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MOTORIOT gets P&Z nod
Aug 20, 2025
Classic cars arranged in the space set to be a “storage area” for displaying inventory.
Alec Linden
KENT – Antique and rare car dealership MOTORIOT returned before the Planning and Zoning Commission last Thursday, Aug. 14, to receive yet another cautious approval — this time a parking plan at its Bridge Street storefront.
“This, of course, is the type of site plan we’ve been asking for a very long time,” said P&Z Chair Wes Wyrick, after MOTORIOT’s environmental consultant Larry Page gave the introductory overview of the revised parking scheme.
Thursday’s conversation, which bordered on argumentative at times, follows a rocky history between the business, which opened in 2023 without town or state permits. In August 2024, MOTORIOT was retroactively granted a permit on the last possible day before an automatic denial due.
Despite several tense moments throughout the meeting, though, the Commission ultimately found the parking layout to be satisfactory. “I applaud this site plan,” said Wyrick, “It’s professionally done.”
The revised plan features some rearrangement of the site’s parking to accommodate for the whole property, which includes an additional auto repair shop and landscaping business alongside the classic car dealership. The plan illustrates 52 total on-site spaces, 20 more than the required 20 for the building’s use. As MOTORIOT now owns the building, it is incumbent upon the business to account for all the parking on the property.
The crux of the lates disagreement focused on a proposed “storage area” outside the building in front of the interior showroom. The proposal calls for 20 inventory vehicles — including motorcycles — to be staged in the area, a number which Wyrick and several other commissioners were concerned would be too many for the 75 by 30 foot space.
“We’re trying to avoid the nuisance factor here,” said Wyrick, referring to the possibility of clutter or vehicles protruding from the allotted storage area.
Jason Doornick, co-owner of the dealership, pushed back, saying that the site has to be flexible to account for different arrangements of different types of vehicles.
“The space is designed to be modular,” said Doornick. “I think that’s the key word here.”
P&Z member Darrell Cherniske posited that it was outside the purview of the Commission to assign a capacity to the storage space. “The space has limitations. Whatever they can fit in there they can fit in there,” said Cherniske.
Commission alternate Anne McAndrew asked a question regarding recent complaints from neighbors about MOTORIOT employees and vehicles parking on neighboring streets, which hit a sore note with Doornick. Specifically, several Elizabeth Street residents signed a complaint letter to the Board of Selectmen last month asking that it prohibit commercial and employee parking on the street, citing disruptive congestion and noise on the residential road. No plans are currently in place to alter Elizabeth Street’s public parking status, but the BOS is considering a widespread downtown parking assessment.
“This is an issue that Kent is facing, not MOTORIOT,” Doornick replied to McAndrew, explaining that the parking on Elizabeth Street is unrestricted, and as such the business and its staff have every right to park there. Commission alternate Chris Harrington expressed that the town’s zoning regulations require a business to provide sufficient parking for its employees, which the current plans do achieve, but Doornick doubled down that it’s not his dealership’s problem.
“Look, we’re just here to get our plan approved. Elizabeth Street is a whole other story that the town of Kent needs to deal with, not us.”
Chair Wes Wyrick announced that he will not seek another term after serving nearly 20 years on the Planning and Zoning Commission.
“I feel like it’s time to move on,” he told the rest of the Commission just before the meeting adjourned. “So that’s what I’m gonna do.”
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Riverside-revelers bring many diversions to the banks of the Housatonic on a recent Sunday afternoon.
Alec Linden
KENT — Even as afternoon clouds gathered, Sunday was a proper scene down on a bucolic bend in the Housatonic River off North Kent Road No. 2, a longtime swimming hole that has received negative publicity in recent years for misuse, primarily in the form of litter and waste left negligently at the site. Despite the jovial mood and thumping music, some of the riverside revelers were aware that things must change to ensure the summertime oasis stays open.
“We’re in jeopardy of losing this really nice spot to hang out at, to play music and spend time with our families if we don’t clean up” said a Danbury-based taxi driver who wished to remain anonymous.
Sitting on a camping chair in ankle deep water by the riverbank surrounded by the rest of her group, she gestured at the surrounding landscape: a swimming-pool like hole where swimmers of all ages relaxed in the August-warm river, surrounded by gentle rapids.
“It’s a fun area that connects you with nature,” she said. “I can speak for my group — we pick up all our trash.”
Those who don’t respect the area ruin the spot for everybody, the taxi driver said.
Frank, another Danbury resident who said he’d been visiting the spot for 12 years, said that he comes to “enjoy a nice meal with family,” arriving early to secure a prime spot. He said he knows many of the groups that frequent the location, which remind him of scenes from his home in the Dominican Republic.
His advice to those thinking of littering? “Do the thing you think is better for the world — don’t watch what others do, just do the right thing.”
The outreach of river stewards has made noticeable impacts, the taxi driver said, pointing at half full-trash bags at each surrounding group’s setup. The stewards are interns from the Housatonic Valley Association who have been distributing garbage bags and stewardship guidance at popular locations along the Wild and Scenic stretch of the Housatonic since June. This was their last weekend on the job, and their efforts did not go unnoticed: the taxi driver from Danbury said she had visited swimming holes across Connecticut and never found such a welcoming community as that in Kent.
