Two town commissions took significant steps this week that may well doom Hilltop Centre, a proposed high-end shopping mall off Route 1 and exit 56 near Stony Creek and Guilford.
Thursday night the town’s Inland Wetlands Commission (IWC), after more than a year of study and numerous hearings, rejected an application by Churchill & Banks, the Rhode Island developer that wants to build the mall. The Commission found that the project would result “in permanent, irreversible and irretrievable loss of 7,740 square feet of wetland.” The vote was unanimous.
And earlier this week a newly unveiled version of the Planning & Zoning Commission’s proposed ten-year plan strongly recommended that “Branford should also continue to limit large scale retail development near Exit 56 and Leetes Island Road in an effort to guide retailers to other locations…”
The site is currently owned by Wayne Cooke, whose family had farmed the Hilltop Orchards property for some 300 years. The family store, known in its heyday for its great pies, went out of business several years ago. Cooke’s deal with the developers, who are engaged in a joint venture with Kimco Realty, a shopping mall entrepreneur, is contingent upon obtaining the necessary town permits.
One essential permit comes from the IWC. Without it the project cannot go forward. The commission acted by voice vote before an audience of two citizens and the developer’s local land use attorney, David Gibson. Gibson, once a member of the Planning and Zoning Commission, told the Eagle after the vote that he had no formal application pending before P& Z, which would first have to change the area’s zoning designation to permit the mall.
Under the law Gibson may appeal the IWC decision to Superior Court, but he said he and his client had not yet decided if they would do so. Over the course of IWC hearings, the developer changed the proposed plans to try to conform, but the plans did not go far enough, the commissioners said. At one IWC hearing, the developers made it clear that any further scaling back of their plans, which include a Target department store, would not make the project economically feasible.
Daniel Shapiro, the chair of the IWC, said the level of development at the site was so intense that “every wetland had some impact.” Buffer areas adjacent to the wetlands were permanently removed and that caused deep concern, the commissioners said. 
On Monday, the Planning and Zoning Commission held a public meeting to get residents’ reaction to its proposed Plan of Conversation and Development. (POCD). More than 75 residents filled the room. The written plan is 102 pages long and deals with numerous issues but few were discussed because Cooke and his supporters took over the meeting. The Eagle will report on the plan and reaction to it in a separate piece.
Every ten years the state of Connecticut requires the P&Z to deliver a Plan of Conservation and Development. This year is Branford’s turn and the final plan will be ready this fall. As it turned out, the town’s plan came at the same time that Cooke is seeking zoning changes in order to sell his land. Besides Target, there were plans for an expanded Stop & Shop, other retail stores and a significant amount of parking. Traffic was a serious issue.
P&Z Chairman Ellsworth McGuigan told the audience that speakers would have three minutes to speak. He began with Cooke, who spoke for more than 15 minutes. Earlier Cooke’s young daughter distributed a six-page handout of her father’s version of development on his land. Last week Cooke called RTM members to make his pitch, though the RTM may not be involved in this process.
Cooke said he was disheartened by this latest version of the POCD, which essentially eliminated his ability to sell his land to developers.
“Should it stay industrial or should it be zoned toward a mixed use, a multiple use zone with admittedly upscale retail use? That’s the issue in a nutshell. What are the ramifications for the town if that happens or it doesn’t happen?” he asked.
Besides upscale department stores, he suggested there might be a major hotel, a Hilton —“not a monster Hilton but a nice Hilton.” Then there is the new YMCA, and perhaps a conference center, upscale, chic restaurants, a nature preserve and a Branford history museum.”
Over the past year, the commission and the town’s outside planners, Planimetrics of Avon, Conn., held meetings and heard from scores of residents. They took surveys and collected data. Once they obtained resident reaction, they made changes to the proposed plan, including a recommendation that large scale retail development be guided to exits 53, 54 and 55, West Main Street and the town center. 
Once farmland, the 39.2-acre site is currently zoned light industrial. At the Monday meeting, Gibson argued that the zone could still be labeled “industrial” but with a new “overlay,” as he put it, that would permit retail development.
He said precluding retail development in only one section of town is not in the best interests of the town, but “what is worse, it is highly prejudicial and discriminatory to those people who own property in that area. They are really restricted at this point.”
A number of Cooke supporters spoke during the two-hour meeting. At the end McGuigan called on Cooke again, enabling Cooke to bookend the meeting, having the first and the last word. 
“Wayne is so itchy… he wants to say one more thing,” McGuigan said as the audience balked openly.
Cooke said: “We need as a community to discuss these things because once we make a commitment up there or anywhere else in town, it is done. It is done. And that is why I feel a certain amount of sadness, real sadness that the town says you are locked into industrial property for the next ten years if this town plan is ratified. Because what you are saying to me is we are in essence, in my opinion, making your property worthless for ten years because industry is not coming.”
Someone shouted from the back of the room, “This is not a meeting about exit 56. You are taking over the meeting.”
Cooke replied: “But it is a meeting on exit 56.”
“It is only so when it comes before P and Z.” some one else from the back of the room declared.
In fact there is no formal application before P & Z. And Cooke knew that. The developers started with Inland Wetlands. He also knew that he faced serious opposition over at Inland Wetlands and that the IWC was to rule this week.
This was his moment. ##