Richmond Planning Board Meeting Update for July 11th 2023

By Cynthia Drummond for BRVCA
July 13th 2023

RICHMOND – Members of the Planning Board agreed at their Tuesday meeting to ask the Economic Development Commission to determine whether property owners in a part of town near of Route 3 would be willing to consider re-zoning their properties from residential to commercial or light industrial.

The board approved a memorandum to the EDC which reads, in part,

“We would like to work with you to determine whether rezoning some of the property abutting Route 3 would be feasible. Would your members be willing to contact property owners in that area to find out how they would feel about rezoning of their property? We would also like to hear your suggestions about which areas are the most appropriate for rezoning, and whether the owners of existing businesses have told you if there are any locations where they would like to expand or relocate.”

The board asked Town Solicitor Karen Ellsworth to draft the memorandum after a discussion during the June 27th meeting about the need for economic development in the town and possible sites for new businesses.

After looking at a map of the town and determining that there are few suitable sites remaining, board Vice Chairman Dan Madnick, who initiated the discussion, and other board members, agreed that the best prospective area is north of Wyoming on Route 3, east of Route 95.

“That area has easy access to Route 95 and most of it is outside the aquifer overlay, agricultural overlay, and flood hazard overlay districts,” the memorandum reads.

But the area is currently zoned residential. The Planning Board has usually re-zoned parcels after approving proposals from their owners, however in this case, the town would be reaching out to property owners to determine whether they would be interested in having their parcels re-zoned.

“We believe that some property owners welcome such a change because it would make their property more valuable, but many others would not want to see commercial or industrial uses in their neighborhood,” the memorandum reads.

The Preserve

Board members approved a request from The Preserve to waive the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management’s permitting requirements for the development’s Phase 2 applications.

The second phase includes two projects at the front entrance of the development: a gas station/ country store and an urgent care and medical office building.

Town Planner Shaun Lacey explained that there are three state permits that are normally required before the preliminary plan is considered complete.

“The septic system, we have a RIPDES [RI Pollutant Discharge Elimination System] … and thirdly, you have freshwater wetlands,” he said.

The waiver allows the Planning Board to consider the applications for the two projects without the state permits already in place. It is likely that the permits will have been issued by the time the project receives final approval.

Board Chairman Philip Damicis said,

“Overall, I don’t see a major issue, if the risk itself is primarily made on the Preserve - all the engineering, without wasting the town’s time.  Part of the reason we asked for this is, we don’t want to all of us to go down that road and have to come all the way back and do it all over again. The only question I have, is this the appropriate time?”

The Board approved a motion to waive the permit requirement. Member Daniel Ashworth, a firearms instructor at The Preserve, recused himself from the vote.

Housing needs survey

The town’s housing needs survey, a collaborative effort by Lacey and board member Bryce Kelley, was presented to the board, and comments were generally favorable.

Lacey said the survey results would provide an in-depth view of housing needs in the town.

“There might be something…that we could use to encourage the right type of growth,” he said.

Madnick added,

“If we want to have economic development to be able to hire people for businesses, you have places for them to live,” he said.

Lacey says goodbye 

This was the last Planning Board meeting for Lacey, who is leaving at the end of the month. The town has begun the search for his replacement, but the new Town Planner will have to deal with the avalanche of new legislation approved during the last session.

Ellsworth said she had spent five hours reading the changes, which, she admitted are complex, but she told the board that she would do her best to break them down so board members could understand them.

“I’m going to try and make it as easy as possible,” she said.

Damicis asked Ellsworth to break down the changes into amendments that the town would be required to comply with and amendments that would be up for discussion.

“If you could just differentiate in this, ‘you have no choice’ and ‘these are the things we need to sit down and discuss, work on,’” he said.

The APOD hearing

A public hearing on amendments to the town’s aquifer protection overlay district ordinance will take place at 5 p.m. on July 18. While the changes update and clarify the regulations, there has been opposition from at least one Town Council member. The amendments have been under consideration by the board for about a year.