Moves, good and bad, to make room for homes and businesses
By
Will Collette
It’s a complicated problem without an easy
solution. It’s complicated by land loss due to climate change, the economy,
interest rates, the cost of building supplies and consumer debt.
Our first-term state Senator Victoria Gu
(D-Charlestown, Westerly, South Kingstown) was interviewed
on the subject by Public’s Radio analyst Ian Donnis. Here’s
what she had to say:
State Sen. VICTORIA GU (D-Charlestown):
“I’m glad to
have House and Senate leadership that takes the rising cost of housing
seriously. Our towns in South County have not made much progress toward the
goal of having 10 percent of our housing stock be affordable, and while the
towns bear some responsibility for that, it’s worth noting that we have only
one nonprofit developer in the area (South County Habitat for Humanity), and
Washington County Community Development Corporation is defunct.
“So even with the $166 million RFP released
this year for affordable housing construction, we lack developer capacity.
That’s a shame because our town councilors and residents here have many ideas.
“A South County approach to housing will mean
1) tackling our severe shortage of year-round rental housing, through accessory
dwelling units and regulations on Airbnb 2) repurposing land we have already
developed: old commercial buildings, motels, etc. 3) putting in more
infrastructure (septic, water) and public transit to support affordable housing
4) building for climate resiliency, planning for sea level rise, and minimizing
the degradation of our groundwater, wetlands and salt water ponds.
“I’m glad that some of these ideas are in the housing
bill package that Speaker Shekarchi announced on Thursday. In the coming year I will make sure to advocate
for resources and technical assistance to help our towns carry out their ideas
for affordable housing.”
Climate change and Charlestown’s tax base
You would expect housing prices to take a hit
from climate-driven rising waters and the greatly increased danger of storm
damage and flooding. But according to Boston.com, citing a report
from the Environmental Defense Fund and its partners, New England homes are overvalued by $10 billion.
Only Rhode Island and Connecticut have laws
requiring disclosure of flood risks to potential buyers, but the EDF report deems these laws to be
“inadequate.” Thus, rich out-of-staters keep buying shoreline properties, which
is good for Charlestown’s tax base, but raises housing prices above what working
families can afford.
In concrete terms, a new report by Stacker ranks Charlestown as having the 11th largest
rise in home prices in southern New England. They show the typical home value
in Charlestown as $568,943, with a 1-year gain of 6.8% and a 5-year price
change of 51.3%.
We’ve been ranked higher, but market pressures,
such as rising interest rates, affecting home buying more than the effects of
our climate crisis. But all we need is one bad hurricane hit to change all
that.
But so far, Charlestown’s property values continue to surge. On March 1, at an official town Workshop on Revaluation, Charlestown Tax Assessor Ken Swain reported that our accessible tax base (called the Grand List in some jurisdictions) has risen to $4.22 billion.
Odds are you will soon receive a notice from the town showing that the tax
assessment on your property as gone up, perhaps substantially.
During its years of control over Charlestown,
the Charlestown Citizens Alliance (CCA) touted Charlestown’s relatively low tax
rate without discussing how that rate is propped up by rising home prices. As
everyone except the CCA seems to understand, what you pay in taxes is the assessed
value of your property multiplied by the tax rate.
Still curious
Like me, you might be wondering what’s
happening or going to happen at 5407 Post Road. We know about this property
because of a February news release sent out by the real estate agent who sold
it. That release told us that some person or persons
unknown paid $2.7 million to buy the 12 acres at 5407 Post Road.
The site, currently occupied by the derelict
old Lobster Pot Restaurant and long-closed Ocean View Motor Inn, includes a
23-lot trailer park up the moraine and behind the trees.
Town
records now show that long-time owner Nancy Brooks
transferred the property to a new company 5407 Post Road LLC on January 24 for
$10. The LLC was registered in Rhode Island last November. There’s little added
detail on the new owners in the Tax Assessor’s database.
The Secretary of State’s corporate database
shows Nancy Brooks as the “Resident Agent” but the company’s address is now 29 Valley Drive in
Greenwich, CT.
That building in Greenwich houses several
companies as well as a post office. Some of the listings seem to be simply mail
drops. The company does not show up in a search of the Connecticut
business database.
In their last
filing with the state of Rhode Island on January
30, the company made this change to its description: “THE ENTITY'S TAX
STATUS AS A DISREGARDED ENTITY SEPARATE FROM ITS MEMBER(S) IS HEREBY AMENDED TO
BE TAXED AS A PARTNERSHIP”
Signing
the form as the “Responsible Person” was Vincent Troisi who is not listed in
Charlestown records as a property owner.
So who cares? Certainly the 23 households
living in the trailer park do. So do the rest of us, given the conspicuous
location of this property.
Some residents have noted the “For Rent” sign
in front of the old Lobster Pot, Given the decrepit state of the building, I don't what a prospective tenant would do with the site. Putting new railing on the old decking
doesn’t seem to have much point.
How long before the mysterious new owners
reveal their plans for this major piece of property?
We have a long way to go to resolve our
affordable housing and business development problems after 12 years of open
hostility to both by the Charlestown Citizens Alliance (CCA). But the new Town
Council, with a 4-1 majority held by Charlestown Residents United (CRU), seems
to have a much more open-minded attitude.
