New Haven Independent

In three weeks, Cooke’s developer, Churchill & Banks, will formally make that case at Branford’s Planning & Zoning Commission. While Churchill & Banks, which has an option from the Cooke family to build on the land, has made informal inquiries of the P&Z, Thursday Oct 2 will be the first time it does so formally. The meeting begins at 7:30 p.m. at the Canoe Brook Senior Center.

The developer, seeking a “compromise” that Cooke floated before the Board of Selectmen last week, wants a so-called “overlay” zone. That means a retail zone would be placed over that part of a 39.2 acre site belonging to Cooke. If he is successful, retail stores would be built on the land, including an anchor store. At one point, Target was a possibility; Cooke has since hinted Target has pulled out.

If Cooke fails before the P& Z, in a process that could take months, he has told the Eagle he will sue the town in order “to protect my family’s rights.” The town, in turn, would have to defend itself in what is likely to be another costly legal land battle. Cooke’s latest mailing to 300 folks across town accuses First Selectman Unk DaRos of unseemly actions in the Tabor case and suggests he is capable of making Hilltop another Tabor.

Cooke’s underlying resentment toward DaRos and DaRos’s toward him have produced tensions that erupted in shouting matches at the last two Board of Selectmen (pictured) meetings. The board has 65 days to take comments on the P&Z’s two-plus-year study that has led to the state-mandated “Plan of Conservation and Development” (POCD).

The document outlines the town’s “window to the future.” DaRos and many in town are pleased with it. The Vision Committee approved it in July. Cooke’s appearance comes within the 65-day window. A full Board of Selectmen public hearing will be held on Oct 1 at the Canoe Brook Center, to be followed by a P&Z final hearing on Oct 30. After final revisions the plan will be sent to the state.

Initially the plan accepted a “mixed use ” at Exit 56. But after numerous public hearings and studies, the plan shifted on this position, saying no to retail and keeping the industrial zone intact. After Cooke’s Branford attorney David Gibson publicly stated that the wording discriminated against property owners in one part of town and other citizens protested as well, the document was revised to include new business studies and strategies for the area.

At a July meeting, DaRos left no question where he stood. At last week’s Selectmen meeting he repeated that he opposes large-scale retail development off Exit 56. He noted that the area is zoned industrial, specifically IG2, a “most liberal” designation but one that excludes retail development. He said a new regional YMCA had been approved for the area, along with a new museum, both to be built on Cooke property. Cooke also gave land to the Y. DaRos said the current Hilltop retail proposal “had many problems,” including high-density stores and serious traffic issues.

“That is my opinion on it,” DaRos said. The town’s Inland Wetlands Commission has previously rejected the project.

In an interview this week, DaRos said he would not want to see any further changes in the POCD. “I would not change that document,” he said. ” I might as well tell you that right now. The POCD is a good document.” He added that the new language “left the doors open for good projects to come in because the zone allows for it,” but he said that very language could conceivably create problems.

As for the overlay idea, he said, “What do you do about the neighbors? What about them?. It is a way of circumventing zoning. How about the neighbors? Anybody ever think of the neighbors? The adjacent property owners, all these things.”

John Opie, the Republican member of the Board of Selectmen, was quiet at both meetings. He said he planned to make his comments at the public hearing meeting. Of one thing he was certain, he said: He does not want this end of town to resemble the other end of town, which looks like a strip mall.

Clever Air-Time Grab

After Cooke’s 45-minute presentation, Town Planner Shirley Rasmussen (left) let the Board of Selectmen know in no uncertain terms that the board had been had.

“This came in under the guise of correspondence,” Rasmussen said of Cooke’s ability to get air time.

“Our department was not invited,” she told the selectmen after Cooke had presented his television speech before the camera of BCTV operator Henry Pond. Cooke had even set up his charts in the selectmen’s portion of the room as near to the camera as he could get. Two weeks before, the Wayne Board of Selectmen Show ran 45 minutes.

The problem with DaRos permitting Cooke’s television production to fall under the meeting’s “correspondence” portion is that it misleads the general public. The public likely thought this was only a letter since that is what the agenda said. He did send a letter but he requested he be put on the agenda. He also invited about 300 of his closest colleagues and friends to attend the meeting. Some did, and they spoke to the issue of changing the zone to permit retail use.

Rasmussen went on to say that the same “correspondence”-television show took place in August. “I happened to be on vacation that week.” She said the town’s new ten-year plan has had great public exposure over the last two-plus years. “We have had 13 public meetings. Every single one of those had posters, emails, postings.

“But nobody knew this week and two weeks ago that the Plan of Conservation and Development was in fact on this agenda. Well, our department was not invited. We heard from other people that so-called invitations were sent out to quite a few people.”

“I think the process should be open and that everyone is given a chance to comment.. It is not too late to comment. We have had any hundreds of comments,” she added.

And why was Cooke allowed to use “correspondence” to get on the agenda and before the camera?

DaRos said in an interview that it is his philosophy to let citizens speak, though he conceded that “this has probably gone too far.

“Unfortunatey there are people who abuse these things, who use it as their own personal agenda.”

Cooke has already requested he be placed on the agenda for the Selectmen meeting next week, on Sept 17. Perhaps this agenda item will be identified accurately.

A “Hijacking”?

Listening to Rasmussen set Cooke off because she has been the point person for all of Cooke’s ideas over the past 20 years. There have been many.

“I will tell you how the town plan process works,” he said. “It works like this. There is a facade that citizens will make a difference. There is a facade that citizens can stand up here and voice their opinions and actually be taken seriously. But the way it works is like this: Unk DaRos gets elected. He comes in. He shares his directive with the town planner. She passes it on to Planimetrics [the outside firm] and Planimetrics puts it in the town plan, and that’s all anybody wants to know about.”

“… They hijacked the town plan. They absolutely hijacked the town plan. That’s the truth. That is not an opinion. Learn how to run this town. you should be ashamed of yourself,” Cooke shouted to DaRos.

DaRos said afterwards that Cooke “showed his true colors when he flipped out. …I don’t interfere with any regulatory board .. and for him to charge me with that is absurd. I never intervened with any regulatory board and you can ask any one of those boards. I have never done that.”

Cooke let the public know that there are other permitted uses for his land and while he chuckled they likely would never be built, he nonetheless listed them. His message was clear.

“We could put a concrete mixing plant right in; a state correctional facility could go in. I am not saying we are going to put Somers in,” he said, referring to the state’s maximum security prison, “but we could put something in there …and there is nothing anybody can do about it.

“We could put in a hazardous waste facility … I don’t know how hazardous; I don’t think we are talking nuclear waste .. That could go in there. How about a nice crematorium for the town? That would be nice to drive around Route 1…. Look, there’s our neighborhood crematorium. We could store fuel and petroleum products, or create an electric sub-station, or a septic treatment station, or what about a bus depot? And, of course, everybody’s favorite, your standard junk yard.

“They could all go in. How about a pig farm across from the Chowder Pot? Do you think the owners of the restaurant would like that?”

Unk observed afterward that a pig farm would at least be in keeping with the property tax designation of Cooke’s farm property.

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