Smith v. Zoning Board of Appeals

This appeal presents a question of first impression-whether a condemning authority proposing a partial taking must show hardship to the property owner in order to obtain a zoning variance under General Statutes § 48-24. In April, 1972, pursuant to the provisions of what is now § 48-24, the defendant commissioner of the department of transportation, hereinafter the state, applied to the defendant zoning board of appeals of the town of Norwalk for a variance of the minimum lot area restriction on a house lot owned by the plaintiffs, Warren R. Smith and Sara F. Smith. The variance was requested…