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Rabbi Joseph Eisenbach is the spiritual leader of Chabad Lubavitch of Litchfield County. Photo: George Ruhe for The New York Times

Litchfield, CT - The town of Litchfield has been dropped from a federal lawsuit by a Jewish group claiming an anti-Hasidic bias in the rejection of proposed expansion of its West Street property, according to parties involved in the suit.

The lawsuit stems from 2007 when the town’s Historic District Commission denied an application to relocate Chabad Labavitch’s headquarters from Village Green Drive to the former home of the Wilderness Shop in Litchfield Center.

The proposal would expand and transform the property at 85 West St. located into a new headquarters that would include a synagogue.

The commission based its denial on the scale of the proposed 21,000 square foot addition and said the proposal was out of character for the 135-year-old building as well as the historic district.

In the initial lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court in September, Chabad alleged violations of the Jewish group’s civil rights, the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 and Connecticut statutes.

The lawsuit named the Historic District Commission and the town of Litchfield as defendants.

Last month, attorneys representing the town of Litchfield filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit on the grounds that the 85 West St. property fell under the jurisdiction of the Borough of Litchfield — a downtown and historic district that operates independently of the town.

The suit was later amended to include the Borough of Litchfield as a defendant. Those changes were finalized by U.S. District Court Judge Janet C. Hall Wednesday.

In a statement Wednesday, First Selectman Leo Paul Jr. said he was “pleased that our lawyers were able to secure the Town’s removal from it so quickly.”

But Attorney Kenneth Slater, who is representing Chabad in suit, said the group is moving forward with the lawsuit against the Borough of Litchfield and the Historic District Commission.

“It was a technical issue,” Slater said Wednesday. “This hasn’t really changed the suit.”

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