The plaintiffs own and operate a gasoline station and used-car business on property which they own on the north side of West Main Street in East Lyme. The property also serves as a depot from which the plaintiffs distribute range and fuel oil by truck. They also own, across the street, a vacant lot on which they park and store trucks and passenger ears. This lot is in an R-3 residential zone, in which such uses are not permitted. The plaintiffs appealed to the zoning board of appeals from the order of the zoning enforcement officer to cease and desist, by June 10, 1961, from storing motor vehicles on the lot. The board affirmed the action of the zoning enforcement officer, and the plaintiffs appealed to the Court of Common Pleas, which rendered judgment in favor of the board. This appeal is from that judgment.
The board found that fuel trucks used in the plaintiffs’ business, as well as a pickup truck, a wrecked car and various passenger vehicles, had been parked on the vacant lot at different times. The enforcement officer had seen vehicles there on fifteen or twenty occasions. The plaintiffs admitted that they used the lot for parking but asserted that the only vehicle which was left there for any period of time was a wrecked car which the owner was supposed to remove. The board also found that at
The zoning regulations in East Lyme are permissive in character. East Lyme Zoning Regs. §§ 4-8 (1960). Any use which is not specifically permitted is automatically excluded. § 2.2; Park Regional Corporation v. Town Plan & Zoning Commission,
Although it is true that one of the purposes of zoning is to lessen congestion in the streets, as the plaintiffs rightfully state, it is also true that another equally important objective is to regulate the use of land for trade, industry, residence and other purposes. General Statutes § 8-2. In the absence of a regulation permitting the parking of automobiles on vacant lots in residential zones in East Lyme, the argument that the use of this lot relieves congestion in the streets carries no weight.
There is no error.
In this opinion the other judges concurred.
