Town Council - Special Meeting

Yes, we're ready. We're ready, Mr. President.

Okay, folks, we're going to get started since 6.01. Wendy, would you please call the roll?

Council President Paul M. Roderick. Here. Vice President Thomas P. Welch III. Here. Councilor Peter D. Connerton Sr. Here. Councilor Christopher M. Logan. Here. Councilor Charles R. Roberts. Here. Councilor Dennis B. Terrano. Here. Councilor Barbara A. Von Villis. Here. We have a quorum, Mr. President.

Thank you, Wendy. Please join us in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Which flag?

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay, thank you. Good evening, everyone. Let's get started. I do have to read the three in. Public hearing's still open, but that's Tom's to do. And then we'll get started, okay? so number one is uh public hearing has been advertised but has been notified can everybody hear in the back you can't hear that okay um number one the public hearing has been advertised but has been notified public hearing remains open in order to the town of middletown this is the second reading in audits and revision to the middletown comprehensive community plan proposed amendment to the town's comprehensive community plan map L4 as amended in February 2024, future land use to change the destination of subject property from institutional to limited and office business in area located on West Main Road and designated as lots four, five, six, and seven on tax assessors plat 102. Subject parcels identified an attached map and the plan of board recommendation is on file.

We're gonna do it for each one.

Yeah, but you have to.

All right. Yeah. Motion to open a public hearing. The public hearing remains open.

Okay. Okay, let's read number two. Number two is the public hearing has been advertised but has been notified. The public hearing remains open. In order to the town of Middletown, this is the second reading. In order to the amendment to the town of Middletown official zoning map, the zoning designation of that certain lot or parcel of land presently identified as lots four, five, six, and seven. I'm Middletown tax assessors plat 102, which is presently designated as public shall be changed to LBA limited business traffic set traffic sensitive and shown on the attached plan plan aboard recommendation is on file public hearing remains open. Okay, and number three, the public hearing has been advertised, but have been notified. Public hearing remains open. In Ordinance of the Town of Middletown, again, the second reading. In Ordinance of the Town of Middletown, Town Code, Title 15, Chapter 152, entitled Zoning Code, is amended by adding new Article 31, West Main-Cardington Overlaid District. adding a column and other revisions to Section 602 regarding uses allowed in the West Main Coddington Overlay District, adding new lines to Section 603 regarding dimensional requirements, an amendment to the town of Middletown official zoning map indicating zoning overlay district designation of that certain lot or parcel of land presently identified as lots 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 on Middletown Tax Assessors Flat 102 as the West Main Coddington Overlay District as shown on the attached map. Again, the plan and board recommendation is on file.

Public hearing remains open.

Okay, so we read those three in. We are going to draw out it's my understanding you have, do you have something to present? Can you can you come to the mic, please? And so everyone can hear?

Yes, thank you. Gerard Galvin for MCTC LLC. I do have a package of about three or four images, one site plan, three images, and two letters. Those were exhibits I'm going to pass over to Wendy as a package. We'll work through them as we go through the hearing. I did bring a USB port. I recall there being a screen here. It doesn't appear that we have that capability, but we'll work through these. I have an extra package. I know there's a lot of people here who may want to look at them. There's nothing earth-shattering there, but we will make this part of the record so that everybody can review everything. So if that's okay with you, I'll pass this over to Wendy.

Thank you. Okay.

Well, thank you all, and I know it's been a long road for all of us to get to this point. I know everybody is ready for this to be concluded, although we have different hopes on what that outcome might be. We're asking for the Council to approve tonight the amendments that were just read into the record. Some may perceive this to be a complicated request. We do not. if we just reflect on why we're here and how we got here. The discussions about redeveloping the subject lots go back to 2010, 2011.

Can I just stop you? Can everybody hear him in the back? Louder. OK. Can you pull those mics a little closer?

Yeah, I'll try. Is this any better? OK. I'll get closer. Back in 2011, presentations were made to the Middletown Planning Board, which reviewed a number of possibilities for these lots and the surrounding land. Those proposals focused on commercial development. In June of 2011, the Van Ness Report was issued recommending that this area could be turned into a mixed-use center with residential uses, retail, office uses, and municipal and civic uses. MANY OF THE FINDINGS OF THAT REPORT ULTIMATELY FOUND THEIR WAY INTO THE 2014-2015 COMPREHENSIVE PLAN UPDATE. NOTABLY THE VAN NESS REPORT SUGGESTED THAT THE RECREATIONAL FIELDS AT THIS SITE BE RELOCATED TO MORE SUITABLE LOCATIONS IN TOWN AS PART OF REDEVELOPMENT. AFTER THAT ANOTHER STUDY WAS DONE BY THE TOWN BY MATRIX WHICH MADE SIMILAR CONCEPTUAL FINDINGS ABOUT THE REDEVELOPMENT OF THIS SITE. In the 2014-2015 Comp Plan, there are several references to the goals to redevelop these parcels. Specifically, the Comp Plan identifies the West Main Coddington Development Center, referencing the goal of redeveloping this town-owned parcel and turning it into an attractive mixed-use center, including commercial, residential, and municipal uses. The land use and economic development elements of the comp plan make specific reference to this land, also calling for redevelopment. The recreation, conservation, and open space element of the town's comprehensive plan points out that the recreational complex here is in a location poorly situated for recreational uses due to traffic and proximity to the major roadway. The comp plan further states Overlay zoning should be drafted and adopted to ensure the town's vision for this special area is implemented. Paige Bronk, our planning expert, will comment shortly after me and cover how well and for how long the town has sought to develop this site and why it's appropriate for redevelopment. In 2020, the town issued an RFI There were a few submissions likely due to the pandemic. In June of 21, the town reissued its RFI. Our development team submitted a proposal and was ultimately selected by the council to develop the property. From the start, our proposal included a hotel, retail, residential, and municipal space. Once we were selected as the developer, the team prepared a concept plan and submitted it to the Council in February of 2022. We appeared before the Middletown Planning Board on April 21, 2022, for conceptual review. At that point, the pillars of our project were a 144-unit hotel, 150 apartment units, 30,000 square feet of retail, and municipal space. This initial concept called for the respectful relocation of the recreational fields, including potsy field, which again was a concept that had been recommended by the many studies that the town conducted and by the comprehensive plan itself. On May 12th, 2022, the planning board voted that our plan was consistent conceptually with the comprehensive plan. We then had a public meeting with you, the town council, in June of 2022. At that meeting, the council reviewed the findings of the planning board, reviewed our proposal, and voted six to one to direct the solicitor and the administration to continue to work with our team to explore financial terms and identify zoning changes that may be necessary to bring that concept to fruition. From that point until October 2024, MY CLIENTS IN THE TOWN NEGOTIATED THE TERMS OF A DEVELOPMENT AGREEMENT AND GROUND LEASES THAT THE TOWN COUNCIL APPROVED. FOLLOWING THAT APPROVAL, ALL OF THE COUNCILORS WHO RAN FOR REELECTION WERE RETURNED TO THEIR SEATS AND THIS PROJECT TURNED TO THE NEXT PHASE, WHICH IS THE ZONING OVERLAY. BOTH THE COMPREHENSIVE PLAN AND THE DEVELOPMENT AGREEMENT CALL FOR A SUBMISSION OF THE ZONING OVERLAY TO THE TOWN AS THE NEXT STEP FOLLOWING EXECUTION OF THE DEVELOPMENT AGREEMENT. The overlay is a tool that the town has used before, as with Article 30 for the zoning of the zoning code for the Atlantic Beach overlay district. We submitted our proposal in late 2024. And you referred that overlay to the planning board for review. And that brings us to the spring of 2025, where we had many, many hours over many meetings of public debate with the planning board itself and with the public. And we listened to the public's objections. We listened to the concerns of the planning board. And ultimately we made many substantial changes to our original version of the overlay district. In April of 2025, the planning board recommended that the overlay be approved with the number of conditions attached to that approval. And that brings us to the September 16th, 2025 meeting. And we appeared at that meeting at the high school and we presented all of the changes that had been made at the request of the planning board. Virtually every condition that they requested, we implemented. However, the public spoke. at that meeting. And we heard concerns from the council at that meeting, most specifically relating to the relocation of Potsy Field. And so coming out of that first reading and that meeting, we immediately began to think about whether there was a path forward here that still allowed for a viable development of some form or fashion that still provided benefits to the town while still protecting those interests and concerns that we heard that night. So we engaged in a dialogue with the town staff and some counselors and eventually agreed with the council to present a revised development agreement to vastly reduce the scope of the first phase of the development to contain only the hotel on lot seven, which was the former site of the Navy Lodge. The remainder of the revised overlay district will remain under the control of the town to determine exact uses and locations of development. So one of the first exhibits I just want to bring your attention to is just a site plane. It's plain and simple. You've all probably seen it before. I just want to be clear. As you look at this, Lot 7 is farthest to your left where you see the proposed hotel development. Everything to the right of that will remain under town control. Potsey Field is specifically protected in the overlay, and the remaining development parcel to the north remains fully under town control. And double control, really. Control through the zoning overlay, but also control because you will decide if you want to engage with another developer, if you want to manage a development there yourselves, or not do anything. That all remains under your discretion with this new proposal. So I just want to make sure both the public and the council at the outset here understand that this overlay, the town retains significant control and full control over the parcels to the right. There were some revisions to the overlay that came along with that, which were designed to address those other concerns we heard. First of all, we increased, and this is through discussions with your town staff, the minimum amount of affordable housing that would be acceptable should the town develop on the northern parcel. And that would be up to 20%. As we said, Potsey Field is saved and retained in its current location. All of the drive-throughs that were suggested, the bank was removed and is a prohibited use. So what we tried to do was take in the input we heard, implement that, and leave a development on the corner parcel where the former Navy Lodge used to be that will still be a viable project for my clients and produce significant revenue for the town. The next thing I wanted to point to in the package, at our last meeting, a member of the public produced a few images or maybe just one image of what a proposed hotel would look like. And again, we produced two conceptual images just so you could see what we are potentially envisioning. One is just at the corner. park lot you know park at the corner and one is of what a four-story hotel I understand you can't see it I'm just showing what what is being passed to the council and this will be available so I wanted you to have that in mind as well just so you can see from a conceptual level what is being uh thought about for this corner lot Now it's important to remind both the public and and the Council this this particular specific hotel project, while it is what we are contemplating should we should these. amendments be passed tonight, there is a full planning board process land development process that would have to unfold after this. And that you know that's the typical development process and it's rigorous so there's a long process to go before there's a final plan that is produced. but we thought it would be important to have some conceptual images for you about what we're contemplating. Now, I mentioned the revenue that you'll still be receiving, even with this vastly reduced first component of development. I expect we will hear tonight that an additional $850,000 a year that will continue to grow year by year, the additional tax revenue that you'll receive, the ground lease rent, is not sufficient. But I'd ask, you'd ask yourselves, I'd ask you to ask Sean, if that kind of additional revenue would be helpful to town services, to fund needed positions in town, I think that kind of revenue is meaningful. It's impactful to the town. And I think it's an important reason why this property and this whole overlay district has been targeted so long for redevelopment for the town. So since we began this process nearly five years ago, We've tried to follow the lead of the council in terms of what it wants to see at the site. At every turn and submission where we've needed to, we've modified the project, met conditions that have been requested by the town. And despite being selected to develop this entire site and following significant effort and significant expense, they heard, my clients heard the input from the council They heard the directive to save Potsy Field. And that's what we've done. And now the table is set for the town with these amendments to make its own decisions about the remainder of the overlay district. So passing these amendments are consistent with the directives in the comp plan. It sets parameters to allow the town to pursue affordable housing and other uses. And that northern parcel remains fully under your discretion. So what I'd like to do now is introduce Paige Brock, who's been our planning expert. And he has a few points he would like to make about how the town has prepared this site for development. And following that, I know Mr. Kempinar has a few remarks that he would like to make as well.

