GN Investigation: Forsaken Lands Event Raises Serious Regulatory Questions

The Forsaken Lands haunted attraction has ended its run for 2025, but the issues it raised are far from resolved. At the heart of the legal discussion is the question of whether the event should have required an application to the Planning & Zoning Commission, and if so, whether it would have been legal for them to permit it.

A more basic question being asked by neighborhood residents and some town officials is whether an event that ran for 3 years without issues at Action Wildlife, a large exhibition venue on State Highway 4 with no nearby residences, was appropriate to be held on the small, quiet Bare Hill Road residential cul-de-sac. Ultimately, the Town’s next actions will be informed by Town Counsel Kevin Nelligan, in whose hands the matter currently rests for review and recommendations.

These questions are not academic. Though the 2025 event has ended, the property owner has entered into a multi-year contract with the Forsaken Lands producers, which would bring the event back to the same location next year.

To investigate these issues, The Goshen News spoke with Bare Hill Road residents Clyde Breakell and Steven Guletzky, with Land Use Enforcement Officer Spencer Musselman, with PZC Chair Jon Carroll, with former 1st Selectman Bob Valentine and incoming 1st Selectman Seth Breakell. We corresponded with the Bare Hill Road venue property owner Gary Stango, Jr., with outgoing 1st Selectman Todd Carusillo, and with Planning & Zoning Commission Vice Chair Lu-Ann Zbinden. We also issued a public records request to obtain copies of related correspondence from Musselman, fulfillment of which remains pending, and reviewed multiple other related documents, including various correspondence, zoning regulations, state statutes, and town ordinances.

The Opposing Views
Valentine’s case is that the event is not a permitted use in an RA-5 zone (Residential-Agricultural 5-acre minimum), which applies to this site. He referenced several sections of the Town of Goshen Zoning Regulations in making that argument, beginning with Section 2.1 on Applicability, which states that only the uses specifically provided for in the regulations are permissible. He then referenced Section 3.3 on Residential-Agricultural Permitted Principle Uses and Special Permit Uses, none of which appear to correspond with operation of an entertainment attraction like Forsaken Lands. Accordingly, Valentine argues, the Land Use Enforcement Officer could not approve the use for the Forsaken Lands event, and even if it had been brought to the full PZC for review, they could not legally approve it.

Property owner Gary Stango, Jr., argues that the same event previously operated without issues for three years at another RA-5 zoned location, Action Wildlife, on Rt. 4. He provided a copy of an email dating back to 2022 from then-Enforcement Officer Marty Connor stating that “if the event is an accessory use to the current agricultural use… then no permits are required from Planning & Zoning”. Connor referred to past accessory uses on that site, including a haunted house attraction.

Stango also provided a copy of an Aug. 8, 2024 email from current Enforcement Officer Spencer Musselman which states that he agrees with Connor’s determination “and that would apply to your property as well because it has farm status correct?”

Stango replied: “We are a registered active farm with the State, USDA, NRDS, and Feds.”

Stango also provided copies of his correspondence with the Fire Marshal, the Building Inspector, and the Torrington Area Health District, none of which nixed the planned event or the structures associated with it, which he offered as evidence of his proactive compliance with regulatory requirements.

Valentine asserts that the event is not a permitted accessory to farming use. He noted that while Action Wildlife may have had some slim basis for being permitted based on the presence, there, of a museum, the Bare Hill Road property cannot claim the same justification.

In The Goshen News’ phone interview with Musselman on Nov. 6 he declined to address the legal points raised by Valentine. “I'm not going to comment on an ongoing enforcement action that's with counsel right now.” He suggested, however, that the event may not be in Planning & Zoning’s purview, because “it's a special event, and special events lie with the Selectmen”.

The Town’s Title 23 Special Events ordinance specifies that the terms "Special Events" and "Special Event" shall mean any public gathering of more than 1,500 persons assembled at one time for one (1) particular event. It does not apply to smaller events like Forsaken Lands. Musselman has recommended to the Selectmen that they amend the ordinance to establish authority over smaller events.

1st Selectman Carusillo agreed with that recommendation, prior to the end of his term, stating “We need to change our Special Event Permit application from 1500 attendees per day to 150 per day, so every event is looked at to see if it needs Land Use and P&Z approvals.”

Stango has asserted that the event is an Agritourism event. Agritourism is protected from nuisance complaints under the Town’s Title 70 Right to Farm ordinance, though it provides no definition of agritourism. Stango cited the recently passed Public Act No. 25-152, which became effective on Oct. 1 of this year, a portion of which protects Agritourism events from certain liabilities for the benefit of small farms, that typically need supplemental revenue to be economically viable. While the new statute does define agritourism, that definition appears to stop short of including attractions like Forsaken Lands that have no particular, direct connection to actual agricultural activities which the statute seeks to support.

Incoming 1st Selectman Seth Breakell is not fully read in, yet, on all of the details, but spoke briefly about it with The Goshen News the day after he was elected. “I actually did go down there last weekend. on Saturday night, which was the last night of the thing and went to Clyde's house like he invited everybody to do on the previous zoning meeting. And it was it was pretty much as he said, it was in my mind, it was a clear violation of the zoning issues.”

The immediate legal questions now lie in the hands of the Town Counsel. Was the event a “Use” requiring PZC approval, or was it only a Special Event that was small enough to be exempt from the ordinance? If the Special Events ordinance is to be changed, Goshen voters will have to amend it at a Town Meeting.

How Did It Happen? “Dropped Off the Radar”
Documents provided by property owner Gary Stango, Jr., confirm that a business trade name application was filed and approved for Forsaken Lands at 54 Bare Hill Rd. long before the event. Musselman, who approved that application, said “I was told initially it was going to be a haunted hayride. And so that kind of piqued my interest to look back into this and see what it was going to be. It's at that point that I heard complaints from the neighbor (Clyde Breakell).” Stango denies having ever used the term “hayride”.

There was a meeting on site in April that included Stango and then-Town Planner Janelle Mullen. Musselman said, “After that time, Janelle left and I took on Cornwall and the Planning Commission didn't meet for a while. So this kind of dropped off the radar.”

A formal report was never issued to the PZC, which canceled several of its regular meetings during the Spring and Summer of this year. Accordingly, the Commission as a whole appears to have never been advised of the full nature and extent of the event or the neighbors’ complaints. Having been told nothing since April, the commissioners expressed surprise to be confronted on Oct. 28.

Musselman said that during his September visit to the site “I inquired about what the stakes were in the field. And he (Stango) told me they were for the limited parking of vehicles. I told him that's not a permissible use of the wetlands and also occurred to me there is culvert work that was done without a permit. So I asked him to come in for an after-the-fact permit on that and to include the parking vehicles, so that can be discussed by the Wetlands Commission before this event would happen. He didn't include the parking vehicles in that application. It was just strictly for the culvert, which was not what we had talked about.”

During the Oct. 15 Inland Wetlands Commission meeting, Chair Lorraine Lucas clearly instructed Stango that there was to be no parking in the regulated area.

“I issued a notice of violation regarding the parking of vehicles,” Musselman told us. “That's a very clear thing to me, that any activity within a regulated area not permitted by the commission is a violation.”

A FOIA request has been sent to Musselman requesting copies of this and other related documents, which he has promised to provide shortly.

The Goshen News will continue to follow developments in this story in future editions.