HARTFORD — A neighborhood kerfuffle on one of the city’s wealthiest residential streets has triggered a cease-and-desist order, fervent appeals and debate over what constitutes a family.
The controversy centers on 68 Scarborough St., a nine-bedroom brick mansion shared by eight adults and three children — an arrangement among longtime friends who share monthly expenses, chores and legal ownership of the stately home, said Julia Rosenblatt, who lives there with her husband and two kids.
The residents bought the nearly 6,000-square-foot house for $453,000 in August, although only two of the owners are listed on the mortgage and city property record. They take turns cooking dinner, have pooled money into one bank account and entertained themselves last week with a family talent show because, Rosenblatt said Thursday, “we intentionally came together as a family.”
But a coalition of neighbors, while conceding that the occupants of 68 Scarborough “are nice people,” have argued that the nontraditional household violates the neighborhood’s zoning for single-family homes. Living in the house are two couples with children, a couple with no children and two individuals.
About three weeks ago, 68 Scarborough was hit with a cease-and-desist order from the city after zoning officials determined that the setup “doesn’t meet the definition of a family,” said Thomas Deller, the city’s director of development services, which oversees zoning code enforcement. The city’s code defines members of a family as those related by blood, marriage, civil union or legal adoption.
It was unclear Thursday whether the owners eventually would be forced to vacate the home or sell it. Rosenblatt said they have appealed the order to the Hartford Zoning Board of Appeals.
“Now it’s just the waiting game,” said Joshua Blanchfield, Rosenblatt’s husband and a teacher at Annie Fisher STEM Magnet School in Hartford.
If the residents at 68 Scarborough lose their appeal, “they need to conform to city zoning,” Deller said. He added that they also have the right to sue, and “that’s something they’ll have to decide.”
“We don’t know yet what all of our steps are; we’re just trying to figure this out,” said Rosenblatt, a co-founder of the HartBeat Ensemble theater company. “It’s quite unnerving and upsetting. … What is scarier than talking about losing your own home?”
The West End Civic Association convened a committee meeting Wednesday night to hear arguments from both sides. Dozens showed up to back the 68 Scarborough residents, a group that includes Blanchfield and another Hartford public school teacher, a professor at Capital Community College, employees for Charter Oak Cultural Center and the Wheeler Clinic, and a stay-at-home dad.
Rather than a fight over one mansion, neighbors who oppose the arrangement have framed their case as a broader stand against any challenges to Scarborough’s single-family zoning that could chip away at the quiet character of the affluent, estate-lined street.
The University of Connecticut Foundation, Wadsworth Atheneum and the Jumoke Academy charter school group each own property on Scarborough. Neighbors opposed Jumoke’s now-defunct plans to use the former Hartford Medical Society building for a school.
The 68 Scarborough owners “seem like a nice group of people,” said John Gale, chairman of the West End association’s planning and zoning committee. On the other hand, he said, he also sympathizes with the concern that a “Pandora’s box” might open without a strict interpretation of single-family homes.
In a statement to the West End Civic Association, which may decide to issue a recommendation to the city, the neighbors compared the use of a single dwelling by multiple families to “an apartment building, or a rooming house, or a fraternity house.” The letter was endorsed by the residents of 16 homes on Scarborough Street and a couple who lives on neighboring Asylum Ave.
“Regrettably, over the years … people have attempted to change properties away from single-family housing,” the letter stated. “We have learned that we cannot ignore violations that will set a precedent and provide a legal standard to allow multiple other properties to be changed on the same basis.”
One notable Scarborough Street resident who did not sign the letter was Hartford City Council President Shawn Wooden, who said he has not taken a public position on the controversy.
The city may have to reconcile what Blanchfield described as “contradictory” language in its zoning regulations. One section calls for a maximum density of 3.6 families per acre in Scarborough’s R-8 zoning district, although it’s not clear that the rule applies to single-family lots. The mansion at 68 Scarborough, built in 1921, sits on two acres.
“The house is gigantic,” said Brendan Mahoney, a friend of the owners. “I’ve had dinner there and everybody was home. … The house was designed to have that many people in it.”
So far, the owners have spent about $20,000 to upgrade the plumbing — there are six bathrooms — and the electrical system to bring the home up to code, Blanchfield said. They have a household bank account to share the cost of groceries, utilities and mortgage payments, and have also gotten used to the emotional support.
“Even just coming home at the end of the day, from a rough day,” Rosenblatt said. “Because there’s so many more people to help out, and to be good to each other, it just feels a lot less lonely than I think it might otherwise be.”
Next week, the children are planning a night of charades, she said.
“We’re not trying to change the zoning law,” she said. “We’re trying to change the definition of a family.”