Good evening, can you hear me clearly. My name is page bronc professional planner. With over 30 years of experience i've been involved in this project for several years. Back in 2022 I completed a detailed comprehensive plan report initially provided to the middle town planning board. The analysis found strong support for mixed use development at that location. Actually, not just strong support. In my opinion, through my experience, I've actually never seen more definitive and accurate documentation for requesting development within a community, particularly town-owned land. I'm really not over exaggerating that. That is actually my opinion. The Town of Middletown has spent decades visioning, planning, documenting, investing, and purchasing property to arrive at this point. Those efforts were not conducted to preserve this property, but to intentionally redevelop given its prime location to offer economic and community development benefits. The property's redevelopment is supported in nearly all of the Town and Middletown's comprehensive plan elements. Each element is like a chapter. Sometimes there'll be support for a project in one element, maybe two. Most of the elements make reference and proactive support for redevelopment of this site. That's also done in a redundant manner throughout the document in multiple levels. There are goals, there are objectives, there are policies, there are action items, there are maps, implementation statements. All through that, you're going to find within the plan support for redevelopment of this property. In addition, the comprehensive plan reiterates Other relevant and detailed studies and plans outside of the comp plan, those are embedded and referenced within that comp plan. Those would include Westside Master Plan that was done by the Aquidneck Island Planning Commission, 2005. The West Main Road Coddington Development Center Master Plan done in 2011. The Redevelopment Plan for Surplus Properties at NAFSA Newport. That was in 2011, done by the Aquidneck Reuse Planning Authority. I have some key excerpts that I want to actually read for you that came straight out of the plan. And as I said, they're from multiple elements within the executive summary. The top public survey preferences identified smart growth in redevelopment of vacant, underutilized commercial properties as two top land use priorities. Those are often developed through community engagement exercises, so this came straight from the public. Also within the executive summary, page 1-6 is a section entitled Special Areas Highlighted. That's in the beginning of the plan. They note things like Atlantic Beach District other special concerns and the this property is actually referenced and I quote West Main Coddington Development Center located within the boundaries of the potential two mile growth center is the core of the West Main Coddington Development Center. The concept includes the redevelopment of town-owned property in conjunction with surplus Navy land that the town is working to acquire. It is described in detail in the 2011 West Main Coddington Development Center Master Plan and subsequent documents related to planning for the reuse of surplus Navy land. The concept envisions a walkable and attractive mixed-use center at the intersection of Coddington Highway and West Main Road. to include a mix of commercial, residential, and municipal uses that is well integrated with the surrounding neighborhood. That is a quote taken directly from that executive summary. Within the land use element, which is often the heart of the document, It supports mixed-use development in commercial areas, and this property is within the core of Middletown's commercial center. As you well know, the eastern side of Middletown is fairly rural. That is where the majority of the open space is, and the plan really focuses on where can they produce commerce, where can they grow your revenue, and you have to pick a place, and this was a spot that was selected. So there's a key map that is actually within your packet, I believe. It's entitled the Land Use 2025 Map, Map L-1. It illustrates on that map several coverages. And one of those coverages is the urban services boundary. This property is smack dab in the urban services boundary. Also, Seward Urban Development Area, As I said before, your eastern area is not Seward. This area is Seward. If you look at the map that's in your packet, there is a single large gold star. It's actually quite larger than I envisioned. You can see the size of it on the map right here. It's huge. That's directly on top of this property. Basically, it captures that two-mile corner area. It's entitled Potential Growth Center Within the Legend. And again, that's at the intersection of Coddington and West Main. Furthermore, the land use element narrative for the development property, page 9-18, it states, quote, the town would like to see the area transformed into a walkable and attractive destination to include a mix of commercial, residential, and municipal uses that is well integrated with the surrounding neighborhoods. Overlay zoning should be drafted and adopted to ensure the town's vision for this special place is implemented when private development takes place. Additional land use element narrative Page 9-17 states, quote, the town completed the West Main Coddington Development Center master plan in 2011, which envisions a mixed use center in the vicinity of the intersection of Coddington Highway and West Main Road. The area currently includes a significant amount of adjoining publicly owned property, including a recreational complex, town library, the recently closed JFK Elementary School, and a three-acre parcel of Navy land, which was declared surplus. The Navy parcel, site of the former Navy lodge, will be disposed of through the base alignment and closure, BRAC process. Currently, disjointed residential and commercial uses, unattractive streetscapes, inadequate pedestrian facilities, and congested intersections make for an uninviting pedestrian environment. Within that land use element, a couple policies and goals. Encourage the redevelopment of vacant and underutilized commercial properties, an action item. Consider adopting incentives to attract desirable development and redevelopment to areas of town with existing infrastructure, including a potential growth center at Two Mile Corner. A goal, take advantage of opportunities for appropriate redevelopment on the west side which benefit the town and the US Navy. The next element, economic development, explicitly promotes mixed use at West Main Coddington and supports economic growth and job creation for businesses including hospitality. Couple items, action item, promote the development and enhancement of mixed use business districts in appropriate locations such as, Atlantic beach district that's where your first overlay is and West main coddington redevelopment area we're here tonight to request another overlay. Policy support economic growth and job creation in the local tourism and hospitality industry. couple more elements briefly recreation conservation and open space specifically references the existing recreation facility as poorly suited. And the location is better suited for a mixed use development it recommends recreation facilities be relocated elsewhere quote West main recreation complex. west main recreation complex is in a location that is poorly situated for recreational uses due to traffic and the proximity of a major roadway and housing this area is potentially better suited for a mix of housing commercial and institutional uses that are typical of a village center a planning study is underway which encompasses the area in the vicinity of the intersections of Coddington Highway and West Main Road, including the recreation complex, the public library, the recently closed Kennedy Elementary School, and a three-acre parcel of Navy land expected to be cleared surplus. The Navy parcel, site of the former Navy lodge, will be disposed of through the BRAC process. The West Main Road recreation complex is likely to be redeveloped. The displaced recreation facilities must be accommodated elsewhere in town due to restrictions imposed when the town acquired the land from federal government. I'm just wrapping up my comments. The last element deals with housing. Page 7-37 explicitly, in quotes, references West Main Coddington Redevelopment Center. encourages mixed-use housing and use of transit-oriented development, outlines benefits, village style, mix of multiple uses, pedestrian and bike travel, sense of place, economic development, efficient use of land and infrastructure, and it guides development towards established areas to protect outlying rural areas with environmental sensitivities, typically your eastern portion of town. In conclusion, Middletown's comprehensive plan is explicitly conclusive as to what it desires for this property. There is no question. It is redundant throughout the entire document. Repurposing this town-owned property for a mixed-use development is the plan and the goal. Open space and recreation is a part of a mixed-use development. And that would work in conjunction with its growth. PROVING AN OVERLAY ZONING DISTRICT ALLOWS FOR THE PRESERVATION OF POTSEY FIELD. POTSEY'S FIELD'S PRESERVATION CAN OCCUR WHILE ALSO ALLOWING COMMERCIAL AND RESIDENTIAL REDEVELOPMENT ON SURROUNDING PROPERTIES, INCLUDING THE APPROXIMATELY 6.7 ACRES OF LAND TO THE NORTH. THANK YOU.

Robert Campanaro, 351 West Main Road, Middletown. For more than a century, the Campanaro family has been woven into the fabric of Middletown. Since the early 1900s, our family has lived here, worked here, raised our families here, invested here, and shared the community's successes and challenges. Our connection to Middletown is measured not simply by the passage of time, but by generations of stewardship, responsible investment, and steadfast belief in this community's future. In 69, our family made a significant investment by opening Howard Johnson's Motor Lodge and Howard Johnson's Restaurant. More than the construction of a hotel and restaurant, it represented long-term commitment to Middletown's future. More than 55 years later, the investment remained successful business, providing local employment, generating substantial tax revenue, and supporting other area businesses, and welcoming thousands of guests each year. In 2004, we were proud to begin a partnership with the Caron family. First Bristol Corporation. Together we expanded our commitment to Middletown through the Hampton Inn and Suites, the Residence Inn, the Homewood Suites. Over the past two decades, we have continually reinvested in these properties, most recently investing more than $11 million in renovations and improvements. Our confidence in Middletown has never wavered. The history is important because it demonstrates our approach to development. We do not build projects for short term, we invest for generations. We maintain our properties, reinvest in our business, support our employees, and remain committed to the communities in which we operate. Today our The partnership employs 130 team members at the Howard Johnson's, the Hampton Inn and Suites, the Residence Inn, and the Homewood Suites, with approximately 90% serving full-time positions. 95 team members live here on the island, 49 in Newport, 28 in Middletown, and 18 in Portsmouth. Together, this makes us one of the largest private employers. The stability of those jobs is equally important. Through seasonal fluctuations, economic recessions, and COVID-19 pandemic, we remain committed to our employees and have not implemented seasonal layoffs. Our business provides dependable year-round employment because it is supported by a diverse customer base that includes military personnel, government agencies, healthcare organizations, educational institutions, corporate travelers, and regional travelers. Our economic impact extends well beyond our hotel properties. We support an extensive network of local contractors, suppliers, professional service providers, including plumbers, electricians, HVAC contractors, landscapers, engineers, accountants, attorneys, maintenance companies, food distributors, and many others. Our guests support Middletown businesses every day, including Brown University Health, Newport Vineyards, Newport Beach House, Guantanamo Golf Club, Newport National Golf Club, all located in Middletown, supporting directly back to the town. Local restaurants, retailers, and numerous other employees throughout the community. In 2025, our existing properties generated more than $800,000 annually in real estate and tangible property taxes, in addition to more than $1.25 million in lodging tax revenue. Those contributions continue to grow each year. The Commons project is general and be an additional million dollars annually through ground lease, payments, property taxes, lodging taxes, a recurring source of revenue that will benefit the town for decades. The proposed commons development is expected to create 50 new jobs, permanent, including significant management, supervisory positions, while supporting substantial employment opportunities during construction through local contractors and skilled trades. Our experience also demonstrates that hotels can be responsible neighbors. Hotel traffic is generally dispersed through the day rather than concentrated during peak commuting hours. Our existing Middletown hotels have operated successfully for decades without creating significant traffic issues, and our guest shuttle service further reduces the local vehicle trips. by providing transportation to nearby destinations. Ultimately, this project is about to continue a relationship that's already lasted more than a century. Our record speaks for itself. We had consistently invested in Middletown, creating meaningful, stable year-round employment supported local businesses, generated significant tax revenue, maintained quality properties, and remained committed to the community through every economic cycle. The Commons project represents a new chapter in the commitment. We respectfully ask that it be evaluated not only on its plans, but on the record of the families who stand behind it. Thank you. And at this time, I'd like to introduce a general manager at Howard Johnson's, along with Tina, Jen, and Amy, representing over 100 years of working for us. But she would like to say a few words, Karen.

Good evening. My name is Karen Bloomstead. I am a lifelong resident of Aquidneck Island. For the last 20 years, I have been the general manager of the Howard Johnson by Wyndham in Middletown. I started working for the Kempinar family in 1997. Prior to becoming the general manager, the positions I have held at the hotel were front desk agent, reservations manager, and sales manager. My career path saw so much upward mobility because Rocky Kempinar and Jim Karam chose to grow their business by opening other hotels in Middletown, the Hampton Inn, Residence Inn by Marriott, and Homewood Suites. Many of my coworkers also live on Aquidneck Island. Most of us are homeowners and some live in Middletown, less than one mile from the proposed development. These employees have similar or longer tenure with the company and have also experienced new opportunities within the organization. We have had housekeepers become supervisors, maintenance workers become chief engineers, front desk agents become managers. These promotions were created because of the properties the Kempinars and the Karems have opened since 2004. Growing the hospitality industry in our area is a benefit to Middletown and Aquidneck Islanders. Hospitality is a unique industry where hardworking people from all walks of life can make a career for themselves. I have been through all the changes with this company, and as an employee myself, I have only seen more opportunities arise. I have witnessed firsthand how growing this company will provide new opportunities for current employees and Aquidneck Islanders alike. The development of the proposed hotel will not only open doors to entry level jobs, but create greater opportunities for current employees and residents of Aquidneck Island now and for future generations. This development will not only create jobs within the West Main Coddington development, but it will also support local businesses as we work primarily with local vendors. The Kempinars and Karems care about the town of Middletown, their properties and the staff they employ. These families provide some of the greatest hospitality in our area, and all of their Middletown properties have been recognized nationally for superior accommodations and exceptional staff. The Kempinars and the Karems ensure that their employees have the security to be employed year round with benefits while being paid living wages. The company's current unemployment rate is 1.59%. The low unemployment rate is a testament to employee job satisfaction and low staff turnover. The company employs many people that call Aquidneck Island home. Working at Howard Johnson for almost 30 years, I have seen the outlook for hospitality in our area expand and change dramatically. Hospitality is one of the most prominent industries on Aquidneck Island, much of that due to the Newport Naval Base requiring more lodging. Military personnel and government contractors keep all 399 rooms on our current campus busy year-round, and I see there is still room to grow based on the increased demand. The importance of this project for Middletown is multifaceted. Not only would the West Main Coddington development create job opportunities, but also provide support for the growing need of accommodations for Naval Station Newport. This development also ensures that by providing the defense sector with housing for their growing needs, the government will not have to build their own hotel on the Newport Naval Base. If the West Main Coddington development proceeds, the residents can rely on steady tax revenue from this project that will go to the town of Middletown. This will not be the case if the Navy has to build a hotel on base for their expanding programs. I am in support of the West Main Coddington development concept, as I know it will only add to Aquidneck Islanders' quality of life by creating jobs and opportunities for those of us that live and work here year-round. I appreciate your time.

Thank you.

