Council Appoints Chariho Building Committee Members
By Cynthia Drummond for BRVCA
March 21st 2024
Editor’s note: this is a longer read than most of our posts, but there was a lot of information at the two meetings that we felt our readers should know.
RICHMOND – Town Council members, at Tuesday’s meeting, chose three residents to serve on the Chariho Building Committee. They also made two appointments, Karen Reynolds to the town’s 250th Semi Quincentennial Commission and Stephen Swallow, as a Republican Alternate to the Board of Canvassers.
At a workshop that took place before the council meeting, council members and residents learned about federal flood mitigation and property buyout programs
The Building Committee
The Chariho Act requires each of the towns in the Chariho Regional School District to appoint three residents to the Chariho Building Committee. Approved at the Chariho Annual Finance Meeting on March 5, the Building Committee will oversee the construction of three new school buildings, should voters approve the construction bond in the May 7 referendum.
Three School Committee members have already been named to the Building Committee; Richmond member, Karen Reynolds, Craig Louzon of Charlestown and Tyler Champlin of Hopkinton.
Seven residents submitted their names for consideration as representatives of the town: William Day, Daniel Madnick, Nancy Pirnie, Andrea Baranyk, Ryan Calahan, and Albert Robar III. Patricia Pouliot, who serves on the School Committee, withdrew her name after Town Solicitor Christopher Zangari provided a legal opinion suggesting she might be perceived as having a conflict of interest.
“You’re setting yourself up for a potential problem,” he said.
Councilor Samantha Wilcox said she was more concerned with possible issues with an applicant, such as a School Committee member, who held an elected position, than someone who had been appointed to a body like the Planning Board.
After hearing from each candidate, the council chose Madnick, an engineer and Vice Chair of the Planning Board, Baranyk, an architect who also sits on the Planning Board, and with councilors Michael Colasante and Helen Sheehan opposed, former school committee member and project manager, Ryan Callahan.
Resolutions
The Amtrak Bypass
The council approved Richmond’s support of a Charlestown resolution, presented by council President Mark Trimmer, opposing any planned revival of the Amtrak high speed rail bypass.
Accessory Dwelling Units
After hearing from state Rep. Megan Cotter, (D-Richmond, Exeter, Hopkinton) who attended Tuesday’s meeting, Trimmer withdrew his resolution supporting Hopkinton’s opposition to House Bill 7062, which pertains to accessory dwelling units, or ADUs.
A homeowner would have the right, under state law, to develop an ADU within an existing home, or on a lot larger than 20,000 square feet. The ADU would have to conform to building codes and infrastructure requirements.
Cotter said ADUs would be especially beneficial to seniors who want to remain in their homes.
“One of the things that I just really want to point out to the council is that 730 homes in Richmond, right now, are cost-burdened,” she said. “There are seniors that really want to stay in their homes in Richmond. …This is the AARP’s Number one bill in the legislative session. It will really, really help our seniors to stay in their homes.”
Cotter also noted that the ADUs would bring Richmond, which currently has 3.45% affordable housing, none of it specifically for seniors, closer to the state-mandated 10% affordable housing goal.
“They count for half a credit towards your affordable housing goal, and there’s zero affordable housing in Richmond for the elderly,” she said. “…and it’s actually a very unique bill this year. A lot of youth groups - this is also the number one bill that they’re pushing…A lot of our young people are leaving, because they can’t afford to stay here.”
Council Vice President Richard Nassaney said ADUs could benefit the town.
“I don’t think this should be looked at as a negative,” he said. “I’ve looked at it closely, and I’ve thought about it for a long time. This can be a good thing for us, because it will get the state off our back and not having them tell us what we’re going to do with our town.”
Cotter noted that once Richmond had reached its 10% affordable goal, it could then deny additional applications.
Town Planner Talia Jalette said the council should be aware of two additional issues with affordable housing.
“The 10% of affordable housing is not 10% and you’re necessarily done,” she said. “It’s 10% of the housing stock that you have in your municipality that is affordable, and that changes. That fluctuates greatly, depending upon deed restrictions, sometimes, if you have a group home, the group home beds, each count as a unit, so if you have a group home that goes under, you’re losing those units, so it’s very difficult to permanently achieve 10% of affordable housing stock.”
Jalette added that affordable housing is not just for people receiving assistance.
“… I would be eligible for low to moderate income housing as an employee of the town of Richmond, so that’s to kind of put it in perspective of the kinds of people who are going to be living in these kinds of units. It’s largely workforce-related housing. It’s young people. It’s seniors,” she said
After learning more about ADUs and how they would benefit residents, Trimmer said he would “defer to the experts,” and withdrew his request to support Hopkinton’s resolution.
New Carpet, Can of Worms
Town Administrator Karen Pinch asked the council to approve the allocation of $65,000 of the town’s remaining American Rescue Plan Act, or ARPA funds to replace the worn carpeting in the Town Hall.
Colasante asked Pinch if the town would go out to bid for the project.
Pinch said the town could solicit bids from companies that are on the state’s Master Price Agreement, meaning they have already been vetted.
“It wouldn’t take as long,” she said. “It wouldn’t be as labor-intensive at our end.”
