Graff v. Zoning Board of Appeals
Supreme Court of Connecticut
894 A.2d 285 (2006)
Relevant factsFree
Graff (plaintiff) kept 14 dogs on her nine rural acres in Killingworth, prompting a planning-and-zoning resolution limiting households to four or fewer dogs as a permissible accessory residential use; Graff's appeal to the zoning board of appeals (defendant) failed, but the trial court ruled in her favor, and the Board appealed, arguing pet-keeping was a regulable accessory land use, while Graff argued the number of pets was unaddressed by (and thus exempt from) regulation, and that keeping pets was a use of a house rather than land.
IssueFree
Whether, under a permissive scheme of town regulation, the keeping of household pets must be construed as a use of land that is subject to limitation.