Robert Kempner again, 351 West Main Road. Senator De Palma was supposed to come tonight. Can you pull that closer? Yes. Senator, sorry. Senator De Palma was supposed to come tonight, and he got called to Washington. He asked me to read this letter. TO THE HONORABLE MIDDLETOWN TOWN COUNCIL, I WHO HARDLY WITHOUT RESERVATION SUPPORT THE DUE BRANDED LODGING FACILITY ON THE FORMER NAVY LODGE PROPERTY AND RESPECTIVELY URGE THE COUNCIL TO SUPPORT THIS WELL PLANNED INITIATIVE. THE COUNCIL DESERVES RECOGNITION AND GRATITUDE FOR THEIR PERSEVERANCE AND DUE DILIGENCE WITH THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE PROPERTY. I RECALL MY TIME ON THE COUNCIL FROM 2004 TO 2008, PARTICULARLY DURING THE 2005 BASE REALIGNMENT CLOSURE PROCESS WHEN WE INITIATED THE EFFORTS TO SECURE THE VACANT AND SURPLUS NAVY LODGE PROPERTY. And as the property evaluation made its way through BRAC process, I recall coordinating a meeting amongst the three communities with Senator Reed to ensure the process was proceeding as planned and expected. And I remember congratulating the council in 2018 when they secured the acquisition of the property for $1.3 million of taxpayers funding to acquire the property. A dual branded lodging facility sited at the former Navy Lodge property is absolutely needed to accommodate current U.S. Navy needs. The anticipated arrival of NOAA personnel in 2027 and the Coast Guard personnel in 2029. THE PROJECT WILL GENERATE A POSITIVE ECONOMIC IMPACT BENEFITING ALL MIDDLETOWN RESIDENTS THROUGH REVENUE FROM LONG-TERM LEAFS. ADDITIONALLY, THE DIRECT INCREASE IN HOTEL AND MEAL BEVERAGE TAX AND ACCELERATORY INCREASE IN JOBS DRIVING RESIDUAL EXPENDITURES AT MANY LOCAL MIDDLETOWN SMALL BUSINESSES. THE COUNCIL DESERVES accommodations for its efforts in securing and saving millions of taxpayers' dollars for the new Middletown Public Library within the Enterprise Center. Your ingenuity and swift action is making this a possible truly commendable. Beyond my strong support this well-planned, much-needed project, I want to express my willingness to assist in any way, including providing state-level support to help fully realize the development of the former Navy Lodge property, with a much-needed Du branded lodging facility. In closing, I once again express my full unwavering support for this project. And please do not hesitate to reach out if there are any questions. Signed, Senator Lou DePalma. Thank you.

OK. Thank you. OK. We're going to go right to comments. I would just ask that. A lot of people spoke last time, and certainly not shutting anybody down, but if anybody has anything new to add, that would be great. But all comments are welcome, but we just wanna make sure we get through this and everyone gets a chance to speak. Everyone's gonna get a chance to speak once. So, Carol, you had emailed me because you have a medical condition and you had asked if you could speak first, so I'm gonna have Carol speak first, and then we'll get to the rest of the crowd, okay?

My name is Carol Cummings, and I live at 738 Indian Avenue in Middletown. And I also have a major problem hearing, so bear with me. First off, there are no mistakes in life as long as you learn from them. And I ask that this council follow Boba Von Villis and how she has changed her attitude regarding these men and what they are presenting to do on the green area, which we desperately need to keep green on the West Main Road. Additionally, have any of you bothered to even speak to the people that have commercial property across the street? They do not want anything there. There is so much traffic you can hardly even move going in and out. And it's only going to make it 100% worse. Not only that, I doubt very much if we will not end up going to court on this. There is no question that people in this community that live here do not want that developed. There are so many houses over there, you can put your hand out the window and shake hands. That green land must be kept green always. Additionally, I am going to give this to Wendy Marshall to bring up to Paul. It has to do with Poxy Field. You say that you are absolutely not going to do anything with it. It's going to stay the way that it is. How do you expect us to believe that when the way that you've been reacting to this has been positive? I feel very negative about everything that you are pledging to do, 100%. I have met with the Island Land Trust yesterday. I spoke with Terry Sullivan, who is the executive director, and Alex Sherman, who is a conservative director. And yes, they would like Potsie Field 100%. so i am asking if not asking i am telling you all to put potsy field with the island land trust and they will be waiting for this now who should i give this to bring up to you give it to wendy give it to wendy There's a lot more which I'm not going to go into because there are a lot of people that want to talk and I don't want to keep everybody waiting and waiting and waiting. There's one thing that I think is extremely important. Low income housing. I wrote a letter which was published and it has to do with the Kennedy School. It's extremely well built. There are things in it that can be instantly removed to make it safer for people. And that is where our low income housing should be on our land that we own and a beautiful building that is there right now belonging to the people of this community 100%. And the other thing And I also spoke with Ed Collins, who was a financial faculty director. I went and spoke with him at Oliphant Lane. And he agrees 100% with me regarding the Kennedy School. It's a magnificent building and very easily could be transformed into low-income housing. And the other thought that I had was the old library, which is absolutely a beautiful building. Unfortunately, it needs major work done to it because the books weigh lots of hundreds and hundreds of pounds, and it has cracked the floors and done other things. And basically, what Ed Collins has said, it should be torn down. But other people that are contractors have looked at it and said, no, it can be straightened out and can be used for the senior citizen center. There are no stairs for people to climb. It's one flat piece of property. and I totally agree that this is where it should be and Collins said it is a perfect place for senior Citizen Center because it's accessible by cars and buses and all forms of communication and people can walk all over the place from the low-income housing senior citizens And I won't go on anymore because I've talked enough. And that's it for me tonight. And I do hope you all have respect for what Barbara Van Villis has done because a lot of people do. and I could say an awful lot more which you really wouldn't wanna hear.

Thank you very much, Carol. Okay, I'm gonna go to the gentleman in the back. He had his hand up on the, yes, sir. Nope, you have your hand up, yeah. Oh, it's Mr. Frank. I couldn't see you behind that person.

Lawrence Frank, I'm here on behalf of the Middletown Affordable Housing Committee. In 2020, Middletown residents were invited to share their vision for the future of West Main Road Coddington Highway property. Residents participated, expressing support for a true town center that would include community gathering spaces, recreation, true affordable housing, walkability and amenities that would serve residents for generations. That public input led to the creation of a resident driven request for information and RFI in 2021. Historically, municipalities use an RFI to help shape a vision and then issue a request for proposals, an RFP, which allows multiple developers to submit competing plans. In this case, the town of Middletown never took the next step. Rather than opening the project to competitive RFP process and public notice, the town entered into an exclusive arrangement with a single developer. As a result, other developers, affordable housing organizations, community-focused development teams never had an opportunity to present alternative proposals for consideration. What makes this especially concerning is that the project which was proposed by a single developer was substantially different and at odds to the vision residents helped create. That is, the RFI original concept included a mix of residential, commercial, recreational, and community-oriented amenities. Yet by 2022 many of those resident focused elements were quietly discarded. The proposal changed without public notice into a largely commercial venture. Left was the developer's four story hotel and other profit driven uses. Summarily discarded was the RFI's command for affordable and workforce housing. Particularly alarming to the Affordable Housing Committee is the affordable housing that was offered was based on an 80% AMI, which according to previous reporting by Frank Spinella, our advisors, is essentially market rate. As you consider the future of this property, we ask that you remember the vision that residents were originally asked to help create and ensure that any final plan reflects both public interest and public trust. FOR THESE REASONS, MEMBERS OF THE AFFORDABLE HOUSING COMMITTEE ARE RECOMMENDING THAT THE TOWN COUNCIL DENY THE DEVELOPER'S REQUEST FOR AMENDMENTS TO THE COMPREHENSIVE COMMUNITY PLAN. DENY PROPOSED ZONING AMENDMENTS AND DENY THE REQUEST FOR ZONING OVERLAY ENCOMPASSING ANY OF THE 15 ACRES OF THIS PUBLICLY OWNED PROPERTY. West Main Coddington Overlay District, the Affordable Housing Committee is opposed to establishing an overlay district to govern zoning for all four lots. As stated in section 3100 of the proposed overlay district zoning code, quote, the intention of this overlay district is to allow for the coordinated development of more than one building, including residential dwelling units, and to create a mix of residential and commercial uses. Based upon comments at the June 3rd special meeting, the current plan only includes lot 1027, where the hotel is located, and lot 102.3, Potsey Field, defined as a public space. There are no plans of what will go into the two northern lots. The town solicitor stated the use of these lots, quote, is expected to lean heavily towards housing. The plans for housing must be addressed in more concrete terms. The solicitor's vague claim is not the commitment to housing that is required. It is clear that this zoning overlay was written specifically, specifically for the developer's proposed mixed development, and since that plan no longer exists, and since that plan no longer exists, the zoning overlay is no longer appropriate. Use of the underlying limited business zoning does doesn't seem applicable to all the lots in view of the current plan, while appropriate to the lot where the hotel is planned, it is not not for the northern lots which according to Mr Reagan are focused on housing. Given that the stated objective of the note of the northern lots is quote expected to lean heavily towards housing. it would seem to make sense to withhold rezoning until more substantive Greek plans are agreed to. And if there is no plan to develop housing, excuse me, and if there is a plan to develop housing, we would suggest that residential multifamily, RM, with a modification to allow for increased density, may be a more appropriate zoning. While density is a prerequisite to obtaining state funding, any development plan should be in line with accommodating the town's unique character. This would keep the focus on housing while still allowing for complimentary non-residential uses, such as everyday retail, bakeries, coffee shops, et cetera. As of now, there is no, no legislative directive to build housing. Section 3105.2, residential use, multifamily dwellings, The Affordable Housing Committee believes that a significant portion of the units need to be restricted to affordable housing, evenly divided within the range of 30 to 80% AMI. A move such as this would demonstrate Middletown's commitment to the future by ensuring there are housing options for working families. This would keep our schools populated and attract a local workforce to fill the needed jobs which keep our community and economy resilient and viable. Section 3106.4 refers to density. This section, as written, fails to need the needs of Middletown. Dwelling units of one unit per 3,500 square feet convert to 12.5 units per acre. AHC recommends for reducing the current minimums to a lower number to allow for greater density. The overlay district zoning was written for a mixed use development with the intention to allow for coordinated development. This zoning code was prepared in close coordination with the developer for a project that has been abandoned. is not applicable to the current plan which only covers the navy lodge lot with plans for the northern lots unknown it does not make sense to move forward with this overlay for the reasons listed above the affordable housing committee recommends that the zoning overlay district be discarded the future of the northern lots must be established before any new overlay is proposed in addition the affordable housing committee does not DOES NOT SUPPORT THE PROPOSED HOTEL DEVELOPMENT ON LOT 102.7. DEVELOPMENT OF THIS LOT TOGETHER WITH THE NORTHERN LOTS SHOULD BE FOCUSED ON HOUSING WITH A MAJOR COMPONENT AS AFFORDABLE HOUSING. THESE LOTS ARE LOCATED WITH AN EASY WALKING DISTANCE TO SHOPPING SERVICES AND BUS LINES AND ARE IDEAL FOR HIGHER DENSITY HOUSING WHICH IS REQUIRED TO ADDRESS THE HOUSING CRISIS IN MIDDLETOWN.

Mr. Frank, just so you know, you're at eight minutes already.

I've got about 30 seconds left.

Okay.

The entire property should be focused on housing and the amenities that make living here a benefit to the entire community. The Affordable Housing Committee appreciates the opportunity to address these issues with you. We look forward to working to improve housing opportunities for all in Middletown. Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

Good evening, Town Council. How are you doing tonight?

I'll let you know after the vote.

Same. HEADS UP, I HAVE SOMEONE WHO MAY OR MAY NOT MAKE IT THIS EVENING AND DID ASK IF I COULD READ THEIR STATEMENT ON THEIR BEHALF IF THEY DO NOT. SO I WON'T BE GOING TWICE BUT I DO HAVE SOME INFORMATION FOR COUNSEL FROM SOMEONE ELSE. CAN EVERYONE HEAR ME OKAY? FANTASTIC. TERRY FLYNN, 34 WARREN AVENUE. The Middletown Center developer is proposing a limited business zoning overlay for all approximately 15 acres of the West Main Coddington property. It seems quite strange that the proposed zoning overlay includes Potsey Field. At the last meeting on June 3rd, the town solicitor was quick to point out that although the zoning overlay includes Potsey Field, the field will continue to be zoned public underneath the zoning overlay. I'm here to point out that Potsey Field has been zoned public for decades, yet the town has publicly threatened to relocate it since 2018. Clearly, public zoning does not protect Potsey Field, and public zoning will not protect Potsey Field in the future either. Middletown residents and those who care should keep posting those don't move Potsey Field yard signs and save them for your children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. I DID FIND A NUMBER OF RELEVANT TOWN DOCUMENTS ON THE SUBJECT. THE 2010 RECREATION CONSERVATION AND OPEN SPACE MASTER PLAN, THE 2011 WEST SIDE CODDINGTON DEVELOPMENT CENTER MASTER PLAN, THE 2014 COMPREHENSIVE PLAN, AND THE 2014 MIDDLETOWN CENTER PLANNING STUDY. What is curious about all these town documents is that they were published well after 2006 when the softball field was renamed in Staff Sergeant Christopher Potts' honor, yet none of these town documents recognize Pottsy Field as a veteran memorial. It is noteworthy that both the Open Space Master Plan and the current Comprehensive Plan present the following statements. One, it is important to note that even though land may be identified as open space in this plan, it should not be assumed that such land is protected in perpetuity. And two, typically parks and ball fields, for example, are not permanently protected. Yet it is puzzling that the documents do not then go on to state that Potsy Field is one such ball field. Potsy Field has a deed restriction for public use and recreation in perpetuity. Communities dream to have open space land within their boundaries that are protected in that way. As a result, I'm here to also point out that nowhere in these four town documents is it recognized that Middletown has open space land that is protected in perpetuity that is also a veteran memorial. This is a gem for Middletown. As such, it is simply inappropriate to involve Potsey Field in a zoning overlay. Additionally, the National Park Service has sent a letter to the town asking town council to, quote, avoid changes to the zoning through an overlay zone until the land to parks and land and water conservation fund compliance issues are resolved. Clearly, Potsey Field and that land are not safe simply because they are zoned public. The only way to truly protect Potsey Field from desecration by a future town council is to amend adopted town documents to include Potsey Field shall remain as is and in place in perpetuity. Until that is done, Potsey Field is not safe. Thank you for your time this evening, and please make this statement part of the public record in the meeting minutes filed with the Secretary of State. Thank you.

