The Battle of Gruman Hill: 93 East Ave. Survives Another Day
Norwalk preservationists have won a temporary injunction against the demolition of 93 East ave. That’s the easy part to understand after reading the actual ruling. But the world needs to keep lawyers employed, so the actual ruling is 11 pages because it has footnotes. Footnotes!
So let’s see if I can pry out the important stuff from the legal wordsmith.
The injunction was granted because the Seargent Schultz defense I know nuthin’ would really set bad precedent because then developers across the land could claim ignorance as they destructed buildings will-nilly. Why any legal eagle would even bother pursuing this line in court is a bit odd, considering how courts since the dawn of time have always said ignorance is not a valid excuse for breaking the law. Or those state troopers in Georgia nailing you for blowing through a 35 mph speed limit zone that is clearly erroneously in a 65 mph suggested minimum zone, but let’s not get off track here.
The next part of the ruling focused on feasibility. The feasibility of alternatives to the demolition, the feasibility of the hotel business, the feasibility that the judge would navigate all the expert testimony. Lots of feasibility verbiage, cross referenced in triplicate on carbon copies.
The judge was further feasibly troubled by the building itself. He said, “Additionally, the decision to deny demolition is not rendered any easier by the fact 93 East Ave. is probably closer to the say, undistinguished end of the historic spectrum. Is appearance today is forlorn and no great historic event or person is tied to it.”
Not looking so good for our forlorn building there. But wait, the judge hasn’t considered, this is living history. This poor old building not only survived the burning of Norwalk, but is now fighting the metaphysical burning in the courts. Like Paris Hilton, it could be famous for being famous itself. Mysterious powers — and we’ve all seen them as the porch bends and twists into new shapes every single day – could prevent the wrecking ball from doing anything but glancing futile blows. Gloria Gaynor could sing I Will Survive atop the roof. Ahem.
The temporary injunction just sets the stage for more legal wrangling. And nothing ever good comes out of legal wrangling. You can almost read the silent plea in judge Nadeau’s words for the parties to think out of the burning box and figure out how to incorporate the Norwalk Inn and a village/historic/green district with the building into something. The tip off? The language where he opines that there’s a legally interesting argument about whether the courts can consider the surrounding land, whether owned by the defendant or not, as part of a viable alternative to the demolition. Makes you wonder where we could have been if the Norwalk Inn had embraced our colonial history instead.
