Richmond Planning Board Update for March 28th 2023

By Cynthia Drummond for BRVCA
March 29th 2023

RICHMOND – The March 28 Planning Board meeting was unusually brief – just half an hour.

Members gave their unanimous approval to the plan for a new dog park, near the Heritage Trail at 3 Country Acres Road.

Town Planner Shaun Lacey briefed members on the history of the new dog park.

“Last year, the town was awarded a DEM [Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management] recreation grant of $71,000,” he said. “That was awarded specific to the development of the Richmond Dog Park which is currently operating at Buttonwoods next to the DPW offices.”

(The exact amount of the DEM grant is $71,580. The town is responsible for a 20% match, which will be made in the form of in-kind work on the park.)

The dog park will comprise about 40,000 square feet of the 45-acre property, and 30,000 square feet of the park will be enclosed by a fence.

Approved by the Dog Park Committee at the March 16 meeting, the dog park site plan was prepared by a consultant hired by the town.

Board member Dan Madnick asked about securing benches and trash receptacles. Lacey said the town’s Department of Public Works would maintain those components of the park as it does all town facilities.

Madnick and board Chair Philip Damicis asked about the six parking spaces on the plan and whether there would be enough parking. Additional parking for people walking the Heritage Trail is available.

“I just want to make sure there’s enough parking for everyone,” Madnick said, “because the Heritage Trail is really nice and people use it a lot.”

One parking space will be ADA, or Americans with Disabilities Act, compliant.

Lacey said he expected the park to be completed well before the end of the year.

“I think we should be done long before 2024, because the reality is that this is kind of the last stop for permitting, because we’re outside of DEM jurisdictional boundaries,” he said. “So, there’s no DEM permitting, which in reality, would be the longest permitting stage. “… Essentially, once the board signs off on it, the Town Council has already approved it.”

In the audience were members of the Dog Park Committee, who applauded after the vote. Also present was Town Council member Samantha Wilcox, who was on the committee from 2021 until she was elected to the council in 2022.

Reached Wednesday, Wilcox said the new park had been 10 years in the making. More recently, the committee had received assistance in preparing the grant from Lacey, Town Administrator Karen Pinch and former council member, Lauren Cacciola.

“The committee itself has been together for a decade or more and Victoria Vona has been a part of it since the beginning and she’s still a member, so it’s really exciting for everybody,” she said.

Wilcox said she was looking forward to the opening of the new dog park, which will replace the current park, situated on a former landfill.

“I’m mostly excited it won’t be on an old landfill. The giant puddle in the middle will be no more,” she said.

Wilcox also noted that the road to the new dog park will bring people into town, and hopefully, to local businesses like the pet supply store, Fetch RI.

“Now, dog owners are going to be driving right past Fetch, right past a couple of local restaurants, instead of driving through our industrial district, because people come from out of town to go to the park more often you think,” she said. “So that will be good for us, and it might enhance the Heritage Trail. They complement each other very well.”

Housing/vineyard application 

A public informational meeting on an application for a housing subdivision and vineyard on the agenda for Tuesday’s meeting was continued for a second time at the request of the developer, Punchbowl Development Corp.

The meeting was re-scheduled to the April 25 Planning Board meeting.

Other business

Members briefly discussed new developments in proposed state housing legislation, and the parameters of a possible housing needs survey of Richmond residents.