Thank you, Terri. Wendy, you've had your hand up for a bit.

Hello, Wendy Real, 48 Swan Drive. I'd like to thank you for this opportunity to speak, but honestly, I'm tired of residents having to come and stand before you and tell you in multiple ways that we, they, disapprove of this town center design. We are in an election year. And I'd like to remind you that your accountability to the public has been dismal. The town proposed a town center to the residents. This included public spaces and affordable housing on public land. which is supported by over 2,000 petition signatures and over 100 public speakers at public hearings, town council meetings. What is currently proposed is a multi-story hotel for the benefit of the developers. Accountability to residents, none. Middle town planning board conditionally approves a 15 acre town center with contingencies and now the town and developer submit a 7.2 acre different plan. Contingencies are not met and this different plan did not get the planning boards green light accountability to residents. None. Middletown Council decides town needs a new library, again, to free up space for the developer. Purchase a 40-year-old building that include renovations for a total of 11.4 million to a new library without a referendum vote. Accountability to residents, none. Middletown Town Council pushes a $190 million school bond. Council approved a draft plan and defined a $190 million project. When politicians developed and submitted a plan to ride, it was for 207 million. Accountability to residents, none. Middletown Town Council has increased per capita debt between 2021 to 2020.

Wendy, does this have to do with this overlay or not? That's what we're sticking to. You're not here to beat up the council on decisions. We made decisions. We stuck by them.

I'm finishing up.

You can boo all you want. We're going to stick to the agenda. That's what we're going to do. And you would do the same?

Yes. Okay. Um, then I will skip forward. In closing, I'd like to let you know there is a 32nd video on Middletown residents Facebook page that I will email to the town council this evening. It is Councilman Dennis Toronto asking Sean Brown and I quote is it fair to say we have another bite at the apple in regards to residents giving us their feedback in regards to what they would like to see there sean brown's response was and quote yes it all comes back to a public vote thank you and i request my statement be included in the meeting minutes as well as in the minutes sent to the secretary of state

So you've had your hand up on for a while. Yes, sir. The white hat.

Hi, my name is Michael Lopes. I live in 4042. Paquin place in Middletown. I live about a block away from what's going on what's the field. And I was just wondering why You're going against everybody that lives here as far as even going this far. From the very start, everybody was against this project. One thing I want to say, have you ever noticed Kings Park? They have the concerts there. It's beautiful. Families are playing. It's really an enjoyable situation. That's what Middletown wants for that field. They want something like that. We don't want hotels. We don't want hotel. We have plenty hotels. You know, we got too many people in this town. The traffic is terrible. You know, it's bumper to bumper. The brush showers, in fact, I avoid it. I just stay home. But it's too many people. I mean, a lot of people on this island avoid going downtown because they know what it's like. So the only thing you've got down there is tourists. Money isn't everything, right? Money isn't everything. You people have got to think, we voted you guys in. At least we think we did. And we expect you to help us out with times like this. Not go against us. He talks about being here since the late 1800s. Well, my family has been, too.

Mike, you need to address the council.

My family has been, too. In fact, my mom was born in Whoppin Road in a farmhouse in 1916. Right? We were here in the late 1800s, right? Working this island. We had farms. My last name's Lopes Smith and Perry and several other last names are part of my family. That's the way it is around here. We've been here for a long time. It's disappearing. Everything's disappearing. The places to go, the people, you know, they're dying out. We need a home situation. We need someplace to go where we can meet other people and enjoy our town. Where do we go to enjoy our town? Where? There's no place, right? I go to Kings Park. Newport, right? Because they got a nice place down there. They got parking and everything else like that. It's a really nice place. But we don't have anything here. Another thing I want to bring up, Third Beach. You said you were going to get back to me about Third Beach.

Last time we were here. I probably did. I don't recall what you were looking for.

Well, you said that because Third Beach used to be free to Middletown residents. Just like other towns have free beaches, we had Third Beach. You took that away from us. Now it's going to cost us $90 a year. Right? And that was wrong. Who voted on that? You guys voted on that?

So Mike, we want to stick to the overlay.

All right, the overlay is a mistake, a big mistake, right? We shouldn't have that happening here. It should be a no question, it should be a vote no, right? That's it. And I apologize for you guys working so hard to pass this through, right? I know your family, right? It's a good family. We know you're out to make a buck. You're a businessman. We are not businessmen. I'm not even a college-educated person. I'm in high school. That's it. But I'm an Army veteran. I worked at an electric boat for 33 years building submarines. And I've worked all my life in this island and around it. I have a lot to invest in here, my life, my family. I don't want to see it wasted away. I would like to improve it. Hotels that don't improve it, you know? It just makes people rich. It ain't making us rich, you're people getting rich. Is it in your pocket? No, no. But anyways, I got 12 seconds. I know, I know. But I appreciate you listening here. I hope you do the right thing.

OK. Thank you, Michael. Karen.

Karen 207 Maple Avenue. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. I'm a member of the Affordable Housing Committee and tonight I'm here speaking as a resident. At the last meeting, the opening statement of Mr. Galvin, the developer's attorney acknowledged in his own words that quote, we think we've made very substantial revisions to the proposal here. Very substantial revisions is an understatement. The April 8th, 2026 amended and revised development agreement is not merely a minor amendment to the October 3rd, 2024 development agreement. The revised development agreement fundamentally changes the nature, scale and purpose of the project. This is evidenced by number one, replacing a mixed use development plan of all five lots to a single use build on just one lot. I MIGHT ADD THE SINGLE USE IS THE HOTEL ELEMENT OF THE ORIGINAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN THAT HAS BEEN PROTESTED FOR OVER FOUR YEARS. NUMBER TWO, REPLACING THREE SEPARATE GROUND LEASES FOR RESIDENTIAL, RETAIL AND HOTEL DEVELOPMENT WITH A SINGLE GROUND LEASE FOR A HOTEL PROJECT, A CHANGE THAT ELIMINATES TWO OF THE THREE ORIGINAL COMPONENTS OF THE MIXED USE PROJECT. number three reducing the development area from approximately 15.27 acres to approximately 3.24 acres the amended agreement does more than revise details it redefines the project these three examples are only a sampling of the multiple revisions made to the development agreement As a redefined project, the council is proceeding without a favorable recommendation from the planning board in limiting the public's ability to meaningful participate in decisions affecting this publicly owned land. The substantial revisions make it necessary for new planning board review and public hearings. This should be done before the town council considers permanent zoning and comprehensive plan amendments. I'm here tonight because of these issues and respectfully ask the council to deny the requested zoning and comprehensive plan amendment requests and to require the revised proposal to return through the proper planning board and public review process. In summary, even the developer's own attorney has acknowledged that very substantial revisions have been made to the original proposal. And the favorable recommendation of the planning board no longer applies to the revised project. Therefore, this requires a new planning board review and public hearings before any permanent changes to the Middletown Comprehensive Plan and Zoning Framework are considered. Thank you, and I have provided links to both the development agreements in my statement. I am submitting the statement to the town clerk and request the statement be included in the public record and specifically in the meeting minutes submitted to the Secretary of State. Thank you.

Thank you, Karen. I addressed that since I was- We're going to continue to take comment from the residents. All right. You can comment at the end. Okay. All right, Phil.

Phil Robertson, One South Drive in Middletown. I wasn't going to speak tonight because I spoke two meetings ago and I had a letter read on my behalf at the June 3rd meeting. But after the town council saw fit to let the developer take the first hour of this public meeting and give their pitch, by the end of that hour I had a little spit up in my mouth and I thought maybe I could speak and get rid of it. I'll try to summarize a little bit what they said. They said, here's this new plan, and it's great. You've got all this land. You can do whatever you want with. So as part of his pitch for the new scheme, at the end of the pitch, they would get the most prime location put a hotel on it and not have to help build a library, affordable housing, park space, senior center, et cetera. There is no mixed use, no additional open space, no town common, which this was called for a long time, no library, nothing except a hotel, which the citizens have clearly stated that they don't want and which the town certainly doesn't need. They win, the town gets nothing, and the town loses a prime piece of open space real estate. Please put an end to this madness tonight, once and for all. Like others, I'm kind of sick of having to come to all these meetings. Tonight was my birthday. It wasn't what I planned on doing.

Happy birthday. Thank you.

Make it a happy birthday. I can think of a present you could give me tonight. But please protect the interests of the citizens rather than the developer. And one more thing. Before you shut down other public comments because they go a minute or two over, keep in mind the first hour went to them. So I think that people should have a right to speak.

OK. Kim. And I'll get to everybody. I just I'm trying to work both sides of the room. That's all.

Good evening. My name is Kim Blass. I live at 111 Compton View Drive. I would like to share with you a summary of the meeting dates that have occurred for this development proposed since April 2021 to today. There have been a total of 42 town council meetings. There have been a total of 13 planning board meetings. This is actual research and not AI generated. That is a total of 55 55 meetings. The residents have listened to you and now it is time for you to listen to the residents. On June 3rd, 2026, I gave the clerk for public record a binder of notarized petitions with over 2,000 signatures, not just from Middletown residents either. If you review these petitions, excuse me, page by page, you would see signatures from four cities and 11 towns in Rhode Island. one city, seven towns in Massachusetts. Also signatures from Connecticut, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington DC. This is hard work to show the town council that residents from Middletown and from other cities and towns care about Middletown and the direction of this proposed development. I have been in front of council on this development proposal multiple times since 2021. Five years I have been asking you to listen to the residents who elected you. I have been asking you, as have many others, to make decisions that would make our town look like a town and not a city. Multiple meetings and petition signatures are telling you that you need to reject the developer's request tonight. If you feel a decision must be made, then also vote to send this back to the planning board. It is a fact that on June 3rd, 2026, attorney Gerard Galvin said, quote, this is a significant change, unquote. Let the planning board look over this significant change and send its recommendations back to the town council. I am not a lawyer, but I think this is the way it works. Also, to be fair, the next election is upon us, and this should be a vote for the newly elected council in November. Again, I am not an attorney, but I think this is the way it works. That will definitely be listening to Middletown residents. To close, I would like to remind the council that you are also residents. This will be your legacy for the rest of your time in Middletown. It will affect your family, your children, your grandchildren, and generations to come. If you want to preserve your legacy, then stop the direction of the development tonight, and together we can create a beautiful Middletown Town Center for families to enjoy. I will submit the list of the Town Council and Planning Board meetings along with my statement for public record and ask they be included in the Secretary of State's meeting minutes. Thank you.

Thank you, Kim. Yes, ma'am. You've had to hit it for a while.

Good evening. Hi. I'm Melissa Grinnell, 790 Green End Avenue. Just like Mr. Kempinar and Mr. Lopes, I too have been a member of this community and my family for over a century. And Mr. Kemper, I did just want to reply to you when you said it was expected that you treated your business employees very well and that the general manager spoke. But I also just want to say that I think that is expected in any business manager to do that. So I don't know why he had to bring that up. And then Gerard, the lawyer here, was saying that there won't be significant traffic issues. I completely disagree. My parents live on 90 Purgatory Road, which is right across the street from Easton's Beach, which is now called the Atlantic Beach District. My parents' quality of life has actually changed because of this. They go out at certain hours because the traffic is so bad. When I drive to my parents' house from Green End, I take back roads because Aquidneck Avenue is completely backed up. So I can only imagine, now, Atlantic Beach District is just this little town right within the community. The West Main Road area is already boggled with traffic, never mind adding this hotel The traffic will change. I completely disagree with the lawyer saying that the traffic won't change. It will, trust me.

I've witnessed this firsthand.

