Fiat Suspends Dividend

Europe's No. 6 auto maker by unit sales said it needs to conserve cash because it wants to purchase the shares it doesn't already own in Chrysler, facilitating the merger of the companies' auto-making activities.

The Turin-based company, whose brands also include Ferrari and Alfa Romeo, paid out €40 million in dividends last year on its ordinary shares and preferred stock. It last suspended dividend payments on its preferred stock in 2009.

Fiat expects its earnings to continue to be propped up by Chrysler this year, though debt is likely to rise as it attempts to revive its European operations.

Fiat said fourth-quarter net profit after minorities more than doubled to €102 million, compared with €43 million a year earlier, as strong sales in Brazil and the U.S. offset weakness in Europe.

Trading profit, a closely watched figure that excludes extraordinary items from operating profit, jumped 29% to €987 million for the quarter, on an 11% rise in revenue to €21.78 billion. For the full year, trading profit rose 18% to €3.81 billion.

In the region of Europe, the Middle East and Africa, or EMEA, Fiat said the loss at the level of earnings before interest and taxes, or Ebit, for its mass-market car brands halved in the quarter from a year earlier. For the full year, the loss narrowed to €738 million from €897 million in 2011 on a pro forma basis.

Earlier Wednesday, Mr. Marchionne presided over the official reopening of a manufacturing plant in Grugliasco, renamed after Giovanni Agnelli, a patriarch of Fiat's founding family. The plant will produce two cars for Fiat's Maserati luxury sports car brand: the Quattroporte four-door sedan and the Ghibli, the first of an expanding product line in a €1.2 billion relaunch of the brand.

Tuesday night's Planning and Zoning Commission public hearing was the final opportunity to discuss the special zoning permit application made by Grace Property Holdings LLC for its plans for the design of The River building and lighting at Grace Farms.

The meeting concluded a three-month hearing process, and the various neighbors, many of whom retained lawyers, presented their final arguments in a session that lasted more than three hours.

Many of the neighbors' concerns centered around lighting and traffic congestion. William Hennessey, lawyer for the Markatos family, of 28 Smith Ridge Road, offered 18 conditions for the Planning and Zoning Commission to impose on the Grace Farms permit. While the commission placed conditions on the project in its 2007 and 2008 permits before any plans were drawn up, Hennessey argued that in light of the developments, there should be new conditions as well.

"It's a campus being built: it's a sanctuary, a gymnasium, dining hall, a library. It's a big, big project. And we're not saying it shouldn't happen, but we are saying it should be regulated," he said.

The family hired landscape architect Eric Rains to analyze the effects the lighting would have.

"A nine-foot-tall pane of glass, 645 feet around, is what we're dealing with," Rains said.

While the requested regulations were not made public, references to them included conditions about the lighting of the building and the types of events that could take place at the facility.

At the conclusion of the presentation,Find the best selection of high-quality collectible bobbleheads available anywhere.Welcome to Find the right laser Engraver or laser marking machine . Planning and Zoning Commissioner Dick Ward asked if the Grace Farms Foundation was agreeable to the conditions.

Other complaints came from attorney Marjorie Shansky, who represents three families in the area in question -- the Coopers, the Abels, and Mary Shah. Shanksy argued that the project is now more involved and larger than what had been previously approved.

"They (Grace Farms) came to this commission with an institutional use that is materially larger than that which had been (given)," she argued.Site describes services including Plastic Mould. "It represents materially more construction than was approved. There's 154 percent more construction in 2013 than in 2007."

Shanksy concluded that the increase in size and scope of the church warrants a new traffic study.Welcome to www.drycabinets.net! The traffic study completed in 2007 said even the maximum of 900 people attending Sunday services would not present a traffic problem on the roads around Grace Farms. The study has been upheld in court after a previous legal challenge from Shah's husband, Sanjit Shah.

The attorney representing Grace Farms Property Holdings LLC, Joseph Hammer, argued that most of the issues brought forth rehashed arguments that already have been settled.

"(The project) has already been approved as a religious institution," he said. "Before you, the focus needs to be the design of the structure. You did not intend this to be a rerun of the underlying special permit, therefore it would not be proper to reopen traffic,Service Report a problem with a street light. or other issues. Courts have rejected the arguments of those same people who are making them now."

"I want to reiterate -- Grace is not contemplating any new or different use than from its first application or from what other churches do on a daily basis. The conditions you're being asked to impose would conflict with the church's ability to act as a church and from the permit they've received," he argued.

A lighting designer, Gabe Williams, said that the 20 to 30 trees around The River, which had been planned to be illuminated, would now only be illuminated on The River side of the trees, not on the exterior side that faces neighbors. He said that the building's lights would turn off at 11 p.m. and that interior lights would be on a sensor and shut off automatically if no one was in the room.

Further, in a presentation for which the assembly room was darkened for the use of a projector, Williams made the point that the lighting of the building would in most cases amount to between .1 and one candle feet. A candle foot is the amount of light perceptible from a distance of one foot from a lit candle.