New Haven Independent

This tentative analysis was put forth last night during a two hour discussion of the Inland Wetlands Commission. At issue is whether to grant a permit for the controversial project with scores of conditions, reject the project outright or reject it as incomplete because Vigliotti’s engineers provided no alternatives to creating a road on a steep ledge filled hill. The backyards of residents living in single family homes on Ivy and Cedar Streets abut the site. It is near to commercial stores on North Main and the town’s main post office on Rose Street.

To get the road built would require extensive blasting, draining, earth removal and movement that could result in a massive failure of nature’s now existing sediment and erosion controls. And why? Vigliotti wants to construct a dense housing development—120 rental units in three large box-like buildings.

Phrases like “wholesale assault” on the land, “unreasonable use of the property,” and “a disaster waiting to happen” were voiced by the Commissioners during the meeting at Canoebrook Center.

In the view of Dr. Richard Orson, the panel’s resident academic, it seemed that if the project could be dropped magically from the sky onto the hill below then it appeared that the wetlands would be okay. The problem, he said, was the construction for the road. He suggested a condition—-the deployment of an independent agent to oversee the construction 24 hours a day, seven days a week—just in case something dreadful happened. Then the project could be shut down immediately.

Other IWC Commissioners suggested additional conditions—-more than one hour was spent outlining them. The process of articulating the conditions that might follow cutting into a steep hill revealed all that could go wrong, especially if there were unforeseen conditions. The cumulative impact upon the wetlands could be catastrophic and the panel knew that. So while five of the six members initially seemed to warily endorse approval with extensive conditions, they all seemed unhappy about doing so.

By the end of their deliberations, they had come round to possibly rejecting the project in one form or another. No vote was taken but will be on Nov. 16th, the same night Branford’s Planning and Zoning Commission meets to discuss and presumably vote on the project. This is the third time Vigliotti has attempted to build on a site that some described last night as “unpalatable.” If these boards turn him down, he will not be able to build.

In a new development, the Eagle has just learned that a Vigliotti attorney contacted residents in the area this week to attend a meeting to discuss “a new and revised” or “fourth” proposal. So before these overworked boards were able to decide on the third proposal, Vigliotti’s team apparently has another one in the works.

Todd Bainer, an attorney, and one of the residents contacted, told Vigliotti’s attorneys that the residents along with three RTM members representing the 1st district—want the town to purchase the property, not develop it. “His attorney discouraged this possibility, indicating Mr. Vigliotti was intent on developing the parcel,” Bainer wrote in a letter to several RTM members.

Stan Konesky, Jr., whose land is nearby and who has fought the project for years, said: “This land has not been developed in the 300 year long history of Branford for a very logical reason, it is a mountain. This will require excessive blasting that will affect water and lands and other issues that extend to other citizen’s property. Houses and other commercial structures surround this mountain but no one has ventured onto this undeveloped property and the reason is that it is a mountain.”

There was a sense at last night’s IWC meeting that the property was so unsuited for the density of development that to attack it in order to create development would be to fool with nature. As Dr.Wesley Vietzke said: “You can engineer anything. You can make an artificial man. But that doesn’t make it right….Are we not allowed to have environmental common sense?” he asked.

Vigliotti’s engineers have spent five months designing and revising the voluminous application. Vigliotti buys properties like Founders and the Queach, and then spends a fortune seeking permits so that he can develop these natural places into high density projects. His fight over 200 plus acres of Queach property lasted a decade and finally ended this year when the town managed to buy the property as open space.

His latest Founders application is the first to raise the thorny legal issues involved in affordable housing. And for the last five months the Team’s engineers, survey people, map designers, geotechnical experts and high priced attorneys have taken center stage at these hearings.

They analyze. They produce new and complicated maps. They highlight the maps and put them into a power point presentation. They present. If someone in the room objects, they say things like “there is no rationale basis for thinking that.” If necessary, they go back and redo it again. They are speedy. There is no end to their revisions.

Their strategy: Inundate. Flood the boards with information and revisions. Keep the public at bay. Team Vigliotti gets paid, and paid well, no matter how long they speak. Usually they go to at least 10:30 p.m. Then it is the public’s turn, if the public is still present. Some folks have to go to work in the morning, so they leave. “The people are exhausted,” Konesky said. “You are wearing us down.”

Michael Vergato, who with Konesky and others has fought the project for years, believed Cheryl Morris and Richard Sullivan, the First and Second Selectmen, when they told him they opposed the project. Sullivan went so far as to write Vergato back in 2005 that the 12 acres were perfect for open space purchase and he hoped to achieve that for Founders Village.

Then Morris and Sullivan were elected—-a year ago this week. Vergato said in an interview that he quickly discovered that Vigliotti and his associates had contributed funds to the Morris campaign. Right after she was elected, Vergato said, Morris “slammed the door shut.”

Bainer wrote in a November 7th letter to the RTM members of his district that Vigliotti had also contributed to the Morris/Sullivan 2007 campaign.

