Saturday, July 06, 2013

Fate of $400,000 driveway in question: Sikorsky Memorial Airport (KBDR), Bridgeport, Connecticut

By Brian Lockhart
CT Post

Updated 5:15 pm, Saturday, July 6, 2013


BRIDGEPORT -- For months the city was millionaire developer Manuel "Manny" Moutinho's silent partner, quietly bankrolling the $400,000 driveway Moutinho recently completed to his waterfront mansion in Stratford.

Now Mayor Bill Finch's administration must engage in a very public battle if it wants to save the 1,000-foot-long, 20-foot-wide gravel structure from demolition.

Finch was already laboring to explain to the City Council and taxpayers why the driveway was needed for runway safety at Bridgeport-owned Sikorsky Memorial Airport when a judge Tuesday dropped a bombshell.

Superior Court Judge Dale Radcliffe ruled that Stratford erred in giving Moutinho a zoning variance to build the driveway from Sniffen Lane, over Bridgeport-owned wetlands, to the town's shoreline.

Radcliffe sided with neighbors who sued to stop installation and restore the wetlands.

Those Breakwater Key condominium residents filed their lawsuit in September after Moutinho obtained his building permits. Bridgeport was not a defendant. But the Finch administration quietly assumed Moutinho's permits in March, and hired his company -- Mark IV Construction -- in April to install the driveway.

Moutinho and Bridgeport knew the risks of moving forward with the Breakwater suit pending.

"When we stepped in to get the driveway moving and out of our way, one of the concerns we had to look at was we're building at risk because there is an appeal pending," Sikorsky Memorial Airport Manager John Ricci said last month.

So if Moutinho and Finch don't want to be forced by Stratford to tear the driveway up, they must act soon, and likely on two fronts --in court and before Stratford's land-use boards.

Stratford Town Attorney Timothy Bishop said Radcliffe's decision is not final for three weeks.

"When it becomes final, we'll revoke any approvals," Bishop said. "It's sort of like the variance never existed. So they'll have to restore any wetlands disturbed by what they did with this driveway."

But Moutinho can delay that process by asking the state Appellate Court to overturn Radcliffe's decision.

"I don't see there being a strong likelihood this case gets overturned on appeal," Bishop said. "(Radcliffe issued) a strong opinion. ... I don't think personally there's a lot they're going to be able to do about it."

What an appeal will do is buy Bridgeport time to apply for a new variance from Stratford, Bishop said.

"Reading the tea leaves, it seems like the smart play if you want the driveway to exist, is for the city to come in and make its own application for whatever permit it needs and really lay out sufficient legal grounds," Bishop said.

In other words, Bridgeport must introduce the Sikorsky Airport runway safety project into the equation -- something that was never done publicly when Moutinho applied for his zoning variance last summer.

Radcliffe had to base his ruling solely on the information available to Stratford land use officials when they issued Moutinho's permits, and on any evidence presented at the June 3 trial.

None of that involved work at Sikorsky -- a $40 million, mostly federally funded plan that has been in the works since a plane crash two decades ago killed eight people.

Moutinho's gravel driveway runs through a right-of-way Bridgeport granted him over airport land. It replaces an old dirt driveway off Main Street, across from the Sikorsky runway, also located in an airport right-of-way.

Moutinho built his waterfront home in 2010 and, around that same time, got permission from Bridgeport to relocate the right-of-way from Main Street to Sniffen Lane. Then last summer Moutinho sought the zoning approvals from Stratford for what was supposed to be a $200,000 driveway fully paid for by the developer.

Moutinho and his representative, Nick Owen, at the time said the dirt driveway was prone to flooding and state environmental officials had ordered Bridgeport to abandon the original right-of-way to restore the wetlands.

Radcliffe concluded no such order existed and Moutinho should have fixed the dirt driveway at his own expense.

Hearst Connecticut Newspapers in early June first reported the Finch administration paid for the new $400,000 gravel driveway for Moutinho and circumvented competitive bidding rules to hire the developer to build it.

Finch has since launched an internal probe after learning from Hearst Connecticut Newspapers that Ricci -- who spearheaded much of the driveway project -- is a longtime friend and business associate of Moutinho's.

But the Finch administration continues to insist that because Moutinho's original dirt driveway is in the way of the Sikorsky project and the developer had not built the new driveway, Bridgeport was obligated to do it for him.

And that somehow doubled the cost to $400,000.

And the decision to not only assume Moutinho's permits, but to pay his construction company to build the driveway, all stemmed from a need to move quickly so the safety zone will be built by a federal deadline of 2016.

While it is possible these new arguments will help Bridgeport and Moutinho salvage the driveway, it is unlikely Breakwater Key residents will stand idly by.

Attorney Richard Saxl, who represents the condominium association, said he is "in it to the end," as is Frank Johnson of Fairfield, who owns a boat slip at Breakwater Key.

"Are we still going to fight it? Yeah, especially now we have a well thought-out decision by the judge," Johnson said. "So they're (Bridgeport) going to throw more money at attorney and legal fees to defend something they shouldn't have to begin with."

A longtime member of Fairfield's Zoning Board of Appeals, Johnson said he has seen illegal projects torn down, and that's what should happen to Moutinho's driveway.

"He should pay for it out of his own pocket and the city of Bridgeport should be reimbursed."

Staff Writer Daniel Tepfer contributed to this report.


Story and Photos:  http://www.ctpost.com

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