Connecticut’s Mashantucket Pequot Tribe and developer Blue Camp CT have taken the next step regarding a court appeal, according to a local news report in The Day.
Both groups have filed a brief with the New London Superior Court, claiming that the Zoning Commission’s recent decision to reject the addition of an RV park near the Tribe’s Foxwoods Resort Casino has no grounds.
The RV park project, pitched as the Blue Water Recreational Campground Resort at Avery Pond, involved Tribal-owned land near Routes 2 and 164. The 65 acres would be leased to Blue Camp CT under the current proposal.
According to the brief, the plaintiffs maintain that their proposal “complied with all local regulations.”
Furthermore, the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe and Blue Camp CT said the project should have been granted a “special exception” by the commission.
Attorney Harry Heller outlined specific claims against commission member, Denise Beale, who voted against approving the project. Beale was the swing vote, which resulted in a vote of 4 to 3 against approving the RV park.
Heller wrote in the brief, “Where factual determinations of compliance have been made by a commissioner, and expressed by that commissioner on the record, that commissioner has no alternative but to exercise his/her vote in a manner consistent with those factual determinations.”
Blue Camp CT is a subsidiary of Ocean City, Maryland’s Blue Water Development Corp.
In related news, Mashantucket Pequot reelected reelected Latoya Cluff to serve as the Council Vice Chairwoman and Matthew Pearson to retain his position as secretary on its Tribal Council.
