Peter Smith’s yard looks like a nature preserve from the street, and something straight out of the show American Pickers once one breaches the tree line. Hidden beneath the towering chestnut and mulberry trees, atop the woodchip path he made in lieu of a driveway, and the myrtle and brush-adorned topsoil he keeps in lieu of a grass lawn, are an assortment of tires, hubcaps, auto parts, bins, buckets, recyclables, and basically any random item you could think of.

“In a sense, I’m more of a prepper than a hoarder,” Smith said. 

Smith’s property has been in his family since his father, John Barney Smith, a decorated WW2 and Korean War veteran, bought it with his mother in 1959, and then bought an adjacent parcel in 1962. After Smith’s father passed away in 2003, Smith took it upon himself to ensure that the house stayed in the family, selling off his own home in Higganum to ensure that he could pay the taxes on his childhood home. 

His goal to hold onto the house is now in jeopardy, however, because of unpaid taxes and the accumulation of blight violations.

“I’ve tapped myself off paying taxes on two places, sold the other one finally, and came here,” said Smith. 

While blight violations are typically associated with absentee landlords in urban environments, Smith’s property is the exact opposite. It is in a quiet suburban neighborhood on the outskirts of Middletown, Connecticut. Unfortunately for Smith, what used to be a rural, agrarian neighborhood has turned into a quiet suburb, and Smith hasn’t kept his property up with the times. 

“This all starts with not mowing the lawn,” said Smith. “Huge fines for not mowing the lawn. There is no lawn to mow!”

Smith has run up more than $70,000 in fines for violations of having grass and vegetation over 8 inches tall and for improper storage of trash. Smith said he considers his property a piece of urban forestry and is a habitual collector and car tinkerer who enjoys working outside. He maintains that the neighborhood has grown up around him, and his way of life is being pushed out.

“So that’s what we’re into,” said Smith. “But now this suburban neighborhood is growing around it, right? And it’s turned into, like, I guess a tony [posh/upscale] address, we’ll call it.”

After missing court deadlines due to injury and unsuccessfully appealing the fines to local officials, Smith is now desperate to strike some form of deal with Middletown’s planning and zoning department and is facing a bleak winter if things don’t go his way.

“I’m going to probably end up homeless,” said Smith. 

Smith couldn’t recall exactly when his first encounters with zoning officials were, but called his first interactions with Middletown zoning department officials as being over “issues that were real.”

“There were problems with excess vehicles,” said Smith. “There were things like a ‘70 Chevelle here, all in pieces, a ‘69 Z-28 Camaro, all in pieces, belonging to my brothers.”

Peter Smith is the oldest of four brothers. In 2003, when their father Barney died, Pete and his brothers, Bernard, Stanley and Joseph, all received quarter ownership of the property. Smith said a considerable amount of property taxes needed to be paid off after their father’s death, but that he was the only one who chipped in. Smith ultimately sold his own home in Higganum so he could afford to pay off the taxes on his childhood home and was content to live out the rest of his days there.

Smith said that much of the stuff in his house, of which there is a ton, belonged to his father. He said his brothers, who until recently were partial owners of the property, have used the property as a dumping ground for their cars. One of those cars, a rusted Charger, was what first caught the attention of Middletown Zoning Department officials. At its peak, the property also contained a ‘51 Chevrolet, a ‘70 Chevelle and a Dodge pick-up truck, “with a 10-inch diameter tree growing up between the bumper and the body,” said Smith.

“In any case, he [Joseph] left his rotted-out Ram Charger in all its rusty glory as prominently positioned on the property as possible,” said Smith. “And you know, I can’t feel slighted because he’s done the same thing with other properties he owns.”

Smith said that his brothers have removed most unregistered and rusted vehicles from the property, but the damage has already been done, as zoning enforcement officials have now sunk their teeth into his home, and won’t let go. 

Removal of the cars is only a drop in the bucket as far as bringing Smith’s property into compliance goes; his house very clearly needs a new roof, his vast expanse of trees and vegetation far exceed the town’s eight-inch limit, and his lawn is completely overrun with items.

