Mystic — Stonington Zoning Board of Appeals members agreed Tuesday night to not hold a public hearing on an appeal from three Masons Island residents who disagree with a report by the Stonington Department of Planning that the St. Edmund's Retreat Center is not violating zoning regulations.

Hugh and Pamela McGee and Penelope Townsend had filed an appeal of the planning department’s January report.

The board’s decision on Tuesday came after Town Attorney Jeff Londregan told members that they did not have jurisdiction to hear the appeal.

“It is not a decision or order that is subject to an appeal to the ZBA,” he said, adding that the document in question was an interdepartmental report about an investigation into complaints by island residents.

Londregan added that case law also does not allow the neighbors to appeal a decision by Zoning Officer Candace Palmer to not take action against the retreat center, as the decision is a discretionary action.

Instead, he said the residents could seek enforcement of the regulations by filing an action in Superior Court.

The neighbors' attorney, Diane Whitney of Hartford, urged the board to ignore Londregan’s advice. She called it disingenuous to say no decision was made, as a number of complaints were made by the neighbors and Director of Planning Jason Vincent's report is a response to them. She said she fears that if the neighbors go to court, a judge will say they have not exhausted their administrative remedies through the town.

Vincent’s report was prompted by four complaints from Masons Island residents last summer that the Society of St. Edmund has gone far beyond its original intent and actually is operating a type of resort at its Enders Island location. While residents have questioned the legality of the center in the past, the latest complaints came after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the retreat center said they were considering the replacement of a deteriorating 700-foot-long seawall that protects Enders Island from storms.

Vincent’s report found that the buildings are all legally nonconforming, conforming or have variances for items such as yard setbacks, floor area ratio and height. It also pointed out that the federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act protects individuals and religious institutions from discriminatory and unduly burdensome land use regulations. As a federal civil rights law, the report states the act's protections trump any locally enacted zoning regulations.

But the residents’ have said the report misrepresents the provisions of the act, thereby allowing uses on the property that violate zoning regulations. They also charge the report contains errors and omissions as to the activities occurring on the island.

They have charged that while the property has been zoned for residential use since the inception of zoning in town, it is now being used for a variety of commercial uses that “are not central to the religious purpose of the current owner of the property.”

They have said the current uses at the retreat center generate 17,000 cars a year on the narrow roads of Masons Island.

 j.wojtas@theday.com