The Connecticut Supreme Court held last month that a newspaper used for decades by the tiny borough of Fenwick to issue its public notices qualified as an official newspaper even though the paper had no subscribers there.
The ruling overturned an appellate court decision invalidating a zoning regulation for lack of sufficient notice because the paper failed to satisfy a state law requiring official newspapers to have “substantial circulation in the municipality.”
Connecticut Supreme Court to hear public notice case
In 2019, the tiny Connecticut borough of Fenwick amended its zoning regulations to limit Airbnb-type temporary rentals of local homes. Two property owners in Fenwick opposed the new regulation so they sued to stop it, arguing the local zoning commission violated the state’s statutory notice requirements. Even though Fenwick published timely, substantively sufficient notice in a local newspaper it had used for decades for that purpose, the trial court found the notice didn’t comply with the state’s public notice law and granted the property owners’ motion for summary judgment.