Some residents worry about town's rural character
By Rob Smith / ecoRI News staff
How do you revitalize a town with an aging
population and slim pickings for development?
"Rural Character" has been an obsession in Charlestown
That issue was the topic of a joint Town Council and
Planning Board 3½-hour hearing at Ashaway Elementary School last week, as the
town weighs changes to zoning regulations and its comprehensive plan sought by
a trio of private companies.
Warwick-based energy developer Revity Energy LLC owns a
number of properties along Main and Frontier streets, close to Exit 1 off
Interstate 95. The parcels are currently zoned as RFR-80, rural farming
residential, a zoning designation under the town’s ordinance.
Revity Energy is petitioning the town to change the zoning
of the properties, which are mostly open space, seeking the creation of an
“economic growth district” that would greatly expand the permitted uses of the
properties.
“The EGD is intended to expand the Town’s commercial tax base, bring additional jobs to the Town and region and encourage investment in new businesses and industries that strengthen the community’s long-term economic stability,” according to Revity Energy’s proposed amendment to the zoning ordinance.
The changes would allow several new categories of
development along the Main Street corridor. The categories include light
industrial, energy and environmental-related technologies, aerospace and marine
vehicle facilities, defense and security equipment, and battery energy storage
systems; all possible uses that are currently new to town.
“The proposed [amendments] … are very appropriate, because
they clearly further the intent of the community to permit reasonable
commercial and industrial growth in an area capable of accommodating said
growth,” according to report on the changes prepared for Revity Energy by
Pimentel Consulting Inc. “The locale in question is clearly appropriate for the
respective mixture of land uses, given the character of the surrounding area
and ability to properly buffer and screen future development.”
But while Revity Energy is proposing several new categories
of development be allowed on company land, company vice president Ryan Palumbo
stressed that it had no specific projects in development.
“We’ve run through different scenarios, but we have not
started marketing this,” Palumbo said. “This approval would be the first step
to put marketing together for outside businesses.”
Palumbo said the company has discussed garages, grocery
stores, manufacturing sites, and telecommunication towers, among other
proposals.
The proposed zone change has triggered a debate in Hopkinton
that’s become common in Rhode Island’s rural communities. Towns such as
Hopkinton, Foster, and Burrillville have traditionally shied away from the
strip malls and subdivisions that are more common to the state’s more populated
municipalities like Warwick and Cranston.
Some residents spoke against Revity Energy’s proposed
changes at the recent meeting, expressing concerns over the effects on
homeowners’ well water, threats to the town’s rural character, and
environmental impacts.
Elizabeth Vars, speaking against the changes, told town
officials that she and her husband live on High Street, across from a solar
array that used to be a farm. Since the solar panels went in, said Vars, their
property is “the only place wildlife had to go.”
“We have bald eagles, we have deer, we have everything,”
Vars said. “The solar farms have ruined it for the wildlife. We don’t want
this. I look at it and it makes me sick.”
Planning Board member Christina Bolek, speaking in support
of Revity Energy’s proposal, said the town had to do something to spur
development while keeping the town’s rural character, otherwise property taxes
were going to keep going up without new development.
“The rural character of the town has to be protected, and
the way to do that is to control the growth,” Bolek said. “You can’t shun
growth. This is a way to protect the rural character of the town in a very
small, compact area.”
The common refrain in communities has been to emphasize the
importance of keeping a town’s “rural character.” But state affordable housing
mandates, as well as the need to grow tax revenue amid a dominant cohort of
aging homeowners, has spurred some towns, such as Hopkinton, to consider wider
development districts.
In 2023, Foster debated changing the zoning status of 55 plots to a
more development-friendly designation called Highway Commercial 2. Newer
housing developments in Burrillville meant in 2024 the town dipped under the
10% affordable housing mandate, triggering a debate on how to manage the rural
character of the town with its growing housing needs.
Municipalities across Rhode Island are also feeling the
pinch of higher costs, as school districts, police departments, and other
municipal costs rise. The main revenue-raiser municipalities can rely on are
property taxes, and without growing the pool of taxpayers, they have to raise
taxes on the current ones.
Town Council Vice President Bob Burns noted the developer
had axed everything from Revity’s proposal that had met with public outcry,
including a provision that could allow a data center. A self-professed
outdoorsman, Burns said that while he loved the open space, the town needed to
act to keep people employed and in town.
“Your chance at a second bite at the apple is when every
individual project goes before the Planning Board,” Burns said. “If you don’t
like the individual project, speak before the Planning Board.”
Town officials continued the zoning ordinance hearing to the
next Town Council meeting on May 4.
