Municipal Law Partner Dan Casagrande helped secure a decisive victory for a group of neighbors concerned about the appropriateness and impact of a seasonal homeless shelter proposed for a church hall in their historic neighborhood in Norwich, CT.
Following a multi-month public hearing process, the Commission on the City Plan voted unanimously Sept. 15 to deny a special permit application that sought to establish the seasonal overnight shelter at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church on Broadway.
The Thames Valley Council for Community Action (TVCCA) partnered with St. Mark’s Lutheran Church to apply for the special permit. They sought to operate a seasonal overnight warming shelter in the Memorial Hall at 248 Broadway / 26 Broad Street during cold-weather months (mid-November through the beginning of April, with hours of operation not to extend beyond 6 p.m. to 8 a.m.).
Retained by a group of neighboring homeowners, Attorney Casagrande grounded the opposition in Connecticut statutory land-use standards, demonstrating that the proposal failed to meet key municipal requirements.
A Decisive Command of the Legal Record
During the proceedings, Attorney Casagrande argued that the applicant fell far short of meeting its legal burden of proof under special permit standards. He highlighted crucial procedural and statutory deficiencies in the filing, including unaddressed site-plan elements and neighborhood impact concerns.
According to published news accounts, the Sept. 15 meeting opened with Norwich planning department staff objecting to the special permit due to technical site-plan deficiencies. Following public testimony, a commissioner introduced a motion to deny the application, citing that the proposal failed to satisfy the required “harmony standard” for the zone.
Commissioners noted that granting the permit would risk degrading the surrounding historic neighborhood—where homeowners have made significant personal investments—and pointed out that critical safety and operational concerns raised by the Norwich Free Academy (NFA) Head of School remained unresolved.
The motion was seconded and passed by a unanimous roll-call vote.
Courageous Advocacy and Neighborhood Gratitude
Attorney Casagrande’s willingness to take on a politically sensitive matter based strictly on the legal merits made all the difference for the residents who spearheaded the intervention:
“This was a high-stakes, controversial issue because it involved a homeless shelter, and many other attorneys simply didn’t want to get involved due to the public optics,” noted one of the residents. “Dan looked past that, evaluated the matter strictly on the statutory merits of Connecticut land-use law, and took it on without hesitation. Dan is an exceptional land-use attorney, and his command of the record delivered a decisive, unanimous result when the stakes couldn’t have been higher for our neighborhood.”
Another neighborhood leader expressed relief following the vote that commissioners acknowledged one of the primary deficiencies of the proposal Attorney Casagrande had highlighted, saying in part in an email:
“… one of the commissioners … said the application did not meet the harmony standard and she appreciated our investments in our historic properties and didn’t want to see our neighborhood degraded.”
This outcome underscores Cramer & Anderson’s reputation for rigorous, principled land-use advocacy across Connecticut. Attorney Casagrande’s objective analysis and mastery of municipal zoning regulations ensured that the rights of property owners and long-standing zoning standards were upheld.
About Attorney Casagrande
Attorney Casagrande is honored in the 2026 edition of The Best Lawyers in America for his work in Municipal Law and Litigation – Municipal, and he is also routinely named to the Connecticut Super Lawyers list for practice areas that include State, Local & Municipal law, Appellate law, Civil Litigation, and Land Use/Zoning law.
Attorney Casagrande has a long history of delivering successful outcomes in municipal tax and land-use cases, including prevailing before the Connecticut Supreme Court in Union Carbide’s landmark 1998 assessment appeal, which safeguarded $10 million in tax revenue for Danbury. He served as outside Assistant Corporation Counsel for the City of Danbury from 1990 until being appointed Corporation Counsel by Mayor Roberto Alves in 2023.
His other notable awards and honors include a 2023 Distinguished Leaders Award in the New England Legal Awards, achieving AV Preeminent status from Martindale-Hubbell, being named a Fellow of the Connecticut Bar Foundation (CBF) James W. Cooper Fellows Program, and receiving a Marvin J. Glink Private Practice Local Government Lawyer of the Year from the International Municipal Lawyers Association (IMLA) in 2019.
In 2018, Attorney Casagrande was honored as the “Giant Slayer” among Connecticut counsel as part of the Connecticut Law Tribune’s professional excellence awards.
See Attorney Casagrande’s profile page to learn more. He may be reached by phone at (203) 744-1234 or by email at dcasagrande@crameranderson.com.
About Cramer & Anderson
Cramer & Anderson provides sophisticated legal services, close to home, with regional offices in New Milford, Litchfield, Danbury, and Ridgefield. For more information, see the firm’s website or call the flagship office in New Milford at (860) 355-2631.