“The blight ordinance covers everything from a cracked window to anything else you could think of,” said Smith. “You can’t have anything outside.”

He’s dealt with zoning for so long now, he’s worked with three different zoning enforcement officers (ZEO): Linda Reed, who is now a clerk for Middletown’s Common Council, Ron Baia, who now works as Shelton’s ZEO, and Thomas Hazel, Middletown’s current ZEO.

He described Reed as “sort of friendly,” because “she didn’t want that job.” Baia, he said, was “pretty persistent on me,” to the point that one day Baia brought police with him on a property visit.

“This man starts in on me, brings the cops over, SWAT team, vehicles lined up down the street,” said Smith. “A big dog and pony show to, as I see it, really intimidate me.”

Despite Baia’s alleged strongman displays, the fines on Smith’s property did not begin until Hazel took over in 2022. Both Smith’s property taxes and unpaid violations, combined, peaked at $71,000. Smith took to selling off some of his valuables, tapped into the savings he’s accumulated through his pension and Social Security, and even took a loan from a friend to pay the fines.

“I’m not indigent by any means, but he’s fining me more than enough to take away all my income,” said Smith of the fines, which he estimated to cost $100-$135 a day. “He really upped the fines when he realized it was two properties. What the fines have been at various times, who knows, you know?”

While Smith was recently able to pay the original property taxes and unpaid fines off, he was hit with even more violations the same day, to the tune of thousands more dollars. Smith feels he is being unfairly targeted town zoning department officials, who he believes are colluding with developers. Smith’s belief in this theory has been strengthened by increasingly persistent contact from developers in recent years.

“They can make a lot of money off this house,” said Smith. “They don’t really give a shit if I’m homeless or out on the street, they don’t care.”

Smith considers his property an urban forest and doesn’t believe in lawns, which he says are environmentally unsound. Smith thinks his battle represents one of nature vs. development, and while he fears losing his father’s house and the prospect of being homeless, he also remains steadfast in his convictions.

“I do not have a lawn, do not want a lawn, and will not mow something I don’t have,” wrote Smith in papers he intended to bring before the court. “The front yard 212 Sisk St had 23 different wildflowers in the summer of 2022, actual count, most of them over the statutory limit of eight inches.”

Smith owed his love of trees and nature to his father, whom he seemed to pay great reverence to.

“When we were little kids, we went to Moodus,” said Smith. “All four of us boys and my mother and father, we dug up this real American chestnut that my father knew, from his deer hunting, was sprouting in the woods. We dug a whole section of this out, [put it] in the trunk of the car, brought it back to Middletown, and planted it.”

American chestnuts used to be a common sight but have grown increasingly rare. With a native range that mostly hugged the Appalachian Mountains, at one time they could be found as far southwest as Alabama and as far northeast as Maine, but the species’ susceptibility to chestnut blight, a fungal infection introduced to America in the 1900s, has left the species critically endangered. Smith said the American chestnut on his property was “probably seven inches in diameter at one time.” 

“That stump is there and it’s just making more sprouts,” said Smith. “I try and give it a little bit of fertilizer once in a while, to keep it going.”

In addition to his one purebred American chestnut, he says he also has several American Chinese hybrids. Smith said these crossbreeds were an early attempt by arborists to try and impart the Chinese chestnut’s blight resistance upon American chestnuts, but that it’s since been deemed a “failed hybrid.” Smith keeps in touch with staff at the State University of New York’s College of Environmental Science and Forestry, who are currently trying to genetically modify a blight-resistant American chestnut. 

Smith was surprised to recently learn that the City of Middletown was working with the American Chestnut Tree Foundation to plant these same genetically modified American chestnuts on Higby Mountain, just a few miles down the road from him.

“I couldn’t believe it,” said Smith. “You know, they want to cut my trees down, [but] they’re paying someone to plant trees up there.”

When asked whether he could see himself coming to a compromise with town zoning over his trees, Smith said he “knew what was best” for the trees and that he had plans to cut some of them down anyway. He hopes he’ll be able to replace them with some of the modified American chestnuts.

