Courant 11/2/06

(if I had known she was going to print my AGE, I wouldn’t have told her!)

From courant.com
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Panel Blocks Adult Bookstore Plan
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Zoning Appeals Issue May End Up In Court

By VANESSA DE LA TORRE
Courant Staff Writer

November 2, 2006

BERLIN — The town zoning appeals board rejected a challenge from Very
Intimate Pleasures Wednesday night, blocking the company’s plan to open
an adult bookstore and sex novelties shop on the Berlin Turnpike and
possibly sending the matter to court.

After a nearly four-hour hearing that featured legal exhibits,
emotional pleas from neighbors and nervous laughter over the topic of leather
bondage hardware, board members voted unanimously to defend a decision
by zoning enforcement officer Hellyn Riggins, who in September rejected
VIP’s request for zoning approval.

Riggins’ reason was that according to her interpretation of zoning
regulations, the company first needed to get a permit under the sexually
oriented business ordinance. VIP wants to open a store at 717 Berlin
Turnpike, which borders a neighborhood of about 200 homes. The ordinance
prohibits adult businesses from operating within 250 feet of residential
property.

VIP’s lawyer, Daniel Silver, argued Wednesday that the rejection was
illegal because Riggins’ zoning authority does not extend to town
ordinances, and that under state law, towns cannot pass an ordinance
regulating the use of land. At different moments he also denied that VIP is a
sexually oriented business, to the guffaws of nearly 90 residents who
packed town hall council chambers.

After the decision, Silver declined to comment. However, throughout the
hearing he and Town Attorney Robert Weber suggested that the ultimate
decision would play out in court.

About 20 residents spoke against the business, saying that it would
wreck property values, potentially endanger public safety and that it was
too close to homes. The nearest one, clearly visible from the potential
VIP site’s front parking lot, is at 29 Woodruff Circle.

That home belongs to Laura Michaud, a 42-year-old mother of two. Before
September, she said she had never protested anything, or even attended
a town council meeting. Then Michaud read in a newspaper that VIP
planned to open shop in the former Huffman Koos furniture store. Soon after,
she helped start the neighborhood group Neighbors Opposed to Very
Intimate Pleasures.

Before Wednesday’s meeting, Michaud said she was not against VIP’s
right to exist.

“But who wants to have one next-door?” she asked.

Michaud said the location is wrong, and that VIP’s plan could be part
of a larger effort for sex-themed shops. “I really think that all of the
suburbs in Connecticut should take a look at this, because I think this
will be the market they’ll be moving into. … They will be popping up
like Starbucks and Blockbuster Video.”

During the meeting, Michaud brought out an enlarged photo of her
4-year-old daughter playing on a swing set. In the background was the
proposed VIP building.

Contact Vanessa de la Torre at vdelatorre@courant.com.
Copyright 2006, Hartford Courant