Keeper's Gentleman's Club Again Seeks Expansion

MILFORD, CT — Keeper's Gentleman's Club on Woodmont Road filed an appeal with the state Appellate Court in its latest legal effort to expand into nearby units.

The filing, first reported by the Milford Mirror, follows appeals to the city Zoning Board of Appeals and state Superior Court.

Keeper's first filed an application with the city planner's office, which was rejected. City Planner David Sulkis reasoned that the request wasn't zoning compliant and a variance wouldn't be allowed due to certain zoning regulations, according to a Superior Court decision.

Keeper's filed an appeal with the city Zoning Board of Appeals in December 2020, according to court documents. The board denied the appeal in January 2021.

The business then appealed to the Superior Court. A judge denied the appeal, saying that Keeper's lacked an actionable appeal because the city planner's decision to reject the application was beyond his authority, and would've been void from the start.

"Consequently, given that there is no appeal from any decision of the city of Milford’s zoning board of appeals over which the court can preside...and in light of fact that the court concludes that the city planner’s rejection of the plaintiff’s special permit application was void ab initio, the court denies the instant appeal."

Keeper's then filed an appeal with the state Appellate Court over the Superior Court's decision, calling it "bizarre and extreme."

"This outcome would mean that the City Planner, who is the gatekeeper of the Land Use Division
of the Milford Department of Permitting and Land Use, is now armed with the ability to go
rogue and run the department illegally by engaging in activity that is ultra vires - beyond his
legal power and authority - and reject any zoning application for any reason, or no reason
at all, leaving a rebuffed applicant with no legal recourse," wrote Keeper's attorney Jonathan Klein in the appeal.

Lawyers for the City of Milford argued that Keeper's went about the appeal the wrong way. Instead, it should have sought a legal order that would have forced the city planner to forward the application to the appropriate local board.

"...the trial court would have to decide what the Application was without having seen it, and then
decide which administrative body it should be sent to," attorney Matthew Woods, representing Milford, wrote in a court filing. "The trial court would then have to order the Board to order the City Planner to retrieve the Application from the Appellant and proceed accordingly. This is not how zoning appeals are supposed to work.