Costco Vote Postponed

Costco is still waiting for a vote from the Planning and Zoning (P&Z) Commission, and the chair of the commission is postponing his retirement because the draft resolution regarding Costco wasn’t delivered until Thursday night’s meeting.

“I really would like to see a resolution in written form before I act on it as a commission,” said chairman Ellsworth McGuigan.  “I would like to hold this (issue) over as an item, and take a vote on it after we’ve had a chance to look at the written resolution.”

McGuigan announced last month he would be retiring July 1, but would stay longer if the Costco issue wasn’t resolved. The commission discussed a resolution and conditions during the two previous meetings, and anticipated voting June 18. 

McGuigan asked the staff and commissioners to read the newly-delivered six-page resolution and offer comments at the next meeting. “I will stay for one more meeting,” he told the audience. About 40 people attended the meeting. 

Because of the July 4 holiday weekend, the next P&Z meeting is July 9. It will be held at the Fire Department Headquarters.

Town Attorney Bill Aniskovich (pictured) told the Eagle that the resolution was written by Attorney Carolyn Kone, a land use expert at Brenner, Saltzman & Wallman, the town’s law firm. She attended a number of the Costco hearings. He said they met with Harry Smith, the new town planner; and Jennifer Acquino, the zoning enforcement officer, to discuss the resolution Thursday afternoon. Smith handed out copies of the resolution to the commissioners at the meeting. 

McGuigan said he went to town hall at 10 a.m. yesterday to get a copy of the resolution but it had not arrived. 

McGuigan said he hoped Aniskovich didn’t object to him postponing the vote.

“It’s your commission,” Aniskovich said. ​“I’m just here to serve.”

“Hopefully we can a better look at the resolution….and make some changes to it if necessary and act on it,” McGuigan said.

The commission typically asks that a written resolution be drafted when large projects are being discussed. The resolution, containing conditions requested by the commission, then serves as a motion.

Resident Lauren Brown, a member of Branford Citizens for Responsible Development, a group opposed to the Costco Master plan, asked if the draft resolution would be available for the public to read. She was told that copies would be available at Town Hall, or could be received by e-mail.

Attorney Thomas Cody, a partner at the law firm of Robinson & Cole in Hartford, who represents Costco, declined comment following last night’s meeting.

At previous meetings, McGuigan, and commissioners Charles Andres and Marci Palluzzi indicated they were in favor of the project; and commissioners John Lust and Joe Chadwick were not.

The Master Plan

For several months, the town has been debating the proposed Master Plan and Planned Development District (PDD) for 44 acres near Exit 56. The area is currently zoned industrial.

Plans for the first phase call for construction of a 158,070 square-foot Costco on about 22 acres owned by Wayne Cooke and the Cooke family. During subsequent phases of construction, seven commercial buildings totaling about 86,775 square feet are proposed on the western half of the PDD, which is primarily owned by Charles E. Weber Jr. and Al Secondino, who own 16.5 acres through their corporation.

The other three properties in the PDD are: a 1.6 acre parcel at 16 East Industrial Road owned by AHB-LLC, where the Hal Brown Sporting Goods store is located; a 1.73 acre site at 20 East Industrial Road owned by Peter G. Mandragouras, which is a vacant lot; and a 2.41 acre site at 26 East Industrial Road, where the Connecticut Shellfish Company is located. That parcel is owned by the Shellfish company.

The Resolution

The resolution states that the project, as amended by the P&Z, is consistent with the town’s zoning regulations and the Plan of Conservation and Development (POCD). The opposition has claimed that the plan is not consistent. The opposition has also stated that the developer’s traffic study does not address real-time traffic issues or economic concerns.

The draft resolution includes 10 conditions that were previously discussed by the commission.

Some of these include:

—- Reducing the amount of impervious surface area ratio to a maximum of 60 percent, not 65 percent as requested by the developers. The existing Hal Brown and Connecticut Shellfish companies will be excluded from that ratio.

—- The maximum building coverage in the PDD will be 30 percent, not 39 percent as requested, except for the Hall Brown parcel which will not exceed 39 percent.

—- In addition to the retail and restaurant uses requested by the developers, the only other approved uses for the PDD will be banks, financial institutions and research labs.

—- Entrances to the PDD shall include “significant landscaping, stone entrance walls, low (12-feet high or less) monument type signs on East Main Street and Leetes Island Road.”

—- The north-south access drive through the parcel, and the east-west drive shall be constructed during Phase 1.

The conditions regarding impervious surface and building coverage are tied to environmental and stormwater drainage issues raised by Bill Horne, the town’s leading environmentalist, and others during the public hearings.

Environmentalist Responds  

Reached for comment on the resolution, Bill Horne , the town’s leading environmentalist, said that while “the commission’s decision to reject increasing the maximum impervious surface above 60% is a good thing, that by itself won’t be enough to provide the level of storm water quality needed to appropriately protect the downstream wetlands, ponds and streams.

“Regardless of the resolution’s claim to the contrary, the acceptance of a Master Plan that paves so much of the wetland edge is reasonably likely to lead to unreasonable pollution and impairment of the pond and wetlands with the PDD and downstream in the Branford River and Jarvis Creek watersheds.” As such, he said, it was not in keeping “with the goal of the Plan of Conservation and Development to minimize the impact of human activities on Branford’s natural resources.”

He also said that to deflect the responsibility to protect water quality and water-dependent natural resources to another commission “is hardly an example of the enhanced coordination of Branford’s land use agencies that this commission called for when it wrote the 2008 Plan of Conversation and Development.”

New Inland Wetlands Commissioners?

Horne also noted that Commissioner (Charles) Andres’s “multiple assertions during the deliberations that the Inland Wetlands Commission will appropriately protect the downstream wetlands presumes that the Inland Wetland commissioners whose terms ended last month will be reappointed, in keeping with past practice and their high qualifications and demonstration during their long service on the Inland Wetlands Commission of intelligence, good scientific procedure, lack of bias and fairness.”

“Unfortunately, the reappointment of the Inland Wetlands commissioners appears uncertain.  Town Counsel Aniskovich told me last night that the First Selectman is looking for names of people to appoint to these vacancies. He’s unlikely to find people who can do a better job of protecting Branford’s inland wetland resources, raising the question of what qualifications he is seeking,” Horne said.

The commissioners whose terms expired at the end of May and who have yet to be re-appointed are Dr. Richard Orson, a leading scholar in the field, Wesley Vietzke, an experienced member of the board and Leo Stanlake, who serves as an alternate on the commission. Their names have been submitted for reappointment. The Board of Selectmen (BOS) makes these appointments. 

New Planner Arrives

If the PDD is approved, the developers must submit detailed site plans to both the Inland Wetlands Commission (IWC) and P&Z. The size of the project also triggers a traffic review by the Office of State Traffic Administration (OSTA).

The new town planner, Harry Smith, (pictured far left) was welcomed to Branford at last night’s meeting. Smith served as the city planner in New London, and previously served as town planner in Colchester, and in Andover, Mass. He graduated from the University of Rhode Island and also received his master’s degree there.

Smith told the commission he picked a ​“very exciting and interesting time” to take the helm in Branford.

Smith replaces Jose Giner, who left the town planner’s seat in late December to take a position as the Director of Planning and Economic Development in the town of Bloomfield.

Marcia Chambers contributed reporting for this story.

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