“I’ve made donations and they know I want some now,” said Smith. “So with the dead trees cleared out of here, there’s the ability to do that. That’s really what my father was into, was the chestnuts.”

In addition to the chestnut trees, Smith said his property contains black walnut, butternut, mulberry, pine and beech trees. While Smith is proud to carry on his father’s natural legacy, he has also struggled to get rid of the bamboo his father introduced. Smith said nobody had any clue how invasive it was at the time, but that there was “probably close to a half-acre” that he had to hack with a machete and spray Roundup into the root to kill.

“He was a Pacific War veteran in World War II, and Korea, and he liked bamboo for some reason,” said Smith. 

Smith has spent close to two years killing the bamboo on his property, a process that almost killed him. In December 2022, Smith wound up contracting babesiosis, a tick-borne illness that he said “laid me out” for over a year. 

“I was deathly ill,” said Smith.

Smith said at that time he was dealing with Baia. While Smith’s primary concern was getting rid of the bamboo his father planted, Baia’s primary concern was getting rid of his trees. Smith quoted Baia as having said, “I don’t care what you do to clean up the property, I’ll make you cut all the trees down.” Smith believed the police visit may have been too much for even town officials, and led to Baia’s departure, but he didn’t know for sure.

Since Baia left in 2022, Smith says he has had to deal with Thomas Hazel. Per communications from Middletown’s Zoning Department, the Department first received a complaint regarding Smith’s property in April 2022. On May 19, Middletown’s Zoning and Wetlands Enforcement Officer, Hazel, sent a letter notifying Smith of his property’s blight violation.

The notice asked Smith to “cease and remedy” two violations of the town’s blight ordinance; the first was “improper storing” of garbage, refuse or debris in public view, and the second was having grass or weeds at a height higher than eight inches. Smith was given until July 13, 2022, to bring the property into compliance. 

“The Notice of Blight also stated that if the violations continued to exist after such date, fines in the amount of $100 per violation per day would begin to accumulate,” read the May notice. “The Notice of Blight was sent by certified mail and regular U.S. Mail. The U.S. Mail was not returned as undeliverable, and the certified mail indicates that the notice was delivered on June 16, 2022.”

Smith was issued another letter, a blight citation, on September 13, notifying him he’d be charged $100 a day per violation for the past several months his property had been in violation.

“You are hereby served with a citation of $12,600 for two violations of the City of Middletown’s Code of Ordinances for the period of July 13, to September 13, 2022,” read the citation. “You have fifteen days from the date of this notice, until September 29, 2022, to pay the fines in full on an uncontested basis and to remediate the violations on the property.”

On September 13, Smith was hit by a car while riding his bicycle and had to be driven to the hospital by a neighbor. Smith wound up with 13 stitches, a gash in his forehead, broken teeth and a neck fracture. He suffered a concussion and memory loss from the incident.

Per the town’s municipal blight ordinance, Smith was served with a failure to pay fines notice on September 29. Smith had ten days from that date to appeal the assessment made against him, but Smith was unable to even drive at that time because of his injuries. On Dec. 7, a $21,200 judgment was issued against Smith and signed off on by the courts. Smith filed a motion attempting to reopen the judgment in March 2023, explaining the medical ailments that prevented him from bringing his property back into compliance.

“I was unable to speak properly, eat or drive,” wrote Smith. “Also, I was at the time just returning to ‘normal’ after contracting babesia, a tick transmitted malaria like illness.”

Smith explained how he got the babesia during his two-year-long bamboo removal process, why he believed the bamboo was his number one priority despite zoning enforcement’s lack of care for it, and protested what he felt were unjust stipulations surrounding “putrescible items,” arguing that compost is a “legal agricultural activity.”

“I have written much more regarding these matters,” wrote Smith. “I feel the crushing power of the law is unfairly applied in this matter.”

On April 5, 2023, the court ruled that it had no ability to reopen consideration of the assessment against Smith. State law mandates that Smith and his brothers, who were also defendants due to their co-ownership of the property, had to file a petition within thirty days of an assessment being filed against them.