Also, speaking of Atlantic Beach District, you are already adding two more hotels. Rusty's was just torn down. A hotel is going up there. KJ's is also building a hotel. And even the little liquor store that I used to go and get the newspaper from, it's like four stories up. And I don't know if that's going to be a bed and breakfast or what it's going to be, but that's going to be an absolute nightmare. My parents' quality of life has gone downhill. Mr. Lope's quality of life has already gone downhill because he said he doesn't like to leave his house because of the traffic, except to go to Kings Park, which is also I've been there. It's really cool. Also to address Mr. Campanar, I too care deeply about this town, my town that I grew up in and live in and pay taxes in and vote on. And I just want to see that this town is not turned into some sort of a city. I implore you to listen to the residents of Middletown. Also, speaking of voting, I DO JUST WANT TO POINT THIS OUT BECAUSE I'M A TEACHER. MR. LOGAN, IT'S SO DISRESPECTFUL WHEN PEOPLE ARE UP HERE SPEAKING WHEN WENDY TALKED ABOUT THE LIBRARY THAT YOU ROLLED YOUR EYES BACKWARDS LIKE THAT. I'VE BEEN WATCHING YOU FOR A WHILE AND YOU ARE AS A COMMITTEE MEMBER REPRESENTING YOU WORK FOR US. And you've been so disrespectful this whole evening. I'm sorry. I just I did have to say this as a teacher. You know, you're behaving like one of my students. um and that's it thank you so much for listening and i just implore you to listen to us the residents i love my town i grew up here it's beautiful um even though my parents you know they're they don't go out a lot anymore because of the town oh and ps my mom has to call the police all the time so if you can look that up she calls the police probably at least twice on the weekends because of the loud noise, um, parties, music, and just in general yelling from the Atlantic piece just up. You can, you can look it up. She calls them all the time. So I'm just letting you know that that's probably going to happen with this new hotel. Thank you.

Thank you, Chris.

Okay, Christopher Rowe, 177 Chases Lane. I'm a member of the zoning board, but I'm speaking as a resident. On April 6th, the council announced that it had listened to the residents' desires about not moving POTSE Field. I now ask that you properly protect POTSE Field into the future. The vision of a Middletown Center has existed since 2011 in the comprehensive plan as a common area for residents, not as a developer's hotel vision for themselves. I understand the council must at times make unpopular decisions in spite of residents' protests based on what you feel is best for the town. This is not one of those times. You also have a moral and civic obligation to stand up for the residents' desires and wishes, as they are who you were elected to represent. Approving this zoning change is not that. It goes against the comprehensive plan and the residents' wishes for Middletown. Fiscal responsibility has been talked about, and some have said that preserving the Middletown Center Commons as a community-based space is going to cost the residents too much money. I've compared this land to being Middletown's version of New York Central Park. How can that be done without costing residents millions? That's a fair question and a council concern. Money can be raised. I'd like to point to the Potter League building that cost over $8 million and was paid for 100% from donations through its capital campaign. I'd also like to point to the council's own library announcements recently made on June 15th about the donation of $1.6 million from just two foundations and over $56,000 raised by and donated from the Friends of the Middletown Public Library Organization. A year ago, I first floated the idea of raising funds through grants and donations by organizing a Friends of Pottsy Field Middletown Center organization for this purpose. During my time in the Navy and as a Navy chief, I learned and practiced leading by example. I won't ask a single person in this room or town to do something I am not willing to do myself. I am willing to pledge my support and even willing to organize sponsorship and fundraising for the rehabilitation of Potsie Field in development of the Middletown Center Commons Community Area, located on the former Navy Lodge site, which should remain as open public space as categorically shown by petition and resident input at meetings as the residents desire. In 2020, the Great American Outdoors Act authorized $900 million annually in permanent funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund. In September 2025, the Department of the Interior announced over $437 million in funding for the express purpose of supporting the development and rehabilitation of parks, conservation areas, and outdoor recreation facilities. Included with my statement is a copy of that announcement. Potsy Field on the West Main Road Recreational Complex came to us from the Department of the Interior Land to Parks program, yet for years has been allowed to become degraded. I'm confident that land, I'm confident land that came from them would qualify for rehabilitation funding from them. This is a matching funds program, so what might be raised through community action and town support could likely be doubled. The federal state and local assistance programs division also exists to help support states and communities in developing close to home public parks and recreation facilities. Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management has small grant opportunities that only require a 25% local match meant for smaller scale improvements. I think the town already knows about the existence of many of these types of grant opportunities. I found these in just a few hours of starting my research. On another issue, projected income to the town from a new hotel. I've done a survey of the hotel room occupancy and available rooms for the 14 hotels within a 1.4 mile radius of the Navy Lodge site. On this past 4th of July weekend with weddings and a large tennis hall of fame event going on, empty rooms equaled 63 plus, meaning it was equal to almost two of the smaller hotels being completely empty. Last Thursday, the hotels were a hair over 91% combined total occupancy with more than 134 empty rooms. Asked about off-season occupancy, some reported only running 20 to 25% capacity and others reported highs of 70 to 80%. The numbers appear to show that there will be no massive influx of new tourists flocking to fill new additional rooms. There will likely only be a redistribution of tourists from 14 hotels to 15 hotels with typical numbers of tourists year round. At last year's June community impact event at CCRI hosted in part by Middletown, the Navy stated there was an excess of available Navy housing. A copy of the survey and that Navy slide are included. This raises questions that have not been answered on what precisely the breakdown is on what's being used to project a massive $900,000 to $1 million additional income to the town. You, our elected representatives, have an obligation to represent Middletown residents. Without having the residents' approval, you should deny these zoning change requests. I request my statement and attachments be included in the meeting minutes as well as the minutes sent to the Secretary of State. Thank you for your time.

Thank you, Chris. Sheila.

Sheila Maloney. Sheila, can you hear me? Sheila Maloney, 27 Forest Avenue. Thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight. At the previous hearing and tonight, we have heard many passionate, informed, and many very different objections and concerns about this proposal. Rather than approve an overlay district for the entire property now, with only clear plans for one parcel, why not wait to ensure the property is actually redeveloped and quoting from the proposed ordinance in order to create one integrated mixed-use development. The mixed-use project land uses will be evaluated holistically and based on overall functional configurations. That's also from this proposed ordinance. There's been a lot of talk about mixed use from the developers. And also smart growth was mentioned tonight, and I'm not a planner, but when is a standalone four-story hotel ever considered smart growth? Some of you are running for reelection, and not all of you are running for reelection, but this council has a unique opportunity to slow this down. As mentioned previously, this process has been going on for decades, so there is no rush. To ensure the development of all 15 acres of town-owned land is done right and truly benefits the entire town and not one hotel developer. Thank you.

Thank you, Sheila. Yes, ma'am. Leigh Ann, I'll get to you next.

My name is Martha Ullman. I live at 9 Sakonit Terrace in Middletown. I've been a resident for 44 years and I've called this place home for all those years. I was brought up in the beginning that you wanted to hear a slightly new angle and since I haven't spoken in front of this town council probably in 20 years, I think I have a few three things that I thought I would bring up. In all due respect to the developers and their presentation, which was very thorough, We have talked about how this land use has been discussed as early as 2004, 2005, 2011, then the 2010s, 2020. This keeps on going. Times have changed. This is not the same land, the same place, nor the same town as it was in 2004 and 2011. The traffic on West Main Road is atrocious. Until recently, I was working on West Main Road. From not my neighborhood on the east side of town, I used to say I set my commute with seven or eight minutes, no longer, 20 to 25 to get onto West Main Road and make my way to the office. So that is why things have changed. The ideas that people brought up 20 years ago are not the same as the issues are being discussed today. there is a saturation of the market there's a saturation of traffic and the residents of this town are completely saturated with the idea that we exist to please tourists and developers So that was my number one issue. Number two was brought up was the financial benefit to the town. When I was here at the last minute where, what, 45 people spoke, I heard one person mention that the number was about $675,000 of taxes. And I sat there quickly, looked up what the population of the town, somewhere between 16 and 17,000. Today, I hear that revenue might be $800,000. Maybe that's wishful thinking. That comes out to somewhere between $45 and $60 per person. My beach tickets cost $170 for the two cars that I registered in my room. An extra $50 or $60 isn't going to change whether I pay taxes here or not. So please realize that that is pittance to what the town budget is. And that's not the reason we should be making bad decisions. lastly some of you know as i've been a professional in this community and i serve this community by listening and listening well to the people who visited me and i'm asking you to put aside your own desires and your own wishes and listen to what's going on here People do not want another hotel on this land. And the second issue with your overlay here is the other plots. We have no idea what's going to come next. And that unknown just does not work for these people I'm speaking for tonight. So that's it. Thank you.

Thank you, Martha. Leon.

Good evening. Leon Amaranth, 60 Island Drive. I'm going to keep this super brief. As many of you know, I was on the planning board when this project or when the first version, which is not this version of the project, was reviewed. The plan that you're hearing tonight and evaluating tonight is not the plan that the planning board reviewed. For one thing, at the time when we reviewed the original proposal, the status of POTSY Field and the ability to move it was not known. It's now known that it's not going to be moved. So this plan is completely different. This plan just includes one parcel for development. With that in mind, you do not have, in my opinion, a positive recommendation by the planning board for what is being proposed tonight. It's not an attack on the developers. The developers are doing what developers do. They're taking an opportunity. The Kempinar family has been an asset to this town for over 100 years. We all know that and we appreciate that. This plan and what I've always been concerned about is the process. that got us here or how this started. I still to this day don't believe that the town should have entered into an agreement prior to any of these issues being resolved. That put us on the planning board at the time. I'm not on the planning board anymore, but it put us in a very awkward position reviewing a plan that was proposed by a development team and the town rather than a plan that was proposed by the residents of this town. So, What I would recommend is this is a new plan. I would recommend not proceeding with this tonight and then sending this back to the Citizens Advisory Committee and then the planning board for another review. Like others stated, there is no rush to get this done. This has been on the table for decades at this point. So I would just urge the council to kind of pump the brakes, take the plan that's being proposed, give it time to go through proper review and then revisit it in the future. Thank you.

Thank you, Leon. Yes, ma'am. Hi, Theresa.

You're calling me ma'am. I know you couldn't tell it was me. I called you ma'am.

I didn't recognize you. I grew up with it. I figured that. I grew up with Theresa, so yes ma'am.

Theresa Spangler, 132 Peckham Lane. My family has also been here for over 125 years. I'm a lifelong resident and I've seen many changes throughout the years. I also, in my business of early childhood, have served thousands of families. along with my mother. I've seen many great changes and I've seen many not so great changes. We are a tourist community, so hotels and restaurants and establishments are very important for jobs and revenue. That is true. However, this is not the property for another hotel. This proposal is not the town center which was originally the plan for all residents to be able to share. We as residents are looking to have something that would be a community place with establishments for different age groups to enjoy, shopping, restaurants, enjoying some of the beauty of the open space. This property could be used for a teen center, which is way overdue for our children of this community. We have nothing for them, no bowling alleys, no movie theater, no place for them to hang out, for students to safely socialize. This also would be, someone mentioned earlier, about a senior center. That's another fantastic idea on the bus line in the middle of town. I do agree that some kind of development needs to go in this area. Folks are asking for open space, but who is going to pay for it? Someone did mention fundraising, and that is very, it's true. But revenue needs to be generated to cover green space. However, not with this hotel. We should get back to the plan of a true town center where we can all benefit. My understanding from the last meeting is that the revenue for the first year would be 785,000 with a 2.5% increase annually. Inflation is currently at 3.5%, so 2.5% per year increase will not cover the cost. Today, the developer mentioned that 850,000 is coming in from the rooms that are currently, that they own from the other hotels, which was 399 rooms. At another 144 rooms, that's 543 rooms just from this owner of these hotels. If you take the 785,000, you divide it by 104, it's $5,451 a year divided by 52 weeks is $104 a week, it's $15 a day for those rooms. This is a lot of rooms and less than a million dollars is not sufficient for the town when the owners will generate millions? If we're going to get $15 a night, they will be generating hundreds of dollars a night. How do the taxpayers only get $105 per week? Now, my math might be off, but if you take that $850,000 and divide it by 144 rooms, that doesn't create a lot of revenue for the town. Currently, based on what was said earlier, the 399 rooms also we're receiving $850,000. Divide that by 399, it's 2,130 a year, divided by 52 weeks is $41 a week, or $5.85 a day. So for 543 rooms, based on these numbers of Call it even $2 million, it's going to be about $20 to $25 a day. How is this dollar amount going to create new town positions? I understand there'll be a 2.5% annual increase, but the revenue does not cover expenses. It will not cover enough money to take care of the police, increase of police, increase fire, traffic problems, possibly drunk driving traffic, pedestrian traffic, road use and damage, water and sewer. All of these things require dollars and cents to cover. And in the summertime, we will need to pay overtime for those town resources. In the grand scheme of things, call it $800,000 a year just doesn't make sense. The data, as someone mentioned also, does not show the need for more rooms. Encourage you as the members of this council and members of our community to deny this plan right now and Go back to the drawing board. Something does need to go there. I think great keeping potsy field is important, but the library is not in good shape. We've already determined we're having a new library, so let's move on from that building. Kennedy School is not sufficient to house children in. It's certainly not sufficient to do anything with right now with housing. I don't know that for sure, but I really think that that could be looked at. I think we need to go back to the plan of a town center where there's restaurants, where there's affordable housing, not just affordable. We need low income housing too, and I know those two different dollars. I think we need to go back to the drawing board and make this a true town center that we can all enjoy. With some green space, papazzi field, but also generating some revenue to help offset some costs for taxpayers. Thank you.

