Town, Restaurant Owner Sued Over Land Deal

The town and owner of Martel's Restaurant on the Post Road in Fairfield are being sued by the owner and contract purchaser of the former Exide battery plant property.

The lawsuit, filed Friday in the Town Clerk's office, is over a deal whereby the town would sell a "paper road," or driveway, between Martel's and the Exide property to Martin Levine, owner of Martel's, for $50,000.

Exide Group Inc., which owns the former battery plant property, and Invest II, the contract purchaser of the battery plant property, claim an interest in the driveway. Members of Invest II are Al Lenoci, Donald Sherman, Matthew Vetro and Michael Schinella, according to town officials.

The Board of Selectmen unanimously approved the sale of the driveway, which is identified in the suit as Pent Road, on June 16, and the Representative Town Meeting was scheduled to vote on the sale tonight at 8 o'clock in the Education Center, 501 Kings Highway East.

Town Attorney Richard Saxl said this afternoon that he advised the RTM to move forward with a vote on the proposed sale. "I don't think it's going to change anything we're doing," Saxl said of the suit. "I spoke with the attorney for Marty Levine's LLC, and they expect it to go forward. It was made very clear the town would be in the backseat on this litigation."

The town and Levine had previously battled in court over who owned the driveway, which for decades had been used for customer parking by restaurants that existed at 2316 Post Road. Levine claimed he owned the property because the town had essentially abandoned it, while town officials maintained that the town still owned the land.

A deal was struck between the town and Levine where the town would sell the 7,500-square-foot property to Levine for $25,000 upfront and $25,000 a year from now. The driveway would be combined with the parcel on which the restaurant sits and Levine couldn't sell the property to the owner or future owner of the Exide property for 10 years or the town's interest in the driveway would revert back to the town, according to the agreement.

Development of the 6.25 acres has been stalled over a disagreement between Exide Group Inc. and the state Department of Environmental Protection over cleanup of the adjacent Mill River.

The Mill River is contaminated with lead from when the battery plant operated and the DEP wants the river cleaned to a higher standard than Exide Group does. The 6.25 acres is needed as a staging area for construction equipment that would be used to dredge lead-contaminated sediment out of Mill River.

Exide Group Inc., several years ago, demolished the former battery plant and removed contaminated soil from the property.