🔒Gas station owner sues Rocky Hill over denied expansion plan

The owner of a pair of Main Street commercial properties in Rocky Hill is suing the town’s Planning and Zoning Commission, claiming officials illegally rejected its proposal to expand and modernize an aging gas station. AMG PUB II LLC — controlled by Jimmy Kochisarli, Aytug-Tumay Basaranlar and Jose Montero, co-founders of New York-based Atlantis Management Group — filed its appeal in Hartford Superior Court in June after the commission voted in April to deny the company’s plan for a new convenience store and reconfigured fueling operation at 2720 and 2736 Main St. Atlantis’ proposal called for demolishing an existing kiosk and redeveloping both properties with a 4,200-square-foot retail convenience store, updated pumps and drive aisles, and redesigned entrances meant to improve traffic flow near the busy intersection of Main, West and Forest streets (State Routes 99 and 411). The company said the project would have closed a 40-foot-wide driveway that currently feeds directly into the intersection and replaced it with safer, narrower access points. According to the complaint, the commission held several hearings between January and April, during which the developer presented a traffic study showing the project would not worsen congestion or reduce safety. A peer reviewer hired by the town largely agreed, the lawsuit said. Despite those findings and revisions meant to address neighbors’ concerns over lighting, landscaping and noise, the commission ultimately voted to deny the special permit and site plan. Atlantis claims the denial was “illegal, arbitrary and an abuse of discretion,” arguing that commissioners relied on speculation rather than substantial evidence. The company is asking the court to overturn the decision and order the commission to approve the project. The properties, located in a commercial zone, include a gas station built in the 1950s and a vacant 2,400-square-foot building that once housed offices and personal service businesses. Rocky Hill’s Planning and Zoning Commission is scheduled to discuss the lawsuit in executive session on Nov. 19.