Thank you, Teresa. I'm going to go one more on this side, then I'll jump back to this side, Mike. Is it Joanne? Okay.

Good evening. Thank you for this opportunity to speak. Joanne Thornton, 28 J. H. Dwyer Drive. First, I want to address something that Mr. Galvin said. He brought up some town documents that were dated 2010, 2011, and I think 2014. I'D LIKE TO REMIND THE COUNCIL THAT THE DEVELOPER'S RESPONSE SUBMITTED TO THIS PROJECT WAS NOT IN RESPONSE TO TOWN DOCUMENTS OF THOSE YEARS, BUT WAS SUBMITTED IN RESPONSE TO THE RFI. So having said that, I'd like to pick up where I left off at the June 3rd meeting, where it was stated that federal government does things differently or has different rules. I stand by my statement of June 3rd. Since that meeting, I've done additional research into the question of, does Rhode Island general law require a request for proposal following a request for information? the answer no a request for proposal is not required to follow a request for information however under the state of rhode island procurement regulations section 5 it does state and i quote request for information rfi shall mean a document used in informal uncompetitive solicitation of information data, comments or reaction from possible suppliers preceding the issuance of a request for proposals or multiple bidding process. I did confirm with the Rhode Island Division of Purchasing that all state governmental bodies, agencies, departments and commissions in Rhode Island are required to follow and are governed by the state procurement regulations. THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND DIVISION OF PURCHASES HAS A DOCUMENT ENTITLED PURCHASES 101, WHICH PROVIDES A STEP-BY-STEP TUTORIAL. IT STATES, A REQUEST FOR INFORMATION COLLECTS INFORMATION, WRITTEN INFORMATION, ABOUT THE CAPABILITIES OF THE MARKET. INFORMATION IS USED TO DEVELOP A ROBUST, ON-TARGET REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL SCOPE OF WORK. A REQUEST FOR INFORMATION DOES NOT RESULT IN AN AWARD OF ANY KIND. OPTION RFP, REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL, IS AWARDED ON BEST VALUE. THE DESCRIPTION INCORPORATES A DEFINED SCOPE OF WORK, TECHNICAL AND COST COMPONENTS AND A TECHNICAL REVIEW TEAM SCORES PROPOSALS BASED ON EXPERTISE. Again, all state governmental bodies, agencies, departments, and commissions in Rhode Island are required to follow and are governed by the state procurement regulations. The clue is in the name of the documents. Issue a request for information, you get information. You issue a request for proposal, you get proposals. Clearly, requests for information and requests for proposals serve distinct purposes, as I also stated on June 3rd. This process is followed by the federal government and the state of Rhode Island. I submitted a public request, a public records request to the town of Middletown, asking how many requests for information requests for proposals the town has issued since 2021 that skipped the request for proposal and went directly from request for information to award. The answer was only one. The Middletown Town Center project. I WOULD ALSO LIKE TO POINT OUT THAT THE AMENDED AND RESTATED DEVELOPER AGREEMENT HAS BEEN SIGNED WITH BLATANT ERRORS. ON PAGE ONE UNDER RECITALS, PARAGRAPHS A AND B, IT REFERS TO REQUEST FOR INFORMATION, RFI AND RESPONSES. Then on page 19, under paragraphs 8.26.1 and 8.26.2, the agreement states the developer responded to a request for proposal, an RFP which does not exist and was never issued. AT THE JUNE 3rd MEETING WE WERE TOLD NO RFP WAS EVER ISSUED AND THE REQUEST FOR INFORMATION STATED THAT THE RFI WILL NOT RESULT IN THE SELECTION OF A DEVELOPER AND A FORMAL PROCUREMENT PROCESS WILL FOLLOW THE RFI. Clearly, it is Middletown that has different rules and does things differently. It is very clear that Middletown has yet to compete this very important, highly impactful town project as outlined in the request for information and in accordance with federal and state guidelines. Therefore, the town council has only one choice. Reject the developers requests for the comprehensive plan amendment, the zoning changes and the zoning overlay. The revised proposal still does not reflect what was outlined by the public in the request for information and the public's displeasure of the proposals continue and have been on record and have not changed since April of 2022. The council needs to follow the proper best practices procurement and purchasing procedures to do its best by Middletown and her residents. Anything less would be unacceptable and would not fulfill your oath of office. Please make this statement and reference documents part of the public record and include them in the Secretary of State meeting minutes submission. Thank you. Thank you, Joanne.

Thank you, Joanne. Hey, Peter.

Do you have a copy of the agreement? Or do we have a copy of the agreement here?

I only have a copy of the agreement here.

They're in my submission.

Okay, they're in your submission. Okay. Because I want to make sure we take a look at what Joanne's saying is accurate. Not that it isn't. I just want to make sure that, you know, one says RFI, one says RFP. That's not consistent. Okay, Mike.

I'm Michael Flynn, 34 Warren Ave. Good evening, Mr. President and town councillors. I have some questions and observations. Number one, where are the detailed financial analyses? Has a financial comparison been done if the town were to sell that lot outright? I imagine with the limited business zoning in place, that lot would be infinitely more valuable. Perhaps that income could then be used as part of the financial stack in an affordable housing application to Rhode Island Housing to make it more attractive for their approval. I'm not saying that's what we should do. I'm just asking the question. Two, is this a good deal for Middletown? Mr. Tom Brown brought this up at the last meeting and I also commented on it, but it still sounds like a sweetheart deal for the developer, not such a great deal for the taxpayers based on the revenue projection. To that point, what is the net income the taxpayers can expect? The town has thrown out many revenue numbers. Let's just use a million dollars for an example. It was pointed out in the last meeting that one million is not very much anymore, which is true, but revenue is only one side of the equation. There is an expense to the town that has not been presented to the public, the cost of use, the cost of services. In 2014, a company by the name of Matrix Design Group presented an analysis to the town, Middletown, for this very property. They analyzed the development of two buildings, a 22,000 square foot office retail building plus a 14,000 square foot retail only building. 2014 was 12 years ago and Matrix assessed the net financial impact as follows, quote, this indicates that for every dollar in tax revenue generated by the post development between 49 and 76% is allocated to the provision of services. They estimated 12 years ago that 49 to 76 cents for every dollar of revenue would have to be used for related expenses the development required for town services. Their analysis specifically showed that in the cost per town employee for public safety, public works, library, education, community services, and other general government services. It is likely to be much more now, but using 62 cents on the dollar as the middle number, 625,000 of a potential million-dollar revenue would be allocated to the provision of services, leaving us 375K in net income. These details are critical to explore before a decision is made. In addition to the 62.5 cents on the dollar expense for services, the Matrix Design Group also predicted the following, quote, Redevelopment of the property at the levels illustrated in the scenarios may exceed existing capacities and require upgrades. Have all the Councillors seen this analysis? I am asking the Council to present an update of this analysis to the public and to review the marketplace opportunities and options before any decisions on this property are made. Please make this part of the public record and attach to the meeting minutes submitted to the Secretary of State. Thank you.

Thank you, Mike. Yes, ma'am.

Good evening.

How are you?

Can you hear me?

Yes, ma'am.

I'm Deborah Furgola, 639 East Main Road. I've been asked to read a letter from someone that couldn't make it here tonight. Susan Addy at 43 Willow Road, Middletown. Dear Town Council, I sincerely regret I cannot attend tonight's meeting. I am grateful to the volunteer who has offered to read this statement aloud. Thank you. That would be me. Much of what is being said tonight or has been said in previous meetings is something you have heard over and over again. What I do not understand is why the voices of we, the people, seem to matter less than the voice of an investor. Why do some among you want to support a government facility that is often transient without regard for the Community, instead of listening to the people who have lived here for generations. For more than a decade, this Community has been telling you what it wants. Yet it seems you're not listening, and that makes me sad. Throughout my nearly 50-year career protecting wildlife and wilderness areas, I have often been the voice of those who have no voice. Tonight I will be the voice once again, this time for the children of our community and for the environment they depend upon. Today's children and those yet to come are people we should be thinking about most. They have no voice in the decisions you will make tonight. If you vote to amend the zoning laws to allow yet another hotel, you will be disregarding the kind of environment children need in order to thrive. Excuse me. Like children everywhere, they need open spaces. They need green space, not asphalt, places where they can gather with their friends, sit and talk, play games, or kick a ball around an informal soccer match. Every season, but especially in the summer, they deserve safe streets where they can ride their bicycles and safely cross the road to see a movie, buy an ice cream, or walk to the beach. To do that, they need multiple safe crosswalks, not more hotels and parking lots. We should be investing our energy and our tax dollars in safer streets and environmentally responsible decisions. To live healthy, successful lives, children need clean air and water. Our water resources are already stretched too thin. Everyone in this community knows that our wastewater treatment facility is operating beyond its intended capacity. And too often our beaches become unsafe for swimming because of it. The children of today and the generations that follow deserve clean beaches, safe roads to reach them, an adult community that values their health and well-being. The same responsibility extends to the plants and animals of Narragansett Bay and our shared ocean. Our state proudly calls itself the ocean state, yet in this discussion we seem to forget what that means. We fail to acknowledge what more asphalt and more hotels will only increase environmental degradation, harming the plants and wildlife once thrived in the bays and on our shores. I ask you tonight, think beyond the dollar. Think about the children of our community. Think about a child from a less privileged family here in Middletown. That child deserves every benefit a caring community could provide. They deserve safe streets, clean water, healthy beaches, and open spaces where they can simply be children. You have the opportunity to give them those things. But if you vote for more hotels, more asphalt, more development, you also vote for increased environmental degradation. If you return to the original 2014 comprehensive plan, you will find that this is exactly what the community asked for. Residents came together and told the town council they wanted open space, safe streets, beach access, and a community that put quality of life ahead of unchecked development. Tonight, I ask you to let the children of Middletown guide your decision. Let the environment those children need to grow flourish and build an even better Middletown, let that be your priority. Please vote no on amending the zoning for the Connington West Main properties. By doing so, you will be giving today's children and the generations to follow the opportunity for a healthier and brighter future. Thank you for your consideration. I was. I respectfully ask that this statement be entered into the public record and into the Secretary of State's meeting. And I would like to add personally, those were Susan's words and my sentiment as well. And I'd like to add that all of us here, the community of Middletown are human beings and our options are not generated by computer. And our opinions are not as well. Thank you.

Thank you, Deb, for reading that for Susan. And thank you for your comments. Yes, ma'am. John, I'll get you next. Thank you, sir.

Good evening. My name is Roberta Duffy, 280 Forest Avenue. Thank you for letting me speak. This came off the top of my head while I was sitting here, so bear with me. My first thought was nobody builds hotels for the benefits of the towns they're in. They build hotels for personal profits. Every underutilized property does not need to be developed. If the town has been working on developing this property for over 10 years, why are we just now discussing rezoning and changing the comp plan? Why does this feel like spot zoning? And what is the urgency? Why wasn't this property already rezoned and comp plan changed before proposals were accepted for this property? The 800,000 year lease is less than 1% of our town's operating budget. This amount will not cover for a fire station, a substation, which will probably be needed when West Main Road is in a gridlock every day, which will lead to increased response time for all emergency services. The 800,000 lease will not pay for any soil remediation that will have to be done on the property, and we know that's gonna be definitely an issue. If the West Main Recreation Facility is in a poor location, as spoken to, due to traffic, how is the development going to better the traffic in this area? And if the hotels bring so much money for the town, why haven't I seen the savings in my taxes? I say I proposed that you vote not to change any of the zoning until there's a comp plan and proposal that the townspeople agree to. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you, Roberta. John.

Before I start, I just want to make sure of something, OK? I heard the developers and their lawyer mention that they brought in, in the four hotels, like $800,000. And this one hotel is going to bring in $850,000, which, again, that keeps changing. I'm just curious. I'm also curious when they said that they brought in $1.75 million in taxes. How much of that does Middletown actually see? I think a lot of that goes to the state. I think Mr. Logan has mentioned that, and I think he has a very good point. So what I'm trying to get at is let's not skew figures here. Okay, so there's that. Good evening, town council members. Councilor Tom Welsh used AI to make the point at the July 6, 2026 Town Council meeting.

John, can you just state your name and address?

