third scaled-down version of the amendment to the commission at its next meeting. This amendment is the very first step of many for Lulaj to get approval.
It would be a mechanism to allow Lulaj to simply request a zone change as a restaurant would then become an allowed use under a PDD. Now there is no way for him to put a direct application before the commission for an eatery.
The commission seems to have come full circle since last spring.
Beatty’s first try at the text amendment Dec. 15 was rejected by the zoning board. And in May, the request for a zoning variance for specifically the Winter Club was turned down.
He said commission members told him in May to include more properties in his proposed text amendment.
At the end of the hearing, Beatty said, “Believe me, we would like nothing better than something that just identifies the Winter Club as something suitable for this use.”
“That is something we have been trying to do all along,” he said.