Open letter to representatives

I am writing to ask you to appeal the recent court judgment in the Lifetime Fitness case which nullifies your vote to overturn the Zoning Board’s approval of a text code change that will allow Lifetime Fitness to build a large indoor/outdoor recreational complex in the High Ridge Office Park More than 670 Stamford homeowners petitioned the Board of Reps and asked you to overturn the Zoning Board’s approval of this Lifetime Fitness text code change. You unanimously voted to overturn this unpopular decision.

You were sued by the owners of the High Ridge Office Park. The suit said our petition was not valid because it did not contain the necessary 300 property owners’ signatures. Only 240 signatures were ruled legitimate and counted toward the required 300. Because 164 of the “invalid” signatures belonged to condo owners, they were not counted.

This judge’s ruling says individual condo owners do not have the same property rights as other home owners. He ruled that the signature of an individual who owns a condo and signs a petition like the one we filed, does not count. He ruled that a condo association can only sign and be counted as one signature on a petition, no matter how many condo owners are in the condo association or complex.

This means, that if 99 condo owners in a 100-unit complex sign a petition and just one owner does not sign, then the opinions and protests of the 99 other condo owners are totally negated and cannot be registered in any fashion. The 99 cannot even be counted as one signature on a petition. If this ruling is allowed to stand it would be precedent setting. It says that condo owners are not property owners and they do not have the same rights as other home owners.

The residents of Sterling Lake and the River Turn condos live closer to where the Lifetime Fitness complex would be situated than anyone else in Stamford. Sterling Lake is less than 200 yards from this location and contains 13 free-standing homes. The River Turn condos contain 70 units. Every car that goes to Lifetime Fitness will drive by these condos.

All 83 of these homes are “condominiums.” In effect, this ruling says we do not have any right to petition you and ask you to overturn the Zoning Board and stop this complex from being built next door to our homes.

We all pay property taxes. Every condo owner in Stamford pays their taxes on an individual basis. More than 12 percent of the homeowners in Stamford own condos. We are all, in every sense of the word, “property owners.”

I am asking that, when you meet in special session on Monday, March 9, you vote to appeal this short-sighted court ruling. You need to defend your rights as a duly elected legislative body and you need to fight to ensure that condominium owners have the same property rights as all the other home owners in the City of Stamford.