“Peter Smith did not avail himself of the statutory right within thirty days of the mailing of notice of the assessment on October 27, 2022, to appeal the assessment,” reads the ruling. “Instead, after judgment had been entered by the clerk on December 7, 2022, Mr. Smith filed his motion to open, challenging the assessment.”

Smith said he didn’t believe that the complaints placed against him were real, alleging they were concocted by zoning officials, so he requested them via FOIA in January 2023. He received a letter back from Hazel, including screen grabs from an anonymous complaint submitted to Middletown’s online complaint portal, and a handwritten note from Hazel attributing a complaint over the phone to Linda Biedrycki, a neighbor of Smith’s.

“I am certain that he has made up this complaint,” said Smith. “Because I go down to do an FOI on that, and I get this little scribbled thing in his secretary’s writing? No, I want to see their written complaint, right? I don’t want to see a scribbled, supposed phone log of somebody calling with their name spelled wrong, right?”

Inside Investigator left a voicemail for Biedrycki, but never received a call back.

“The grass at this property is completely overgrown,” reads the online complaint. “There are piles of junk that are in the right of way (within 10 feet of the street) on the White Road Side, behind these trucks. And it smells terrible. Not sure how the City allows them to have a junkyard on their property, including a dead car on blocks in the driveway and multiple trucks on the side street.”

In another court document he never got the chance to present, Smith argued that there was no “dead car on blocks” in his driveway.

“The red 1971 Pontiac is registered and insured, has four inflated tires and is operable except for battery stored inside and empty gas tank,” wrote Smith. “Many people stop, wanting to purchase it, it is a work in progress.”

He said his multiple trucks are parked on his property during winter months as required, and that all are “operable, registered and fully insured.” He said his army truck has been used for “several projects of benefit for the city” on behalf of the Middletown Historical Society.

“I want to use and enjoy this property and do my stuff outside,” Smith told Inside Investigator. “I my spent my life in the factory, I don’t want to be inside anymore.”

As Smith’s battle continues to unfold, he believes that many of Middletown’s blight ordinances infringe upon his Constitutional rights.

“Under the Connecticut constitution, I have a right to agriculture,” said Smith. “Firewood is agriculture. Composting is agriculture.”

The state’s Constitution does not enshrine any right to agriculture, though the state does have Right to Farm laws, which protect farmers from nuisance suits against agricultural activities. Per the state’s General Statutes, the definition of agriculture does include forestry, but only tracts of at least 25 acres worth of undeveloped land can be considered forest parcels after approval by a certified forester.

Smith has been working overtime to try and bring his property into compliance. He estimated that he’s removed at least 20,000 pounds of scrap metal from the property and is working to remove about “500 pounds of raccoon shit” from his garage. He has put up multiple tented structures in order to ensure his items are stored in compliance with Middletown’s ordinances, and he attempted to put up a fence to obstruct his yard from public view, but was told that chain-link could not be used, despite the fact that several of his neighbors have chain-link fences themselves.

“For what it’s worth, I think I’m going to be totally flat broke and have no house and no barn,” said Smith. “Actually, cleaning it up in the short timeframe he’s talking about is next to impossible.”

Smith said that he spoke with Middletown Mayor Gene Nocera about his impending foreclosure, which was originally set to occur on November 1. Nocera was apparently sympathetic to Smith’s plight, assuring him that planning and zoning would stop adding fines. Nocera told Inside Investigator that neither he nor Hazel could respond to questions due to the nature of the city’s “ongoing litigation” against Smith.

The city ultimately withdrew its foreclosure suit on Oct. 27. On Oct. 28, Smith told Inside Investigator that he opened his mail to find new fines levied against him, which could lead to another foreclosure proceeding. He said he was going to try to appeal the additional fines. 

“I don’t necessarily see me being able to pull this off,” said Smith. “If they deny my appeal on this, it’ll be thousands more in fines. I’m to the end of my rope now.”

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