Colasante replied,
“Personally, in my business, I never go to a prospective vendor and tell them how much I have to spend,” he said.
“We would never do that,” Pinch said.
Colasante continued,
“Well, you just said $65,000, so you already, before you even go out to RFP, if they watched this public meeting, you’ve already let the cat out of the bag that we have up to $65,000 to spend.”
Trimmer interjected,
“She did that for informational purposes to us,” he said.
Wilcox said she didn’t feel that carpeting would an appropriate use for the town’s remaining ARPA money.
“I know we don’t have a lot left, but I’d like to do something better with what’s left of the ARPA money, so I’ll be voting against it,” she said.
With Wilcox opposed, the council approved the allocation of the funds for the carpeting.
Historic Cemeteries
Karen Pinch told the council that a resident who has a historical cemetery on their property had inquired about a tax abatement.
“Westerly and Burrillville have abatements of $100 per cemetery,” she said. “There are currently 97 of those in Richmond.”
State law allows cities and towns to pass ordinances giving property tax abatements to owners of parcels with historic cemeteries. The abatement is intended to cover expenses pertaining to the repair and maintenance of the cemeteries.
Council members had a lot of questions. Wilcox asked who would check to ensure the cemeteries were being maintained. Trimmer said his concern was that property owners receiving tax abatements would have to grant access to the cemeteries.
Sheehan said she had lived on a property with a historic cemetery and agreed with Trimmer that the public had access to it.
“Because it’s a historical cemetery, people, they have a legal access to it. I believe that is Rhode Island state law,” she stated.
However, it is a misconception that property owners must allow public access to historic cemeteries on their land.
The Burrillville and Westerly ordinances require the property owner to grant the town access so those towns can verify that maintenance has been done. Property owners who fail to preserve the cemeteries for which they are receiving the tax abatements will forfeit those abatements.
John Peixinho, one of the founders of the BRVCA, who restored the historic Samuel Clarke Farm, which has two historic cemeteries on the property, said it was important to clarify statements made at the council meeting.
“While some cemeteries are owned by the town and can therefore be accessed by the public, privately owned land is privately owned land and trespassing on private property is against the law,” he said. “In my case, lineal family members associated with the cemeteries have a deeded easement, and we have a shared interest in seeing that the graves and walls are preserved and maintained appropriately. And, if a scholar or researcher has a demonstrated interest, they can always contact me for access. Otherwise, the public should understand they are trespassing on private property.”
Zangari will draft an ordinance for the council’s consideration.
Flood Mitigation
With flooding a reoccurring problem in some neighborhoods and climate change resulting in more frequent, extreme weather events, the town held a workshop Tuesday before the regular Town Council meeting to learn more about flooding mitigation programs.
Presenting the workshop were Gina Fuller, District Manager for the Southern Rhode Island Conservation District and Mike Viola, an engineer with the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service.
“We think this is a great watershed for your PL566, which is a nationwide program where NRCS works with the sponsors, which are all the municipalities within the watershed, and Richmond was one of the original municipalities to sign on, on this effort, joining together to develop a 50-year watershed maintenance and operations program,” Fuller said.
“These are large infrastructure projects that help improve the resiliency of your municipalities and help you accomplish major infrastructure programs.”
Fuller and Viola presented a second federal initiative, the Emergency Watershed Protection Program, that funds the improvement and restoration of infrastructure and is also used for buy-outs of homes in areas that experience repeated flooding. Projects undergo cost-benefit analyses to ensure that they are economically and environmentally feasible.
The government refers to towns that join that program as “project sponsors.”
“NRCS may provide project sponsors with up to 75% of the following items: the fair market value, based on an appraisal of the property, relocation costs, and the site restoration costs,” Fuller said.
Colasante, who has frequently stated that Richmond has too much protected open space, suggested that protection be removed from some parcels and swapped with flood prone land.
“Richmond has a vast resource of land that DEM has in their control, the state, and actually, even the town, and I floated this idea with a few people, basically doing a land swap,” he said. “The land in Valley Lodge, DEM would take it back over let Mother Nature do her thing, and there’s 40, 50, maybe 100 acres out of the 12,000 that we have in perpetuity here in Richmond and we can do a land swap so that all these residents that are in a flood zone, we could do a land swap with either DEM, the state or the town, move these people to high, dry land, and give them fair market value for their home.”
Fuller replied that she had several reservations about land swaps.
“I think it’s something that would need a lot of work and discussion,” she said. “I don’t know if you’ve engaged DEM at all. I would caution you on that, just because of the way lands are often put into conservation easement, especially with the state, because there’s stipulations on what they can and cannot do.”
Jalette later added,
“The most important thing to understand about how a land swap would work is that oftentimes, when land is donated for a particular purpose, it’s going to only be allowed to be used for that purpose,” she said.
Fuller urged the town to sign on to the program as soon as possible.
“If there’s anyone in the Valley Lodge area or the areas that have recently experienced flooding in Richmond, that is interested in a buyout, it is extremely important that the town decide that they sign on as a sponsor as soon as possible, because that’s the lever that opens the door for anyone in the community to participate in this voluntary program. It doesn’t force anyone.”
The council will now consider joining the program.