Printer Friendly Version - Branford Exit 56, Route 1 East Development Questions Arise at POCD Steering Workshop

During the July 19 Plan of Conservation and Development Steering Committee workshop and public meeting, resident Wayne Cooke questioned the plan’s lack of support for retail and business development at Exit 56. Cooke is one of several property owners of the Exit 56 parcel from which Costco withdrew its site plans in 2016. Costco cited issues with the town’s inlands wetlands review of the plans. Photo by Pam Johnson/The Sound

As the chairman pointed out, it wasn’t a meeting about Costco, but the subject definitely came up at the July 19 Branford Plan of Conservation and Development (POCD) Steering Committee workshop meeting, together with some residents’ questions on whether the POCD’s work to update to guidelines for the Exit 56/Route 1 East corridor truly represent community goals.

On July 19, the 11-member POCD met to workshop with Glenn Chalder of Planimetrics, the consulting firm hired by the Planning & Zoning Commission (PZC) to work with the town to update the POCD. The POCD is a formal document, updated every 10 years, that provides guidance to the town’s land use boards when considering applications and new or revised regulations.

With input from the Office of the Town Planner, the PZC also selected the POCD Steering Committee in 2017 to include a cross-section of the community and relevant boards and agencies.

The all-volunteer POCD steering committee has been working on the state-mandated update of the 2008 POCD for nine months. The group has used public meetings, random phone surveys, and online surveys to gather input that will help guide conservation and development in town for the next 10 years. As part of the process, drafts of the plan’s many components and any updates continue to be available at the town website www.branford-ct.gov.

On July 19, at least four residents among the 20 in attendance told the POCD committee members they still felt their opinions on development in Branford were not being heard, while two said they felt the committee was on-track and another asked for help with a new issue.

Tracy Everson, secretary of the Thimble Islands Association, and a fourth-generation islander, asked the POCD to recognize an upcoming effort the association is making to meet with Stony Creek stakeholders and town leaders to find solutions to issues being created by the area’s booming tourism. They are seeking help to create additional parking (perhaps at the West Point Road ball field), taking a look at considering a shuttle running from the train station, discussing overuse of the town docks (where tour boats create limitations for villagers and islanders with boats, or those who want to have one), as well as looking at other kayak launch areas instead of the congested town boat launch. Everson also spoke to the Board of Selectmen on July 18.

Resident Wayne Cooke, a property owner of an undeveloped parcel at Exit 56, spoke before the committee for the first time on July 19. Cooke had previously contacted the committee by a letter in which he outlined what he sees a inaccuracies in the proposed changes to the POCD, particularly in the economic development section.

Cooke also sent the committee a booklet on Exit 56 and the Gateway East plan, which he said “puts out there exactly what the potential of that area is in town, and a fair analysis of what exists.”

Additionally, Cooke had forwarded the committee an excerpt from the Cheshire POCD to give them “an idea of how much depth [Cheshire] went into with their economic development strategy,” he said.

By comparison, Branford’s economic development strategy is “scant,” said Cooke, with the main exception being the Branford plan’s call for development at Exit 53.

Cooke, together with the Cooke Family Corporations, owns 22 acres of land at Exit 56, which, together with other land owners, is part of a contiguous 44-acre parcel in a master plan approved by the PZC in 2015. At the time, a two-phase site plan called for a big box Costco and gas station as well as seven other retail/commercial/restaurant businesses, to be developed on the land. In 2016, citing issues with the review process, Costco and the parcel owners withdrew site plan applications from the Inland Wetlands Commission. Earlier this month, the PZC approved a one-year extension for the master plan, leaving the option to develop the site for similar retail on the table through July 2019 (see related story).

At the July 19 POCD steering committee meeting, Cooke alleged “corruption” led to the withdrawal of Costco from Exit 56, and held up a large sign stating, “Where’s Costco?” above the web address branfordfraud.com.

“Get used to this. You’re going to see a lot of this sign, because I want the people in town know what happened to Costco. There’s no reason they should have left,” Cooke told the committee.

Cooke also held up a large sign topped by the caption “Branford’s Plan of Conservation and Anti-Development,” saying the current updates being considered for the plan cater to the “anti-development agenda of a small minority.”

In contrast, resident Marie Kelly registered her support of the POCD Steering Committee’s work to date, and her dissent with any changes to Route 1 east (near Exit 56) to allow in big box and other retail, as it would affect the “quality of life” for residents. Later in the meeting, she also noted traffic congestion would increase dramatically with more retail and business development at Exit 56.

“Traffic is already horrendous,” said Kelly. “With any more large development, we’re going to have gridlock at Exit 56. So saying that quality of life in town is not going to be affected by these changes is not true. It will be greatly affected.”

Branford Economic Development Commission (EDC) Chair Perry Maresca was at the meeting to register the EDC’s concern that changes to the POCD do not support business and retail development at Exit 56 and Route 1 East corridor into Guilford.