Oh, I'm sorry. That's OK. You're right. John Garliano, 22 Wood Road. Thank you. OK. Again, Council Tom Welch used AI to make the point at the July 6th, 2026 Town Council meeting saying that quote unquote, a group protesting a local project typically represents less than one and a half to three and a half percent of the total population. As an admitted novice user of AI, Counsel Welch stated that computers were not necessarily his friend, but was so eager to make a point of his own creation, he used AI to twist facts to his advantage. The figures he quoted are about the people who are in attendance and protest at public meetings, and his public presentation to me was insulting. Over 2,000 certified and notarized petition signatures protesting the developer proposal for Middletown Center were presented to Middletown Town Council on December 15, 2025. Over 1,500 were Middletown residents. That is almost 10% of the total population. and well over 15% of Middletown registered voters. Mr. Welch, AI is very specific and like numbers can be manipulated. The petition continues and even more signatures have been collected. At the first reading of this public hearing in September 2025, 34 out of the 36 presentations protested the original proposal. At the second reading, of this public hearing on June 3rd, 2026, 53 out of 54 presentations protested the revised proposal. I would suggest you could feed all that into your AI, Councilor Welch. Mr. Welch also quoted AI about people being intimidated at the meetings if they had a different sentiment than the majority in the room. When I first spoke out on this project, When part of it did resemble a town center, I was a little intimidated myself, but felt it was my civic duty to speak up, as I was against something that was such a deterrent to our beautiful town. I like to hope my participation and others have encouraged even more residents to speak out when they might otherwise not have. Middletown Council has not been listening to residents and seems to have their own agenda. A few examples. At the April 6, 2026 council meeting, Paul Rodericks made the statement, we have come up with a good compromise with the developers. That is not a compromise when the hotel is what most people don't want, and that's all that we're getting. Chris Logan has stated that every time he drives by and looks at that empty plot of land, he sees dollars that can be made for the town. Chris, with all due respect, please don't be locked into that tonight. I could go on and on. Other people have. There's a lot of expenses, too. Tom Welch has stated many times, I'm in favor of this, often appearing angry when people do not agree with him. At one of the budget hearings in April, Dennis Tirano in balancing the budget commented, when we get the money from the new hotel. Recent letters from Barbara Van Villis first stated she is now in agreement with the residents and within a month stated she's changed her mind and supports the proposal. In closing, I'd like to say that I am here to ask Council Welch, and the other counselors if they truly have the courage to vote with the people's voice and reject the developer's zoning and comprehensive plan amendment requests. Thank you, and please make this part of the meeting minutes filed with the Secretary of State. Thank you.

Thank you, John. Yes, ma'am. You are the most excited speaker I've ever seen in my years on the council.

This is just so not me. It is. This is so beyond public. I don't do public speaking.

It's okay. It's okay. It's fine.

Okay. Well, I'm easy today because I'm just reading a letter.

No problem.

I do want to add one little thing, though, but it's only tiny. But okay. So do I say me first if I'm reading her letter or her?

I would just state your name, address, and then get you reading it for her. And then to her. Yes, ma'am.

Okay, so I'm Gina Orzelak, 21 William Drive. I'm reading for Ann Galkowski, 43 Briarwood Avenue. To the members of the Middletown Town Council, I am unable to make the July 14th special meeting in regards to proposed zoning changes in the parcel of land including and adjacent to Pottsy Field. I am requesting that another town resident read this for me and that it be submitted to be included in the meeting's minutes. I urge you to vote against the zoning changes that would permit the building of a hotel on the land in question at the intersection of West Main Road and Coddington Highway. The town center needs to take priority. This project needs to start again at the beginning with proper planning, including an RFP that was never done in the current proposed changes. Middletown residents have been consistent with voicing our opinions and concerns regarding this project. Respond to the input of the residents and vote no on proposed zoning changes. Restart the town center project with a proper RFP sent out and regular communication with town residents about plans for the project. Thank you, Ann Galkowski. I think she did a nice job.

Thank you.

Okay. This is me now. But it's only little because I get very caught up and very emotional about like when the lawyers are talking and Mr. Kempinar is talking and I can't keep it all in my head. Because I get upset because I hear things and I'm trying to trust everybody and it gets upsetting. I just think that The best way to do this and to make everybody be calm and everybody be happy is to start over. I think that you guys are trying to please everybody and I get that. But I think that I I wasn't planning on even talking because I said what I had to say. And to keep coming back and saying what I have to say, you've got to be sick and tired of hearing it from us. But as long as we're getting changes, I'm going to keep coming back because I don't think it's fair. That's it.

Thank you, Gina. Yes, sir. In the blue hat. Thank you for taking your hat off, sir.

You're welcome. Thank you for giving us time to put our views. My name is Ram Nehra. and I will be extremely brief. We would like to know why you, the council members, are so interested in building the hotel, so desperate. That's my one question. My second question is, what will it take to convince you the majority of Middleton residents do not want any of the hotel or bank. So please, you seven members, each one of you should come and tell us, convince us. And we will say, OK, but 10 hotels, you know. You make us to speak every day. This is the fourth, fifth meeting I'm attending. We speak and try to tell you we don't want. What it will take you. Please tell us. Take votes tonight and see if the majority say we want hotel, go ahead and build hotel. Good luck to you. If we say no, please respect us. And if you ever succeed in building a hotel or bank, coming generations will never forgive you. Thank you so much.

Thank you, Ram.

Yes, sir, way in the back.

My name is Eric Lyons, 83 Forest Avenue. One thing that hasn't been mentioned, that people come in with the plans and pictures and words on a paper, and that's great, but there's a human element to Potsie Field. Every veteran in this room, please stand up. Please stand. You can't put this on paper. When I passed Potsy Field, I think about him. I served. A very short, unremarkable career, but I served. When I was there, many men and women were getting ready to retire that had been in Vietnam. They told stories to other soldiers they won't tell their families. I heard those stories at 19, 20 years old. from men and women who had served at 19 and 20 years old. Staff Sergeant Potts made the ultimate sacrifice on his 32nd birthday. It's a travesty to change the zoning from public to put anything else there. It breaks my heart. It's a veteran memorial. He died for us. My father's a retired Navy captain before he passed away. He didn't make the ultimate sacrifice, but he gave his life to this country. Thank you.

Thank you, Eric. Martha.

My name is Martha cozy era eight Miller Street in Middletown. Two things were mentioned tonight that were so unusual to me. One brought up by Gerard and Rocky and their employee at the Howard Johnson's and the other was the issue of trust. that a number of residents brought up, you know, there seems to be, you know, hard feelings and hurt in regard to can we trust our leadership. And I It almost seems as though something odd is happening because yesterday when I was preparing a few notes to speak to you tonight, something popped up on my phone. I get these alerts from media that are related to the issues at hand that we're experiencing here on Aquidneck Island, not just Middletown. And the alert that came up just blew me away. Right now, at this very moment, the Thomas Menino Center in Boston at the Seaport, about 5000 people from around the world are gathered. They are members of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, and they are there for their annual conference. And two men are receiving what is considered to be the Nobel Prize. In that field for investigative journalism and the two men are drew Sullivan and Paul read you are at you, they are the co founders of the organized crime and corruption reporting project and they are being recognized internationally for their research into Mr Karen. James Karen and. Ralph de la Torre and what they did to the steward health care system and 33 hospitals. And it was not a good report. This award is so highly prized by investigative journalists around the world. That 5000 members signed up for this conference in Boston, and this is happening right now tonight Tuesday night. With these two gentlemen. Mr Karen. Rocky talked about his family's character I've known rocky since he was five years old. Many of you know that he's married to my former husband Richard's kid sister, Ricky. Rocky probably doesn't even remember when he was a student of mine at Gaudet, very briefly, and he was not an easy student. Going back to Steward Healthcare, one of the things that was brought up, and there were 90 speakers at this multi-day conference, one of the things that was brought up about the Steward Healthcare situation is that the leadership of Steward, which is Mr. Karim and Dr. Ralph De La Torre, they spent $7 million hiring surveillance people, and putting up cameras, microphones, following people around. that they considered to be hostile to what they wanted to do. So I think character really should be part of this process of evaluation. I mean, we the people are being asked to be transparent. We're being asked to be open and honest with you. And we have the right to demand the same from the people that This 99 year lease is going to shackle us to Mr. Karen for 100 years. No, thank you. Not even 10 minutes. The other issue that came up tonight repeatedly by a number of people is trust and people in this town. I mean, I've had tears in my eyes on more than one occasion when I feel as though we've been let down or we've Secrets have been kept from us that shouldn't have been kept from us. I mean, transparency is supposed to be a two-way street. I had a rude awakening in regard to a leadership situation in this town Thanksgiving night. I was at the War College for 10 years. My boss was the dean of the biggest and most important aspect of the Naval War College and we're still friends. And he invited me to dinner for Thanksgiving. And only then did it come out that he is also the 20 plus year president of Middletown Youth Soccer. And he said that Bill Flynn, who I grew up with, Mike Flynn's older brother and Charlie's older brother, that Mike Flynn approached him and said that the town wanted the Middletown youth soccer fields back. And that he wanted the dean to turn the soccer fields back over to the town. And he put a lot of pressure on the president of Middletown Youth Soccer, and even said to him, I'm gonna take you over and show you the land we will trade you for the Middletown Youth Soccer fields. And he brought him to the old drive-in movie lot, which is much smaller and certainly not improved the way the Middletown Youth Soccer fields are improved. And he said to me, Martha, why would Bill do that? What did the town, why did, first of all, who authorized Bill to do that? And what does the town want the soccer fields back for? And I looked at him and I said, well, they do about the golf course. And they're right across the Stonewall and Wyatt Road from the Noon's Boys vineyards. I said, maybe there's big plans for that particular parcel. My thought is, well, why would the town be involved in that? Can you help inspire some trust for us to know what kind of things are you doing behind our backs? What are you authorizing? What are your plans? I think we have a right to know. That's all I have to say. OK.

Thank you, Martha. Terry, we're going to go once around. Um, yes, yes. Yes. Mr. Cam. Go ahead.

So the information, first of all, that was just put out has been twisted around and it's totally false. So let me explain, and you're going to have to wait a few minutes for me to explain all this because it's a complicated matter. There was a healthcare system in Boston, the Catholic healthcare system that went through Massachusetts called Caritas Christi and Caritas Christi got into substantial financial problems. The reason he got into substantial financial problems, It was run by the Catholic Church and the Cardinal of Boston, Sean O'Malley, who was a great man and worked his tail off to make sure hospital care and first rate care got into the lower income communities, Dorchester. places like that, Roxbury, New Bedford, Fall River, places across the state. What happens in those cases is most of those people in the income level do not have private insurance. They have Medicare, Medicaid, or no insurance. Medicare and Medicaid do not pay hospitals enough to survive. The people with no insurance have are required to be treated by the hospitals. And then at the end of the year, the hospitals put in a claim with the state for people who have no money and the state reimburses them a portion, not the whole amount, a portion. So between Medicare, Medicaid and non-insurance, the hospital was hemorrhaging. The Cardinal put together a group of people to ask and he wanted to get some business people because a lot of like a lot of Catholic health care groups, there were a bunch of nice people who served the church, who served the community and were on that board, but did not have the business expertise to run a hospital of that size. It was eight hospitals across Massachusetts. So he decided to put a new board on and he asked people to serve on this new board to determine what should happen to Caritas Christi. He asked me to serve as the chair of that board and to put some, I had known the Cardinal from years back, and to put together a group of qualified people from the business community, the banking community, the finance community, who would help serve the Catholic Church for no fee, of course, just serve on a board of Caritas Christi. In doing the examination, it was clear that the Caritas Christi would not survive. They were $400 million in the hole on the defined benefit pension plan. They were $450 million in the hole on deferred capital needs. So they needed something like $900 million to come out of this. We went to the Cardinal and said, Cardinal, no one's going to loan you the money to do this. The only thing you can do is sell the system. So he asked me if I would first, he would agree to that, if I would first go to the Catholic healthcare, major Catholic healthcare systems across the country. I went to the Midwest, to St. Louis, to a company called Ascension Healthcare, who's highly rated and considered the number one Catholic healthcare system in the United States. We went to Healthcare West, which is based in Denver, Colorado, another very successful system, and they both replied the same way to the Cardinal. We'd be happy to come and try to manage this and work you out of this for a fee, but we're not going to invest any money in it. So with that, We said to the Cardinal, you have to go to the market and sell the hospital system. Dr. De La Torre, who she's referring to, was the CEO of the company. Very bright guy, very good surgeon. but was in a very difficult situation because he had taken a job to run a health care system that was in dire need and dire problems from years of issues, not one or two, three years that he was there, years of issues. He knew he was going into a difficult situation, but thought he could work it out. He could not work it out. So we then convinced the cardinal that we had to sell the system and somebody who could put an infusion of $900 million into the system, $400 million to bring up the pension plan to where it should be, and $400 million for capital needs, new OR rooms, renovations of intake centers, things of that nature. Dr. De La Torre was able to get a company out of New York, a private equity company called Cerberus Capital, who agreed to buy the system and would agree to guarantee the pension plan and agree to guarantee the deferred capital needs. And the hospital system was sold to Cerberus Capital. I was on the board of Stewart Healthcare. Cerberus had asked me to serve on the board. when it was first sold to the cardinal for a while. And the reason for that was so that I would be the eyes and ears for the cardinal at meetings and be able to tell him what was taking place within that system. And I served on that system for about a year. They ended up servers, ended up selling the hospital system to another hospital system of which Dr. De La Torre, who she's talking to, was the CEO of that company. They they bought the hospital system seven years from from that point. They were on a steady decline. And when they got hit with COVID, it rocked the company and they went under and they filed bankruptcy. That's where it happened. I was not a CEO of the company. I was not running the company. I was there representing. The Catholic hospitals, and by the way, working in the bankruptcy process, working with the bankruptcy lawyers, every one of those hospitals in Massachusetts remained opening today. For example, two of the hospitals were sold to Lifespan here in Providence. The one in Fall River, St. Ann's Hospital, which is a great hospital, and Morton Hospital in Taunton, Massachusetts. Two of the hospitals in Boston were sold to the major hospitals in Boston. So it was that type of process. It was a failure. It was a failure from the beginning. And there were a number of people, including myself, who worked diligently with state government, with the governor of Massachusetts and other places. And all eight hospitals survived. What happened to Stewart Health Care had nothing to do with the Catholic Church or do with the board that was involved in that transition. They were the third buyer. of the system that fell into problems. Did they do things wrong? I don't know. Did they manage the place well? I don't know. But they went through some heavy hurdles, including COVID. And one of the problems with COVID was not only that you were treating, there'll be two minutes, I'll be done.

