Key Points
- Wilton land-use officials are seeking clarification about a First Selectman’s Office review of anticipated legal expenses.
- P&Z officials questioned whether cost considerations could interrupt enforcement or lead to inconsistent treatment of code violations.
- Boucher said the town is monitoring expenses for budget planning and departments will continue deciding which legal issues to pursue.
Why It Matters: How Wilton reviews legal spending could affect both budget oversight and the town’s ability to enforce zoning and building regulations consistently.
A recent request from the First Selectman’s Office for information on all anticipated Land Use and Building Departments legal expenses for review has the Wilton Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) seeking clarification from First Selectman Toni Boucher. Commissioners and land use staff are concerned about whether cost considerations could potentially affect the Town’s ability to enforce building codes and zoning violations.
P&Z Chair Ken Hoffman asked Director of Planning and Land Use Management Michael Wrinn to invite Boucher to the commission’s Oct. 13 meeting to explain the instruction requiring the Planning and Zoning and Building Departments to provide the First Selectman’s Office with details on the expected costs involved in legal actions against code violators.
Wrinn raised the issue during P&Z’s Sept. 14 meeting, expressing concern that requiring additional review before escalating enforcement matters could interrupt legal action, discourage departments from pursuing expensive cases or create the risk of inconsistent enforcement.
“We’re being asked to verify anything that we are sending with the First Selectman’s Office,” Wrinn told the commissioners toward the end of the meeting, after Hoffman raised the issue. “Anything from the building department or zoning-wise, when we get involved in going to the next step after issuing a notice of violation, trying to take that further … the question is ‘How much is that going to cost to move that forward?'”
However, the exact scope of the instruction remains unclear. It was not established during the meeting whether departments are required to obtain approval before incurring legal expenses or are simply being asked to provide estimates so the town can monitor and budget for those costs.
Wrinn noted that expenses for lawsuits would likely be an exception due to the necessity to defend the town in court, but he expressed concern that cost could be a factor in deciding whether to go after code violators.
“There is a concern on our part that we wish we had just — I don’t want to say free rein, but when we pursue a project or a problem project, that we can continue on with the law department without stopping and starting to say, ‘Well, if that’s going to cost $30,000 to pursue that, we’re not going to pursue it,'” Wrinn said. “We have to have equal opportunity for every violator. You can’t be [doing] selective enforcement.”
“I think it’s not just selective enforcement,” Hoffman said. “I think the issue is that we spend a great deal of time deliberating these matters. And if we come up with things that we’d like to see and they’re not enforced, I don’t quite understand why someone would A, pay attention to the things that we pass, or B, be less concerned about violations.”
The scrutiny comes after Wilton’s legal expenses exceeded the FY2025 budget by more than $120,000. In July, the Board of Selectmen approved approximately $1.3 million in interdepartmental transfers to reconcile several FY2025 accounts, including the legal-services overage.
Hoffman asked Wrinn to invite Boucher to “come and address this” with the commission, asking her to give a brief 10-minute presentation at P&Z’s Oct. 13 meeting.
GMW reached out to Boucher, Wrinn and CFO Dawn Savo to ask what instructions were issued, when and by whom; whether land-use matters have been a significant driver of the Town’s legal expenses and overages; and whether a spending limit or approval requirement has been imposed on what the Planning and Zoning or Building Departments can spend on legal consultations.
“Legal expenses for the town are high, especially on land use issues,” Boucher told GMW in a written response. “This is understandable [as] Wilton has dramatically increased the amount of development that is taking place since the pandemic slowed the pace of building. We are monitoring legal costs so that we can determine how much to allocate in next year’s budget. The departments will continue to determine the legal issues that should be pursued as needed however.”
