Eight neighboring property owners have brought a complaint in the Litchfield Superior Court against Three Stewards Real Estate, owner of the Manor House on Maple Avenue, and the Norfolk Planning and Zoning Commission. They are appealing a May 13 decision by the commission to allow Three Stewards’ application to modify its existing special permit and associated site plan for the Manor House, which operates as a country inn.
All of the appellants’ properties either abut the Manor House’s five-acre lot or are within 100 feet of it. The complaint asserts they are “statutorily aggrieved” [have suffered a specific harm or adverse effect as defined by a particular statute or law] and are “further aggrieved” because the commission’s decision was “illegal, arbitrary, in abuse of its discretion and in violation of state law and its regulations.”
The complaint asserts that the commission failed in 10 different ways to follow its own regulations and that its decision was “arbitrary and capricious and not supported by substantial evidence.”
The decision, which can be viewed here [https://norfolkct.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/PZ-Manor-House-Application-24-027-Decision.pdf], passed with conditions. Four commission members were in favor of approval and two were opposed.
The plaintiffs ask the court to sustain the appeal and set aside the commission’s decision. It further asks the court to direct the Planning and Zoning Commission to deny the application and to grant such “further relief as to this Court may seem just and proper.”
For a page with links to the decision and other materials related to the Manor House application, click here. —Kathryn Boughton