It is a (proposed) regulation that is similar to many others,” said Thomas Beecher, the land use attorney representing Bertram. Spot zoning is a land use law that benefits one property owner to the detriment of surrounding properties. “It looks to me like it is camouflage for spot zoning. “I am not entirely confident that the reported restrictions that go along with the (proposed zone change) would stand up to any kind of attack for anybody else in the (commercial) zone who wants to convert a hotel into an apartment building,” City Council member Paul Rotello said during a June 27 public hearing. It's about what would happen to the city’s commercial zones if other hotels wanted to do the same thing. The problem for opponents is not so much with Bertram’s plans to build affordable apartments and to partner with a nonprofit incubator group called Danbury Hackerspace to transform three hotel floors into studio space for artists and entrepreneurs. If approved, Bertram proposes to convert the 240-room hotel into 154 micro-studios that would rent for $1,250 a month and 44 one-bedroom apartments that would rent for $1,775. Lutz was referring to a zoning change tailor-made for Bertram by a leading land use attorney that would allow the developer to convert the 10-story hotel into an apartment house in the Mill Plain Road commercial corridor on Danbury’s booming west side. “I know you guys are gate-keeping to protect the community, but I hope you don’t overdo your job to the point where we let innovation creep out the window.” “The prospect of Danbury being an incubation place for great ideas and innovation is epic,” Lutz, a single dad who moved to Danbury in October, told members of the city’s Zoning Commission. “The zoning of this building could change the trajectory of Danbury,” artist Gregory Lutz said during a public hearing that closed last week, setting up a vote on Bertram’s zone change proposal as soon as July.
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