He believes Mrs. Morris should not be “at all involved in any way whatsoever in this process of meetings with Vigliotti’s attorneys on yet another proposal because it appears that she has control of what the town’s Commissions will do with his applications and she has accepted repeated campaign contributions from Vigliotti…”

The three RTM Republicans, Kurt Schwanfelder, the minority leader, Frank Twohill and Michael Nardella, all of whom represent citizens in the district where the proposed development lies, said “our beautiful and historic town center will be drastically changed forever.” They noted the state had grants for open space acquisition.

In a recent letter to Morris, the three RTM members asked her to arrange a meeting with Vigliotti so that negotiations might begin to purchase the 12 acre tract as open space.

She wrote back on Novemeber 3rd, saying that while she was opposed to the development of Founder’s Village she did not think it “appropriate for members of the RTM to meet with the developer and as such I will not schedule such a meeting. If a meeting is scheduled with Mr. Vigliotti and/or his designated representative, I will advise you of said meeting as I deem appropriate.”

Mrs. Morris sounds a little testy here. She has been that way before. When John Opie, now third Selectman, but previously First Selectmen, asked the Board of Selectmen, meaning Morris and Sullivan, to hire a special counsel to better defend the affordable housing component of the Vigliotti application, Morris and Sullivan turned him down.

Vigliotti also owned the Queach property, with its vernal pools and extensive wetlands. He had been determined to put more than 150 houses on this site. When she first was elected, Morris told Town Attorney Ed Marcus that rather than seize the property under eminent domain, which the town had agreed to under the Opie administration, Marcus could re-open negotiations with Vigliotti to try to work out a development and open space plan. Morris later retreated from her decision after a public hearing drew nearly 500 residents to protest any development on the site.

Ultimately Vigliotti agreed to sell 150 acres of the Queach site for open space, and with the help of the Branford Land Trust, a private donor, and a $450, 000 Connecticut’s Open Space grant (which Mrs. Morris smilingly accepted earlier this month), the town purchased the property from Vigliotti for $3.75 million.

Now 12 acres at Founders Village is not 150 acres at Queach. Obviously a deal could be considered if the parties sat down in earnest to figure out what was in the best interests of the town. But so far our First Selectwoman has shown virtually no leadership. The last Planning and Zoning meeting on October 19th would have been a perfect time for Morris to state her views.

She could have followed her own staff to the microphone. They gave a withering denunciation of the Vigliotti application.

Stephen B. Dudley, in his final public presentation as town engineer, said Founders was far too vast in scope, did not comply with Branford Zoning regulations, and had inadequate parking spaces for residents. And in what might called the kiss of death, he concluded: “It is my professional opinion that the plans as presented to date provide an unacceptable risk to public health and safety.”

Shirely Rasmussen, the town’s planner, said Vigliotti wanted to be exempt from regulations governing blasting and excavation in an area where the “topography is significant.”

Shaun E. Heffernan, Assistant Fire Chief, said the design of Founders Village was so poor that he did not think the Fire Department could respond adequately to an emergency. The proposed roads were too narrow and too filled with sharp curves. There was a lack of turn around space for the department’s largest truck, a fact that “could create a potentially dangerous situation.”

Frank Cochran, an attorney and an expert on affordable housing, told the Commission that Branford had a substantial amount of affordable housing right now. If it turned out there was a need for affordable housing (in this case so-called “affordable” housing units for 31 one bedroom and six two bedroom are defined as renting for $784 and $941 respectively) doesn’t mean that the applicant can do whatever he wants. He called the design of Vigliotti’s buildings dreadful. “This is a giant step backwards when you talk about low and moderate housing,” he said. He noted that just because this application had a small affordable housing component, didn’t mean the application was appropriate for the site and right for this neighborhood.

There were more than 60 residents at the October 19th meeting and when they got to speak, after 10:30 p.m., they included the town’s two prior selectmen, “Unk” DaRos and John Opie. Mrs. Morris stood in the back of the room with Second Selectman Richard Sullivan. She did not come forward. She now says she will present her views at the next P and Z meeting scheduled for November 16th. James Bruno, the RTM moderator, who lives in the area, asked his fellow RTM members this week to come to this meeting. “It is very personal to me. It affects the whole town.”

DaRos said Vigliotti was asking to be treated specially. He said the effect of Founders Village on the center of town “would be catastrophic. He said the motivation was greed.

“I would say to you, you do not have to feel guilty about whether you have affordable housing or not. You have one of the largest collections of affordable housing units of any town, in the form of trailer parks. We probably have more units than any town. Now you talk about affordable housing—that is real affordable housing.

Da Ros asked the Commission to turn it down. “Have respect for our community. Do not approve this project,” he declared. John Opie agreed. Schwanfelder said “I don’t think anybody put a gun to his head and told Vigliotti to buy this property.”

Vergato said the site contains toxic materials because it had been a dumping ground thirty years ago. He said 55 gallon drums, toilets, bottles, lead, paint cans and other debris were routinely dumped in the area, polluting the land. This information presented the Commission with an additional set of possible legal issues.

RTM member Nick Lavarato told the Commission: “Listen to the people. Turn the project away.” It was nearing mid-night. Commission Chair Ellsworth McGuigan looked down the aisle. “Any other comments,” he asked.

Cheryl was long gone.
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