Dinan v. Board of Zoning Appeals
Connecticut Supreme Court
595 A.2d 864 (1991)
The Dinans (plaintiffs) rented their two-family-zoned house's separate floors to five unrelated tenants each, who shared common cooking and bathroom facilities under individual rental agreements rather than living together as a cohesive household, prompting a zoning officer to find they were operating an unauthorized rooming house rather than a permitted two-family residence under a regulation defining "family" as persons related by blood, marriage, or adoption; the Board upheld that determination, but the trial court found the family definition ultra vires and unconstitutional, and the Board appealed.
Whether a zoning ordinance is constitutional if there is a rational basis to support separate treatment of different groups for zoning purposes.