No to housing on Winnapaug Country Club
By Christopher Shea, Rhode Island Current
Winn Properties had tried to use the state’s affordable housing laws to build 2,300 homes on the site but the town’s planning board rejected the proposal last July, a decision upheld by a Washington County Superior Court judge last week.
In his decision, Associate Justice Jeffrey A. Lanphear ruled the board had “competent evidence” to reject the proposal to redevelop the century-old Winnapaug Country Club.
Winn Properties, which has owned the Shore Road country since 2021, proposed leveling the 18-hole public course in order to build 90 three-story buildings — 30% of which would be reserved for low and middle-income residents.
Nicholas Scola, who owns Winn Properties with his wife Jill, had previously proposed turning the country club into a golf resort, plans that were shot down by the Town Council in 2022.
On Wednesday, Scola referred comment on the Superior Court’s ruling to their attorney, Matthew J. Landry. Landry did not immediately respond to inquiries from Rhode Island Current.
Winn Properties sought to make use of the state’s Low and Moderate Income Housing law, which limits the ability of municipalities to block high-density projects if less than 10% of the community’s residences qualify as affordable, in order to get the project off the ground.
Westerly’s affordable housing stock sat at around 6.45% as of 2024, according to data compiled by RIHousing, the quasi-state agency that finances affordable home construction.
The proposal was submitted to the town in December 2023 and quickly generated pushback from residents, including representatives from the local group Keep Westerly Green, over the magnitude of the development and potential strain on town infrastructure and services.
“The long-range plan for the town did not include this kind of development,” Ed Rossomando, a member of Keep Westerly Green’s executive committee, said in an interview Wednesday.
The planning board had a similar stance when it unanimously rejected Winn Properties’ plan at its July 16, 2024 meeting. The board agreed that the town needed more affordable housing, but that it should not be done with an “overproduction” of large-format multi-family structures in a single area.
The board also argued that Winn Properties’ proposal failed to offer a variety of housing options and the plans did not reflect the character of the neighborhood which consists of single-family homes overlooking Winnapaug Pond.
“A massive program of redevelopment, with a giant bump in residential density, such as the proposed development is contrary to the town’s public interests and needs,” then-Chairman Justin Hopkins wrote in the board’s formal denial.
Winn Properties appealed the board’s rejection in Superior Court on July 30, 2024 — as is allowed under laws passed in 2023 creating a dedicated land use docket in the Superior Court.
In its appeal, Winn Properties argued the board’s decision was improper and “erroneous,” citing the town’s severe shortage of low- and moderate-income housing. But Lanphear disagreed, writing that the state’s housing production law does not require the planning board to approve any and all projects that come their way.
“Surely, the planning board does not serve to rubber stamp an application,” Lanphear wrote. “Even though it requests affordable housing — the planning board is charged with applying its reasoned discretion.”
Town Solicitor William Conley Jr. did not immediately respond to comment on the ruling.
Rep. Samuel Azzinaro, a Westerly Democrat whose district includes the country club, also stood by the planning board’s decision. He said in an interview Wednesday that a dense development is “not the right fit,” particularly near Winnapaug Pond.
“I would be scared to death of septic systems that would have to be put in to take care of these things,” he said.
Azzinaro also lamented the potential loss of the town’s only public golf course, which he said remains popular with both residents and tourists.
“You go by there on a Sunday morning and the parking lot is overflowing with cars,” he said.
Rossomando told Rhode Island Current he was “cautiously optimistic” saying there is always the potential for Winn Properties to appeal to the state Supreme Court or come back to town officials with another proposal.
“We don’t know that this is the end of the story,” Rossomando said.
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