Stanley Parker: A Quarter-Century in Brookfield Zoning

Former Zoning Commission Chairman and longtime Commission member Stanley Parker is planning to step down at the end of his term this year, taking with him a wealth of institutional knowledge and a first-hand perspective of how the town has developed over the last quarter-century.

In his 26^th year on the Zoning Commission, Parker was recognized for achieving more than 25 years of service by the Connecticut Federation of Planning and Zoning Agencies at a ceremony in Southington on March 24.

“We’ve been living in town for so many years [65], it’s my way of giving back to the town,” Parker said of volunteering his time in municipal service.

In his first meeting on the Commission, “I sat there and didn’t say a word,” Parker remembered. “Each meeting I got into a little bit more, understood a little bit better,” he said, though becoming proficient with the town’s code has taken him most of his 25 years in zoning.

“You always have to be learning the book,” he stated as a mantra, as it is a comprehensive and complex document that continues to change over time.

“We’ve tried to keep an orderly progression of development in town” through the creation and progression of the zoning code, Parker said, adding, “The regulations that we have developed over the years is one of the best in the state of Connecticut — the most extensive.”

As proof, Parker and Community Development Specialist and former Zoning Enforcement Officer and Commission member Bill Schappert point to portions of the code such as the drinking water regulations.

“We worked on those with the Department of Public Health and when we finished the state said we had the best regulations,” according to Schappert. “They based all new [drinking water] regulations on Brookfield’s.”

Parker also pointed to the town’s animal regulations [see anecdotes below], which have been lauded by 4-H, the University of Connecticut Agricultural Program and the Fairfield County Cooperative Extension, who “all came in asking where we got these,” he said.

During the course of their time in municipal zoning, Schappert and Parker have both become synonymous with zoning in Brookfield, to the point where residents will come up to Parker at local stores to solicit advice about “building a deck” or other home improvements.

Though that’s not to say that Parker — or Schappert — sets the agenda for the town’s zoning decisions.

While the Commission members interpret the code as it applies to each individual applicant, their decisions are tied directly to the regulations. That means if an application meets all the criteria, it will be approved.

“I’ve voted many times to approves things when I didn’t like it and against other things that I wanted to see but they didn’t meet the book,” Parker said.

“Most people that come before Zoning get approved,” he added, “Or they come back with the changes we requested and get approved then.”

This process has been made even easier with “informal table discussions,” where applicants can meet with one or two zoning officials (“So we don’t have a quorum.”) and work out the details in compliance with the regulations before the process even begins.

“Since we’ve done that, it’s been much better,” Parker said, thinking back to the most difficult application during his time on the Commission: Costco’s bid to move to the cornfields at the intersection of Federal Road and Route 133.

“That was the most contentious application that we’ve had in my whole time on the Commission,” he said. “If they came in and did that [the pre-review process], worked with us instead of hammering us, that would have gone much smoother.”

A short time later, “when the [property] owners came in for a shopping center, it went right through,” Parker said, in large part due to their utilization of the pre-review process.

The process was used again prior to the recent in the Kohl’s Plaza on Federal Road.

“It made it a lot easier this time because of the groundwork that Stanley helped lay,” according to current Zoning Chairman William Mercer, .

Some of Parker’s most memorable times on the Commission trend more toward the absurd.

“I could write a book in what’s gone on in zoning over the last 20 years,” he contended, “And people would think it should be on the fiction shelf.”

The most ridiculous thing Parker had seen in his time was a site-plan and architectural plan “drawn completely in crayon.” After scoffing, the Commission asked the applicant to resubmit the designs in ink.

Parker remembered another instance where a woman came before the Zoning Commission to ask whether she could keep goats on her property. The zoning regulations allow for “two animal units,” however since the woman was raising pygmy goats, which are half the size, she wanted to keep four. The Commission ultimately voted to stick to the letter of the law.

In yet another farm-animal-related instance, a part-time resident, “a lawyer, comes in from New York complaining about the fact that his neighbors had chickens,” Parker remembered, only to discover that keeping chickens was well within the zoning code in that area of town and that he himself had two illegal sheds on his property.

The New York lawyer “ended up paying $700/$800 for the two illegal sheds.”

“Zoning all comes down to one golden rule,” Schappert said, “Love Thy Neighbor.”

“Neighbor against neighbor is the biggest problem we have in zoning,” Parker concurred.

Of Parker’s 26-year tenure on the Zoning Commission, he has spent the last “15/16 years, maybe more” as its chairman.

“It takes a lot of time” every week to be chairman of a town commission, according to Parker.

“As a regular member you have to read all the packets and learn the book,” however, “As chair, you should be in the office every morning, directing the Zoning Enforcement Officer on the day-to-day,” he said.

And in dealing with the Commission, “There’s a lot of pressure on the chairman from both sides — ‘I want this, I don’t want this,’” he said.

“It’s a very time-consuming job,” Mercer agreed, now in his fourth month as chairman. “It requires a lot of effort if you’re going to do it right.”

Mercer also noted that Parker served as chairman “during a time when there was more development going on in town.”

And, though he no longer leads the Commission’s discussions, “Stanley really hasn’t stopped participating,” Mercer said. “He still provides a lot of help.”

“I don’t have enough good things to say about Stanley,” he added. “He’s been a tremendous asset.”

After some recent health complications, Parker’s doctor advised him to take it easier. With that in mind, Parker has decided not to seek reelection to the Zoning Commission when his term comes up in November.

“I may change my mind,” he said, though if he doesn’t he will “probably volunteer with something” in town, though he was unsure where exactly.

“I just enjoy it. You get to meet a lot of people, it’s truly enjoyable and I think I contributed,” Parker said of his years in municipal service.

“All in all, it’s been an enjoyable 25 years,” he said. “I’m going to miss it.”