Marcia Chambers
Rep. Doug Hanlon
Rep. Douglas Hanlon (D‑3rd), the former chair of the Representative Town Meeting’s (RTM) Public Works Committee, has long been concerned about potential town costs for police and fire budgets if a major development comes to town.
So he asked RTM Moderator Dennis Flanagan at last week’s RTM meeting if his concerns might be explored in committee as they have been informally over the years, ever since Costco knocked on Branford’s doors years ago. At issue, Hanlon said, are the town’s potential costs if commissions approve a major development that would bring Costco and seven other stores to 44 acres of land at Exit 56.
Flanagan turned him down flat.
Generally if an RTM member raises an issue that might ultimately affect the town budget, that request is sent to the appropriate committee.
Extra costs may well be incurred because of the need for extra police and fire personnel, Hanlon argued; Public works might be affected as well once facts are known. Substations, Hanlon said, might have to be erected in that part of town. He said he believes taxpayers should be aware of the impact of economic development costs before the project gets underway. “It is time to formally discuss the ramifications of this development,” Hanlon said later.
“I am not pro or con,” Hanlon said at the RTM meeting of the proposed development. While the town will receive additional property taxes from a Costco and seven other stores, he said, “half of what we are making in property taxes from Costco and related stores will wind up going for other [town] costs, primarily fire and police.” He said afterward, “I want hard data … What is the 10-year impact on property taxes on towns with our population?”
Click here to read about the Costco master plan.
Flanagan, the Republican moderator and the longest serving RTM member, said the issue of potential costs to the taxpayer for a new development “should not come to the RTM.” In fact, the RTM has no say in the Costco process, he said.The RTM does get involved in approving all department budgets and allocations, and at the last meeting the majority voted not to cede that authority.
Flanagan suggested to Hanlon that he attend the Planning & Zoning Commission’s public hearing on Costco’s application, which will be held April 2, 7 p.m. at Branford High School.
RTM member Josh Brooks supported Hanlon’s request, saying it was appropriate and necessary. “I have made my decision, Mr. Brooks,” Flanagan declared.
The Republican majority – 19 members to the 11 Democrats on the RTM – was silent on the issue. No one on the Republican side voiced an opinion. And on the Democratic side, with the exception of Brooks, no one spoke to Hanlon’s point.
Statistics obtained by the Eagle when Costco unsuccessfully sought to come to Guilford in 2010 show that on a national level, one additional police officer is typically hired if there are between 120 and 180 police calls per year to a big-box store.
A group called Guilford Citizens for Responsible Development (GCRD) gathered information on police calls from Milford, where Costco’s nearest warehouse is located. A Branford group is also in the process of forming. The Guilford group came together after Costco sought to open a warehouse in Guilford a few years back. Here is its website.
Their figures, the latest ones available at the time, documented police calls and other services from August 2009 to August 2010. They showed 138 police calls in that year to Milford’s Costco, 32 of which involved emergency medical services from the fire department. Five involved fire calls.
Statistics obtained by the Eagle for 2014 and 2013 from the Branford Police Department’s responses to incidents at Walmart and Kohl’s, currently the two largest stores in Branford, show far more than the number of responses by Milford police to the Costco there. One difference is that Costco is a membership store. Only members are allowed to enter and all items are checked when customers leave.
Branford P.D.
In 2014 the police responded to 209 incidents at the Walmart big box store off Exit 53, down from the 259 the police responded to in 2013. At Kohl’s and the general Kohl’s plaza, the police responded to a total of 337 police calls in 2014, up from the 223 calls in 2013. The top police calls at Walmart centered on shoplifting and motor vehicle violations. Fire/ambulance statistics were not immediately available.
Tonight the Board of Finance (BOF) opens its first round of budget hearings as the town unveils its $42 million budget for 2015-16, the time frame for a Costco development. With Board of Education expenditures and $8.1 million in debt service costs, the overall proposed town and school budgets came in at a proposed $105.3 million.
The BOF will hear budget proposals from the town’s department heads and school officials tonight, Tuesday and Thursday. It is expected to vote on the budget on March 23 and then send it on to the RTM.The final mill rate figure will be set by the BOF in May.
Police, Fire and Public Works officials will present their budgets to the BOF tonight, departments whose budgets may well be affected if a huge Costco development is built sometime in 2015-16. Questions may be raised by BOF and RTM members about projected economic needs should a planned development district for Costco be approved by P&Z. The Inland Wetlands Commission will also vote on the proposed Costco development later in the process.
In his letter asking that the RTM obtain information regarding future budgets, Hanlon asked Flanagan about fire and police services near Exit 56:
“Would having seven additional stores (including a pharmacy, retail stores and restaurants) so far from the downtown headquarters of Police and Fire Departments require satellite stations to be built? And at what cost? How many more personnel and how much more potential overtime would be needed?” He said he has asked these questions in the past. (Click here to read a prior story on Costco coming to Branford in 2011.)
He said it is important for the town to understand the costs now, before the development is built so “we and the taxpayers should have no unpleasant surprises in years to come.” Click here to read our recent story about traffic and roads if Costco comes to Exit 56.
Hanlon, now in his fourth term as an RTM member, said shortly after his first election to the RTM he wrote a letter to the Sound in 2008, when big box stores were being discussed at Exit 56, outlining the same general issue: the need for information regarding the cost of Exit 56 development.
“It’s amazing how now seven years later we still have no information regarding the cost of Exit 56 development.”
He told the Eagle that if the RTM won’t investigate the costs via its public works committee on which he sits, “the only way to get an accurate handle on the ramifications of this potential development would be to hire a consultant specializing in the subject and ask for a cost analysis based on similar “PDD” (Planned Development Districts) in other towns.”
Which town body might hire the consultant remains to be seen. But P&Z has honored similar requests for peer review studies that are often paid for by the developer.
“We need to have this information. It is the right thing to do,” Hanlon said.
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