He noted the plan instead promotes development at Exits 52, 53, and 55, while Exit 56 is “the one exchange that has five access points [yet] continues to remain IG2,” which is light industrial and research and development zoning, such as bio-tech.

“As recently as yesterday’s meeting, the [EDC] wholeheartedly supports allowing more general business activity, and not limited to [IG2 zoning] in this area,” Maresca told the POCD Steering Committee, adding he’d sent an email to committee member and Branford Economic Development Coordinator Terry Elton “reiterating the stance of the EDC, so when he represents us on your committee, he can substantiate we wish the 2018 POCD is corrected to allow mixed type of business and not limited industry” in that area.

Maresca also noted that Guilford, a town many would consider “a little tougher” in its development planning, has designated neighboring Exit 57 and Route 1 west to the Branford town line for commercial, transitional, mixed-use, and shopping centers.

Developing the area from the current “dust bowl” would also broaden the town’s tax base, said Maresca.

“In July 2018, Branford once again received a AAA bond rating. We’re one of only about a dozen towns throughout the entire state that continuously receives this,” he said. “We do this by being fiscally responsible with our tax resources, so please don’t tie our hands by keeping viable, developable land a dust bowl. The POCD should not be a rule book. It should be a guide, held close to the heart, but given freedom to evolve as the town evolves.”

Branford Forest Commission Chair Shirley McCarthy said she disagreed with the idea of developing Route 1 East.

“That part of U.S. 1 in Branford is the only part that’s peaceful to drive through that reflects Branford’s character,” she said, adding that studies show traveling through such vistas decrease stress, blood pressure, and heart rate. “You’ve heard me talk before about the importance of ‘greenscape’ to public health...That’s an important thing for us. Greenscape decreases chronic stress.”

“We have condos all over the place; a lot are not occupied. I don’t see why development should take priority over preserving character, protecting wildlife habitats, and helping us be a little peaceful on our way home from wherever we’re traveling,” said McCarthy.

Jacey Wyatt, who serves on the town’s Parks & Open Space Authority, said the work going into the POCD does not include many of her suggestions and reasons for more development, despite attending numerous meetings and giving her input.

“A lot of my comments and ideas are maybe not reflected in the future plans of what I think Branford could be. From what I’m seeing from many comments and being at these meetings is [that] it became all about how we’re going to preserve and have conservation of Branford, and not look at the development of town,” said Wyatt. “The people on this committee are not talking about how is Branford going to change 10 [to 15] percent of its open space from a development standpoint; how we’re going to put a 10-story building in our town; how we’re going to put residential properties in our town [and] building for the future. I don’t see this being represented by people sitting on the committee.”

POCD Steering Committee Chair Phil Carloni responded to the allegation, saying, “personally, I agree you can’t have all the pretty stuff without development as well. So I’m not one of those people. What I think everyone in this room is looking for is the balance, and I think, if there’s one word that we use throughout this whole process, it’s ‘balance.’ We can’t save every tree, we can’t not develop every part of town and leave it to open space. We need to look at how do we balance this town so everybody wants to continue to live here, and more people want to move here and work here.”

Steering Committee member Cathy Lezon noted that she’s an EDC member and is “definitely interested” in development and “what’s best for Branford.”

Another question for the POCD Steering Committee was why only 250 residents were phone surveyed to help develop input for the new POCD.

“I think it’s unfair to 28,000 people in this town,” said Wyatt. “I didn’t get that phone call.”

Chalder explained the budget wouldn’t allow such a survey and that the sample size of 250 houses follows a statistical method to ensure the random survey reached across the town’s ages, areas, and other diversities, with a margin of error of 6.5 to 7 percent.

The committee also received a question from a resident on whether it shouldn’t send out a post card survey to all residents in town and use it to also ask if residents want Costco in town or not.

“I just want to clarify that this meeting is in no way about Costco,” responded Carloni. “This is not a meeting about that specific topic, or any one particular development in town, so I don’t want people to feel like they should have known about this because of Costco. We’ve been meeting for ninth months now; and a lot of people came to our initial meetings. This is not something that’s just happening that’s been hidden under the carpet.”

“The plan creates a guideline. It’s required [by the] state [to show] boards and commissions how we want our town to look in the future, developed with input of many people in town,” Carloni continued, adding budget restrictions don’t allow widespread and varied surveys.

“I wanted to survey all the kids in Branford who grew up here and moved away—what would bring them back? There’s a lot we would like to do that we didn’t have the budget to do,” said Carloni. “We’ve looked back 10 years ago [and asked] what changes have there been, what do we want to change, what worked, what’s not working? But it’s not about specific development. It’s about what we want Branford to look like for the next 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, 50 years.”

The POCD steering committee will meet again on Wednesday, Aug. 8, from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. at Branford Fire Headquarters, 45 North Main Street.

The 2018 POCD will undergo a final public hearing in the fall before it’s completed. Submitting the revised POCD to the state by November 2018 is also necessary to allow the town to pursue future conservation and development grant applications.