Costco & Atlantic Wharf Want Branford

As the New Year begins, two new blockbuster development projects for Branford will be front and center before the town’s Planning & Zoning Commission (P&Z). 

Costco’s top engineering and development team is preparing to submit a Master Conceptual Plan to P &Z before the end of January or early February as they seek a Planned Development District (PDD) on roughly 43 acres of private land near Exit 56.  John Mancini, an engineer with B L Companies in Meriden, detailed an overview of the plans at a major Town Hall meeting two days before Christmas.

In all likelihood, Costco’s plans will be walked through the door in time for the P&Z’s Jan 22 meeting. If Costco succeeds in coming to Branford it will mean about 225 new permanent store jobs. 

At the same time, developers of Atlantic Wharf, a housing and commercial development proposed for the dilapidated Atlantic Wire Building on Meadow Street, return to the P&Z on Jan 8 to continue an earlier hearing. Click here to read about the first hearing. Atlantic Wharf developers are also seeking a PDD in what may become a transformative downtown project designed to attract millennials to live on the shoreline. However, some neighbors have voiced concern about crowding in the tight-knit area.

If approved, the proposed development will turn the Atlantic Wire property into a 7.5 acre village complex in the heart of town, near the railroad station and the Branford River. A new road is planned within the development that would directly link Meadow Street to Pine Orchard Road, a move designed to eliminate a troublesome intersection at Meadow and Montowese.

P&Z Goes First This Time

Richard Stoecker, the town’s new acting town planner, told the Eagle this week that the Costco process would begin with P&Z and not with the Inland Wetlands Commission (IW), where typically developers first present plans.  The reason, he said, is that Costco is seeking a PDD, an overlay zoning district on land near the Exit 56 ramp, off I-95. 

To obtain a PDD, Costco needs to win a Master Conceptual Plan approval from P&Z. Then they need to submit detailed plans for review and approval by IWC and P&Z, Stoecker said.

The reason developers like PDDs is that they can avoid the underlying zoning rules that govern land use.  In this case, the land near Exit 56 is zoned industrial, not commercial.  If P&Z turns down a PDD, then it’s back to the drawing board. 

Stoecker, who has served as assistant town planner, became acting planner after Jose Giner resigned from his post on Dec. 24. Giner accepted the position of director of Planning and Economic Development in the town of Bloomfield.  The new job is an upward career move and he will be closer to home, but he said the choice to leave Branford was not an easy one.

“It was a tough decision,” Giner told the Eagle. “From a planning point of view, this has been is a great job.”

A Pre-Christmas Costco Meeting

Just before Christmas, First Selectman Jamie Cosgrove held a major Costco development meeting at Town Hall. The town’s top department heads and Costco’s top development team met for about two hours to discuss overall plans for Costco. Atlantic Wharf was also discussed. 

This was the first meeting where the town’s fire and police departments along with East Shore health services heard information about Costco’s plans and the impact of the giant discount retailer on the town’s services.  Police Chief Kevin Halloran was present along with the new acting fire chief, Shaun Heffernan and the new acting deputy fire chief, Ron Mullen. Their evaluation and approval of both projects is essential for passage. 

A project of this size will automatically trigger a state Department of Transportation review and analysis of state roads, highway ramps at exits and Main Street /Route 1, currently a two lane state road, Giner told the Eagle before he left for his new job.  For Atlantic Wharf’s development, police and transportation officials will have to find a way to re-route Meadow Street, a street motorists have long used as a back road into the center of town. The street may be out of commission for long periods of time. Traffic was a big topic of conversation.   

Cosgrove attended the meeting along with Town Attorney Bill Aniskovich. So did Janice Plaziak, the town’s engineer and Diana Ross, the inland wetland’s director.  Giner and Stoecker were both there along with Costco’s top engineering, legal and environmental officials. 

Stoecker Becomes Acting Town Planner

Stoecker has spent 25 years in local and regional planning in coastal Connecticut and has served as assistant planner for the past 8 years.  He was instrumental in the creation and adoption of the 2008 Plan of Conservation and Development (POCD) which is the “road map” designed to balance future development and conservation in the town. 

Since adoption of the POCD, the town’s zoning and subdivision regulations have been completely rewritten and adopted, Stoecker said.  For one thing, there is a new POCD requirement of a “master plan” for a planned development district.

Giner left at a pivotal time for Branford as developers were proposing these two major residential and commercial projects. But Stoecker, who knows these plans well, says he is well-versed in the details. 

“I am confident that the Planning and Zoning Commission will not miss a beat with me at the helm as acting town planner, as I have been involved in the preliminary project review for Exit 56 development (Costco) and Atlantic Wharf,” he told the Eagle when asked about the transition at this juncture in the town’s history. 

Background on Costco

Costco Plaza consists of a main warehouse store, typically one that takes in 140,000 to 150,000 square feet or more, plus a series of other types of retail stores within a mall area. Costco, the fourth largest discount retailer in the United States and in the world, has long sought to build a store in this area of the shoreline. It failed in Branford in the past and it failed in Guilford in 2010 when it wanted to place a warehouse on the so-called Rock Pile site; the town rejected a 150,000-square-foot store. 

The Rock Pile, located one exit up, off Exit 57 at I-95 is no more, having recently been leveled for commercial development. The newly conceived Rock Pile development gives the developer the right to put up smaller stores, not exceeding 75,000 square feet as long as there is a minimum of three tenants. Click here to read our earlier Guilford-Costco story. 

Costco charges a membership fee for discount products, often bulk products. Its stores contain super markets, electronics, clothing, furniture, books, and adjacent Costco gasoline stations and liquor stores. The impact on Branford’s local merchants, especially liquor and gas stations in Branford, has not yet been discussed. It was a big topic in Guilford.

According to financial analysts, Costco’s major merchandise retail competitors include Wal-Mart, which has a store in Branford near Exit 53 and Kohl’s, which is located in the Branhaven Shopping Plaza off Short Beach Road. As of November, the company employed 189,000 full- and part-time employees. It has 671 warehouses worldwide and 76.4 million cardholders, according to its website.

About a year ago, initial plans were disclosed for building a Costco warehouse on property owned by Al Secondino and Charles E. Weber Jr., property that stretches from Route 1 to East Industrial Road, coupled with a significant adjacent parcel on Route 1 owned by the Cooke family.  Click here to read that story.

Costco’s development plans were dependent on a legal settlement of two pending court cases Wayne Cooke brought against the town in 2012. 

After the town boards signed off on the settlements on Nov. 24, Cosgrove moved quickly on the Costco front, announcing the first meeting of department heads in a press release two weeks later. He did not announce the major pre-Christmas meeting.
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