Hill Street-72, LLC v. Water Pollution Control Authority of Town of New Canaan

A Connecticut Superior Court reversed the Town of New Canaan Water Pollution Control Authority’s (WPCA’s) denial of an application for a connection to, and allocation of capacity in, the sanitary sewer system for a proposed multifamily residential development. The WPCA denied the application for two reasons: (1) to await findings of a new sewer plan and (2) to await completion of a study by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) about storm modeling that would reflect updated rainfall projections and climate change forecasts. The court found that was “no evidence whatsoever, much less substantial evidence,” to support denial of the application to connect to the sewer system. The court said that denying the application based on a need to await completion of the NOAA study was “patently unfair and invalid as an ad hoc basis for denial that plaintiff never had opportunity to address.” The court also found that the application to allocate sewer capacity was supported by “uncontroverted expert evidence” and that denial of the application did not have support in the record beyond “mere speculation,” “general concern,” and a “mere possibility” of “perceived impacts and general fears.”