Waterford — A Connecticut Appellate Court judge has ruled that the town’s Planning and Zoning Commission was incorrect when it denied a permit for a proposed rock-crushing operation in 2012, reversing a 2014 Superior Court decision in the case.

Kobyluck Bros. LLC owner Matt Kobyluck first submitted an application for a special permit and site plan to construct a rock-crushing operation on a 37-acre Industrial Drive plot in July 2010.

In July 2012, after a protracted application process, Waterford’s Planning and Zoning Commission nixed the company’s proposal, which had been revised from an original version.

In denying the application, the town’s Planning and Zoning Commission argued that crushing rock into dust or gravel does not constitute “manufacturing” and was therefore not allowed in the industrial zone encompassing the Kobyluck Bros. property.

A Superior Court judge upheld that decision in 2014, but the Appellate Court this week released a decision reversing the Superior Court’s ruling and sent the case back to the commission.

Town Attorney Robert Avena said he plans to review the decision with the Planning and Zoning Commission before the town decides on whether to appeal.

Kobyluck, also the company's president, could not be reached for comment.

At the time of its application in Waterford, the company already had a history of disputes with towns over similar operations in other towns.

It sued Montville's Planning and Zoning Commission in 2000 over restrictions it placed on a Kobyluck quarry on Oxoboxo Dam Road. In 2007, the company withdrew its application for the proposed rock crushing operation in Montville.

In 2010, Kobyluck Bros. sued Salem's Planning and Zoning Commission in a similar case over a quarry on Rattlesnake Ledge Road.

In Waterford, Kobyluck Bros. planned to crush and remove 350,000 cubic yards of granite bedrock from the site, then bring raw materials from off-site to crush into gravel and crushed stone products that would then be sold for use in construction projects.

The zoning regulations for a general industrial district in 2011 allowed for the ‘‘manufacture of asphalt, cement, cinder block, or other building materials,” according to the Appellate Court decision released online this week.

The regulations have since been revised to list more specifically what is allowed in the zone, Avena said, but the Appellate Court case dealt only with what was allowed under regulations that were in place in 2011, when the application was filed.

In denying the application in 2012, the commission said rock-crushing equates to “processing” and not manufacturing — the rock would be crushed but not turned into a new product, they argued.

At the same time, neighbors of the proposed project and conservationists argued the project would adversely affect nearby Jordan Brook and create dust and noise pollution, as well as other environmental damage.

Kobyluck Bros. sued the commission over its decision, and while Superior Court Judge Susan Handy said Waterford’s zoning regulations included vague definitions of “manufacturing,” she upheld the commission’s decision in July 2014.

Crushing large rocks into smaller rocks is a different process from manufacturing of asphalt, cement or cinder block, she ruled, and therefore not allowed.

But the Appellate Court last week disagreed, ruling that the 2011 version of Waterford’s zoning rules did not specifically prohibit rock-crushing.

The zoning regulations are “ambiguous” on the definitions of manufacturing, the Appellate Court said, and both parties in the case presented reasonable interpretations of the word.

But, the court ruled, because “manufacturing” is used to describe rock-crushing operations in other contexts such as tax-exemptions for manufacturing equipment in Connecticut, it should be allowed under Waterford’s rules.

“Absent expressly defined terms in the zoning regulations ... we conclude that the natural and usual meaning of the term ‘manufacture,’ as commonly understood, must be construed to include the plaintiffs’ proposed use,” the court said in its ruling.

Three other cases related to the application for the Waterford rock-crushing operation — including one contesting changes the commission made to the town’s zoning regulations shortly after Kobyluck Bros. filed its original application — were set aside until the Appellate Court ruling and are still pending in Superior Court.

m.shanahan@theday.com