Planning Commission turns Clerkbase back on

This is one of those “good news/bad news” stories

A Progressive Charlestown reader once wrote that
Planning Commission meetings were as enjoyable
as getting your fingernails pulled out

By Will Collette

Without any mention or fanfare, the Clerkbase recording of the Planning Commission’s January 2^nd meeting was on-line on Friday. Of course, the Clerkbase link was gone by Saturday and was still gone as this article gets posted. 

But while it was up on Friday, I got a chance to hear their three-hour, mind-numbing discussion of how they plan to write the affordable housing section of Charlestown’s Comprehensive Plan update.

As readers may recall, I reported earlier that the Planning Commission had literally pulled the plug on Clerkbase audio-video recording of their last two month’s meetings. Clerkbase coverage of Planning meetings has been sporadic for the past year at least, but a complete black-out is something new.

So seeing the video posted during the same week was a pleasant surprise. Why it was pulled down on Saturday is another question.

Sure, let's count these as affordable housing

The entire meeting was a prolonged discussion about how to package Charlestown’s housing situation in such a way that it supported the CCA’s position that Charlestown doesn’t need any affordable housing.

For example, the Commission members, led by the relentless Commissar Platner, tried to figure out ways to include summer beach cottages in the tally. They “brainstormed” ways to call these cottages part of our affordable housing stock through such scenarios as saying that lots of landlords rented out the cottages to URI students for $500 a month.

Note: in our 2013 predictions, we envisioned an effort by the CCA to label Johnny Angels clam shack as affordable housing to try to get it tallied against the town's mandate. We weren't far off.

Our professional town planner, Ashley Hahn-Morris, had her hands full trying to explain why making stuff up was not a good idea. I’m giving you the gist – Ashley didn’t actually use those terms. But the flow of the discussion was pretty disturbing.

There were an awful lot of other remarks that just simply flew in the face of reality. For example, at around the 1 hour, 39 minute mark in the video, Commissar Platner asserts that “I don’t think there’s ever been community opposition to affordable housing.”

You don't need no steenking Clerkbase

WTF!?!? Almost the entire, unrecorded December 19^th Planning Commission meeting was devoted to a NIMBY assault against the ChurchWoods senior citizens’ affordable rental proposal. That was just a couple of weeks ago – how quickly they forget.

This meeting also put a clash of radically different perspectives on full display. 

One of those perspectives is that held by the CCA. Charlestown is fine. We have no low or moderate income people. We have lots of houses available for sale at bargain prices. We have no rental problems. We have no need to increase our housing stock. The only problem Charlestown has is with a state law that doesn’t recognize that we are special.

The CCA is prepared to bend, twist and even torture the truth to support their position. Their resident “expert,” former Planning Commission and now Town Councilor George Tremblay has already produced his version of the truth about affordable housing. Unfortunately, it’s for a Charlestown that only exists in an alternative Bizarro universe.

The other point of view is that Charlestown does need to comply with the law and create affordable housing opportunities that meet the needs of our community. In particular, Charlestown needs elderly housing, especially rentals.

Three new Planning Commission members were at the table. The two CCA Commissions didn’t have much to add to the discussion. Commissioner Connie Baker seemed to have slept through most of the meeting. I heard her grunt one short sentence at about midpoint in the meeting. The only time I heard a discernible remark from the other CCA Commission member, Rev. Jan Knost, it was for him to complain that he didn’t know what was going on.

The third new Planning Commissioner is the Commission’s sole Democrat, firefighter Brandon Cleary. Brandon wasn’t at all bashful about piping in and often went toe to toe with Commissar Platner. Brandon asserted that Charlestown needed to make affordable housing work in Charlestown and that, among other things, the town needs to make sure its accessory dwelling unit ordinances actually produce new affordable housing units.

Using her most patronizing tone of voice, Platner tried to slap Brandon down, saying that the problem with his well-intentioned ideas was that the state wouldn’t count them toward the town’s 10% affordable housing mandate. Brandon replied that he didn't care about the state mandate – take care of the people’s needs and the state mandate will take care of itself. Platner didn't have a comeback to that.

Example of an accessory dwelling unit, but not in Charlestown

I wrote about the enactment of the ordinances on accessory dwelling units as one of my first articles in Progressive Charlestown two years ago (February 18, 2011). 

Commissar Platner presented these two ordinances to the Town Council for their approval, noting that she expected that not one single new unit of housing would be created as a result. With Platner’s assurance that the ordinances would do nothing, the Council, led by CCA Town Council boss Tom Gentz, voted to approve them.

In her prediction, Platner was right. Not one single accessory dwelling unit has been added in Charlestown.

But I don’t think she expected to be challenged on it two years later by one of her own Planning Commissioners. Brandon’s voice may be a lone voice, but this is the first time in four years that Platner hasn’t controlled the opinions of each one of the Commission members.

Since Platner controls all of the other Commissioners, the odds are that they will write the section on Affordable Housing in the Comprehensive Plan update to reflect the CCA line that affordable housing may be a nice idea, but not for Charlestown.

Normally, in an article like this, I would be suggesting to you that you watch and listen to the Clerkbase video for yourselves to make up your own minds and also to check to see if I’m exaggerating. But since the recording seems to have disappeared, I can’t.

Maybe it will come back but for now, you’ll just have to take my word for it.