New Britain herald., 1927-11-05
ew Britain has zoning law.


 such, at least, would be the opin-
 ion of any one who had occasion to
 listen to the court bearing on the t Masonic Temple dispute. and on the more recent Kotkin junk yard case | which Judge Newell Jennings has
 under alyiscment.
 { When members of tho common
 council, many of them without so much aS opening the book contain ing the zone law, sat back in their chairs and passed q series of regula- lions which affected about S150,-
 uoo,opo worth of property in the
 hands of some 15.0O0 persons, they I did something. the enormousness of which they are just beginning to realize, it seems.
 When the captains of industry ! fiuanCe and law who com prise the | board Of adjustment voted special ! exceptions to the zoning law they f,It they were perfectly within their rights. but the Masonic Temple case proved to them that zoning Is not exactly what they thought it to be. Tlay learn that special exception" :" an expression not difficult of articu- . la,ion, is pcrpleNing in the light Of ! legal scrutiny. in fact so much so 1 that nearly a dozen lawyers took almost a week to thrcsh it out and then found the board of adjust lneut was incorrect.
 They learned that a special ex- ception may be made for a neces- sary continuance of q nOn-conform- ! ing use. but that 10 establish non conforming use in a district was in fact lot zoning and beyond their i powers.
 Now comes the kotkin case in | which the word "cXtension,"' taken heretofore to be a thoroughly under stood word is the bone of contention i Attorneys for Eotkin's neighbors i claim an unlawful extension has 1 been made in the business because i irs character was somewhat changed ! bv the installation of q shearing ma { chine. Kotkin's lawyers come back ] " II II t Ift!tI lIifbC tl!t N-N''iittO'- is perfectly within the law if it fol- lows out the general line of business even though it increases the volume. In the meantime, New Britain IS urcparing to go into the superior court in an effort to have the word ! reconstruction" also a simple sound-' i ing word, analysed. A property own CT, l.. c. kilbourne received building permit to construct a flli- ing station and on the following day , began construction of culvert, He had not reached the building proper when zoning intcrgcncd and he was s-onrcd. Now he claims he is ent- tied to proceed because construction ! began before zOning, but the city ! has q lower court decision to the eff feet that the culvert does not con- stitute construction. Therefore the 1 higher court action is necessary. 1 It can readily be seen that, 1T 1 two years of zoning law regulation are necessary to determine the meaning of two words and begin work on q third, it will be many, many years before the Nolumlnous book containing the entire ordinance 1 is served 10 the taXpaying and build ] ing public in understandable form. | There is going to be a surfelt or ! basketball here this winter 1T 'would seem that there will be more basketball teams than people in New Britain and that everyone Will have to play on four or five teams. fCartainlv there will be more play | CTS than roOtcrs, and it may come 10 pass that the spectators will be the envied persons in any gwen gymnasium and that the players will stop and watch the onlookers cheor. Being rooter will be so much more unusual than being a player that everyone will want to see just how it should be done and will wish he Cor shc) could do 1t himself Cor hcrselD.
 The situation may become so re- versed that medals and cups will 1 be offered for the best non-players.
 If all the basketball players in New Britain were laid end to end or side 10 side, for that matter = they would reach from here to 1 Moriden.
 Just figure it out for yourself. On advance dope the number of teams here will be almost impossibly large. There will be the two professional i teams. each with it's own prelimi- nary outfit. There will be a factory league, a church league, junior church league. Tabs league, probably two girls leagues, an in dependent league, and three County "Y" leagues. There will be the high school and it's unbeatable junior varsity There will be the Boys club, with a small league playing 1 preliminary to it's games. Inside the club there will be probably three 1 leagues, with four or five within the Y. M. C. A. The various schools will have leagues between the vari- olIs rooms. And there will be the uSl'rNl tll oL llIN-dp eNthiii', p'"S ing when and where they get a chance All told, this should make about 125 teams, exclusive of some we have probably forgotten.
 Now, when and where are these teams going to play? About the only way they are going to work 1t is 10 start right in at 6 o'clock Monday morning and, using all the floors available, follow one another without delay in the hope that they will go the rounds and be able to start over again the following Mon day. This is going to work hard ship on some teams. Who wants to ! An Ohio inventor has perfected a glass house which can be construc- ! ted more cheaply than frame : bui16irt-