Kent Resident Trooper Vicki Donahoe, who had been stationed at the trailhead since 11:30 that Sunday morning, and all day Saturday before that, said that a convivial approach was the best path forward, but that the litter must stop. “I want them to be happy. I just want them to pick up their garbage.”
The only issues Trooper Donohoe had experienced thus far were illegal parking incidents, which she promptly addressed. Otherwise, river-goers had been receptive to her guidance on how to respect the river and accepted offerings of garbage bags.
Still, the litter remains. Trooper Donohoe pointed at some discolored napkins on the ground just in front of the trailhead kiosk to the preserve, which is owned by the state Department of Energy and the Environment. “Look at that nasty stuff,” she said. “No one wants to pick that up.” She reported that a group of self-volunteered residents had retrieved hundreds of bottle caps at the site the day before. “That’s not right.”
With 51 cars parked on the road and multitudes of that number on the shoreline below, the beach at 4 p.m. on Sunday was relatively clean, largely due to the efforts of those residents who have removed hundreds of pounds of trash from the beach in recent weeks.
What to do with the spot moving forward is a complicated matter, but some river advocates are determined to find solutions that keep the river open and accessible.
Mike Jastremski, Watershed Conservation Director at the Housatonic Valley Association, advocated at an Aug. 4 selectmen’s meeting, and again in a subsequent interview, for “equitable, safe and sustainable” river access: a recognition that “the river belongs to all of us,” that it is inherently dangerous but with safer zones, and that it be managed in a way that promotes recreation that is both sustainable to the community and the resource itself.
The North Kent Road spot, he argued, satisfies the first two tenets quite well, as a free, publicly accessible and relatively safe swimming hole in comparison with other riskier, but still popular, locations along the river.
A core facet of stewardship and the HVA’s mission is getting people to personally connect with the resource. “You’re not going to care about it unless you’re there,” he said.
Beyond changing the mindsets of river users, he said, is getting the various parties of interest in the area to work together to come up with solutions, which includes the town, DEEP, Eversource Energy, the Kent Land Trust, the Housatonic Valley Association, and, of course, neighbors residents and recreators.
“People want to be on the river,” Jastremski said, “and not only that, they have a right to be on the river.”
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Finding fun in making fidget toys
Aug 20, 2025
Max Lins, at left, worked with the Scoville Memorial Library’s Julia Hobart on a fidget cube Saturday, Aug. 16.
Patrick L. Sullivan
SALISBURY — At about 2:15 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 16, things were looking bleak at the Scoville Memorial Library for Julia Hobart’s children’s program.
Nobody had showed up to make cool stuff like fidget toys.
Hobart was stoic about this. Teenagers can be erratic, and a summer Saturday offers many alternatives.
But then Max Lins and his mother Ari Cruz showed up and saved the day.
Max is 11 years old and heading into 6th grade at Salisbury Central School.
After carefully weighing the options, he decided to make a fidget cube, which is constructed out of little squares of wood, cunningly taped together so they fold around themselves.
Hobart had a bag full of materials, including an Asterix comic, which Max chose for his initial foray into fidget cube decoration.
Max watched carefully as Hobart demonstrated how to place the tape so the thing folds correctly.
“Ahh,” he said. “I think I get how this is going to work.”
And it did.
As it turned out, reinforcements were on the way. As a reporter headed down the stairs to the children’s section and the library’s rear entrance, there was another mother, this time with a young girl, looking puzzled.
“We thought there was a —” started the mother.
“Upstairs, on the right” she was told.
This coming Saturday, Aug. 23, there’s an end-of-summer reading event at the library starting at 1 p.m. and winding up at 4 p.m. with a concert by the Salisbury Band. Readers need to check in between 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. to qualify for raffle prizes.
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CORNWALL — The restrictive rectangle is a thing of the past.
Cornwall Planning and Zoning Commission modified the town zoning regulations Aug. 12 in an effort to allow for construction of more homes.
The change removed the requirement that a property’s buildable area must be contained within a 20,000 square foot rectangle with each side no shorter than 100 feet.
The newly adopted regulation allows buildable areas to be any shape that can be drawn with a 100-foot diameter circle. The 20,000 square foot minimum size remained static.
Commissioner James LaPorta clarified, “The buildable area is not the same as lot dimensions. So, if an applicant comes before the Commission and requests to have a subdivision or make a lot, we look at both the lot dimensions and make sure it has specific dimensional requirements. But also we make sure that there’s a buildable area within that lot that would contain the house.”
Buildable lots cannot contain steep slopes or wetlands, among other terrain considerations.
The regulation change was unanimously approved upon conclusion of a public hearing that saw three residents express support.
“It’s about time,” said Nancy Berry. “I support this. I applaud it.”
Jill Cutler of the Affordable Housing Commission thanked P&Z for the effort to increase housing stock in Cornwall.
First Selectman Gordon Ridgway noted, “Housing is a top priority of the Board of Selectmen. I think this is a good step.” He continued, “It’s a small step, but many small steps get you where you need to be.”
The change will take effect Sept. 1.
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