Hey, look, just be respectful.

All right. I just just Jimmy, just just Mr. Karen, please wrap it up. Yeah, I'll try to wrap it up quickly. One of the one of the things that happened was that the system was was was being saved through the bankruptcy through the bankruptcy process. And they were being the hospitals were being sold off. And as I mentioned before, They are all opened until this day through the process, but it was a difficult process that no one could see or no one could understand. It happened two sales away from the Catholic Church where I was involved, and that's how that took place. Thank you. Okay, thank you. Yes, sir.

Hello, Mark. Mark Donahue, 600 Green End Avenue. I wasn't planning to speak, but I had to speak to that. I just have to reserve my limited understanding. Board of Directors oversees the operations of any business. Ralph De La Torre was a criminal who was jet-setting around the world and running his hospitals bankrupt while people died in the beds. There's a board of directors that's supposed to oversee this. I hear a lot of defensiveness protecting himself here, but let's call a spade a spade, and you can check out the Boston Globe Spotlight series that pretty much brought a lot of this to fruition, so I just leave it at that.

Thank you, sir. Let's get back to the overlay and what we're here for tonight, okay? Audrey. Audrey. Yes, ma'am.

My name is Audrey McLeod Pfeiffer. I live on 442 Third Beach Road. I'm a registered nurse. I'm licensed in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. Around 2013, 2012, I can't remember, I subbed for one of the nurses for four months while she was on a medical leave. While she was on a medical leave, It was around that time where Stewart Health actually approached the Rhode Island legislature to buy two hospitals.

Audrey, we're going to stick back to the overlay. I just want to clarify. I understand that.

There are two sides to every story.

Anybody that wants to look it up can look it up. We're here tonight for the overlay, respectfully.

But mass nurse, a publication in New York City, nurses came from around the country to protest Stewart Health because they were not being paid. Patient care was suffering. Mr. De La Torre enjoyed a $40 million yacht. So I'm just going to say there are two sides of every story.

I understand. Martha, you brought it up, and we're going back. We're going to bring it back. OK, ma'am, we're going to bring it right back. to the Overlay District. If you have something to say about Overlay, gladly listen to it. If you're going to continue, we're not going to continue to talk about Mr. De La Torre or Stewart Hospitals or Mr. Karam's involvement. We're not here for that tonight. I understand the character piece. I get it. Melissa.

Thank you, Mr. President, members of the council, Melissa Welch, 535 Walcott Avenue. I am the co-chair of the Middletown Center Citizens Advisory Committee, but I'm speaking tonight only in a personal capacity. So I want to start where I left off last time when I said, I'm afraid that if we just keep saying no to everything, we're going to end up with two empty buildings and a big vacant lot for years to come. But what concerns me even more is the approach that the opposition to this plan has taken. And I don't just mean the misleading statements and the personal attacks. It's the unwillingness to compromise. the essence of compromise is that nobody gets everything they want but everyone gets something better than what they've got now but their approach seems to be like there's only one right vision their vision it's kind of like it's our way or the highway but I think I think that approach Gina Gina please be respectful I think that approach just leads to a dead end. Or more specifically, that's the road that leads us to two empty buildings and a big vacant lot for years to come. And so what is their vision? At the last public hearing, we were shown an AI generated picture of a big, beautiful park and it looked great. But what's the plan for bringing that vision into reality? And we heard some ideas for possible grants. And you know, that's great, but if only it were that easy. We also heard some people saying that the revenue expected from this hotel isn't really worth it. So it seems that Maybe it's hard to get around that amount of money, whether it's $850,000 or $785,000. Let's just call it $800,000 a year. Just to put that into context, maybe we should compare it to something that's more familiar, the revenue we get from our beaches. So last year, according to town records, it was a great beach year, and the beaches and the campground together generated $2.5 million. But the expenses associated with that were $2.1 million. So the net amount the town actually made was $400,000, roughly half of what this hotel would generate. Now, I'm certainly not suggesting that the beach isn't worth it, although it does attract a lot of tourists and it does certainly create a lot of traffic. But you know, as Henry Kissinger liked to say, in all negotiations, the same three questions apply. What do we want? What do they want? And what is possible? But there has to be a willingness to compromise. And in fact, we have seen a number of compromises in the negotiations for this project. But so far, the compromise has all come from the developers and the town. For example, during the planning board public hearings, the planning board proposed numerous changes and amendments about the height of the building and the size of the signs and the corner park, et cetera, et cetera. And the developers agreed to almost all of them on the spot at the meeting. And then there was the opposition to the bank and the drive-through, and that became a rallying cry, no new banks. Even though it wasn't actually a new bank, it was an existing bank that would move to that location, but it didn't matter. The developers said, okay, and they eliminated the bank from the project. Although it's interesting to note that about the same time, a new bank went in on East Main Road right across from BJ's. Nobody protested that. The world didn't end. Go figure. And then there's the opposition to relocating potsy field, even though the new location that was proposed would allow us to combine the space with other parcels to create an even better Community space, but the town council said no we're going to keep potsy field, as it is. And the council has not only announced this, but it has been clearly indicated in the multiple notices the town has issued for this public hearing, showing that Potsy Field section of the property is not going to be zoned for business. It will remain public. There still seems to be some confusion on that point. And for those who are suggesting otherwise, I don't know. I guess they're trying to get people riled up. But I find that misleading, and I think it certainly doesn't show a willingness to compromise. So where does this lead us? If we want that big, beautiful park, that community space with a respectful memorial, a playground, a pavilion, bathrooms, open space with walking paths and trees and benches, a place where the community can truly come together, then we have to be willing to work together to get it, and that requires a willingness to compromise. Without that willingness to compromise on both sides, I'm afraid we're headed for, and you can say it with me, two empty buildings and a big vacant lot for years to come and how does that serve our community thank you thank you okay yes ma'am

Sandra Spencer, 932 Mitchells Lane. I brought the same sheet I had last time. But I'd like to start and say that I can't believe that they brought up new information tonight. This meeting was on my calendar weeks ago. I dragged Mary out here on her 94th birthday, which isn't really a nice dinner out. They deprived all of you from looking at that information before the meeting and they deprived all of us from seeing what it was that they were sending out. So the lack of transparency makes me rather disturbed. It's not like this meeting was popped up last week. um i brought the same thing from the rfi that i had last time the goals of uh of the of the project was vibrant town community center common space for community gatherings strong urban design town gateway and improved pedestrian experiences might also retain some level of municipal related use mixed use development provide office of residential uses above retail creating density encouraging investment and promoting alternative forms of transportation and lastly affordable and workforce housing multi-family housing units available for vendor purchase at affordable prices Even their proposal, which was the result of an RFI and not an RFP, didn't really hit these. The affordable housing part, they were aiming at 80 to 120%, which I agree with Larry Frank. That is market rate. That's not affordable housing. I don't know about 30%, but you've got to go lower than 80 if you're going to help the people that actually live and work here. But this proposal of a hotel checks none of these boxes, not a single one. So the idea of a compromise is facetious. There's no compromise. All we have left is a hotel that nobody asked for. There were surveys. I would be willing to bet that not one survey said, I want the Middletown Town Commons project to have a hotel in it. But here we are with only a hotel. I like some of the ideas that have floated, the idea of using that corner spot where the Navy Lodge used to be as a community gathering point. I'm not too sure how that would come together. I know that that was purchased with the idea of developing it, but now we have JFK School to develop and ultimately the library. We desperately need the housing and we needed it below 80% 80 to 120% of AMI. But what we don't need is a hotel. And I urge you all to keep that in mind, that this isn't a compromise. That's all that's left of the project. This doesn't resemble at all the project that went before the planning board. It doesn't resemble at all the RFI. It doesn't even resemble at all the proposal. And yet, here we are saying, okay, we'll approve this overlay and they can build a hotel. it was on nobody's bingo card to put in that spot. You could do buzzword bingo and I'm pretty sure you wouldn't even find hotel on it. So I urge you to consider the fact that the town people keep showing up, regardless of temperature, regardless of the inconvenience, regardless of the fact that it's now 9 o'clock at night, and keep saying we don't really want a hotel. The other facets sound great. It's part of what's got to be developed. sitting there empty, a vacant lot and two empty buildings, ultimately. She's right on that. But this isn't it. And I know a lot of work has taken place, a lot of effort, a lot of time has been spent. But just because of that, it doesn't justify building the one piece that nobody actually asked for. So I would urge you all to vote no. And let's start this over from the beginning. and try to do something that we can all be proud of because we live here and it'd be nice to be proud of our community. Thank you.

Thank you, Sandra. Yes, ma'am. Nope. Yes, ma'am.

Can everyone hear me?

Can everyone hear me? That's the magic one right there. Okay. All right. Thank you. My name is Deborah Murphy. I live at 102 Ridgewood Road in Middletown. I am a member of the CAC Committee, the Citizens Advisory Committee. I was excited to apply for that when I saw it. I was interested in it because I live right across the street from this parcel of land. I went to meetings back 10 years ago or longer when the town hall was full of people about this project. I'm on this committee with some very smart people. but my opinions are more of a resident's view. I was excited to join because I wanted, I really wanted to develop this space for the residents. I saw it, like that one gentleman said, like a King's Park, a community gathering. I don't think a hotel fits in that. And I feel like that sometimes I feel like it's just it's never been developed and maybe it's never been developed because the town has always thought that they wanted to do something. But I think it would be totally wrong to do something to build a hotel this property and not use it for the residents I think we all need we need a Kings Park in Middletown we don't need more traffic we need we need this for the community and it's good for us it's good for our families it's I don't know what else to say that people haven't already said but I just wanted to come up here and say something okay and i appreciate being on the committee because i wanted to have an input and you know thank you for letting me speak thank you so much anton

Thank you, Mr. President, members of the Middle Council. My name is Anto Viveros. I live at 45 Bayview Park. And I heard something here tonight that sort of rang a bell and brought memories back where over 2,000 residents have signed petitions or sent letters in opposing this. But there's 17,000 residents. And a similar incident happened about five, seven years ago, probably now, where same thing, the council asked for their recommendations or how they thought, and 200 people responded. And at the meeting where they were approving it, that was pointed out. And one of the councilors said, yeah, but you got to realize this, 200 did respond, but the 17,000 residents. So like, what's 200? So now, what's 200? 2,000 compared to 17,000. And we said that developers have done a lot for the town. They brought a lot in. They created jobs. A lot of people don't work in Middletown. You see them at the bus stops, get to the bus to go East Providence or go back home, because I see people come in from taking the bus to McDonald's. They come have lunch, and then they go work wherever they're going to go work. bringing in money, bringing in what you're going to make from the town going to make. All this development that was brought in by the developers, I checked, and the town ranks 14th highest in taxes in the state of Rhode Island. So people are having a tough time making ends meet. So I've looked up to see what a town center should look like. Houses located, houses, local government, and other essentials in the area. Public library. Well, we've already moved out of that area. Town square and plaza. Central open space with benches, greeneries, and pedestrian paths designed to host farmer market and commercial research. Central open space with central open space land, places for houses, local buildings, government, and essential administration, public library. Well, we already lost that, didn't we? Commercial real estate, boutique, hardware stores, florists, pharmacies that give the town its unique character. dining a mix of casual casual cafe bakeries family-friendly restaurants and a local pub or tavern uh three foot story structure featuring the retail and also offering for a minimum or low low-income housing like what we're trying to get and i ask if anything i recommend i said uh compares to what this development is offering the town Very few. So I'm asking the town council to refuse to put it down for the benefit of the people of this town that make this town. And the additional traffic that it's going to cause is going to be unbelievable. It's a problem now. Never mind when you have development. You want to make a place where the people of the town can enjoy the town. Thank you.

Thank you. You guys want to take a break? Anybody have to use the bathroom? Because I do. So if you want to keep going, keep going. I don't want to be disrespectful. Okay. Okay. I was just asking if they want to take a break because I got to use the facility and I don't want to be disrespectful to anybody when they get up and talk and walk away.

So you want to keep going? All right. We need a motion.

for five minutes. All in favor? Aye. Thank you. Okay folks, we're gonna resume, okay? Okay. Okay, is there anyone else that would like to make comments tonight that hasn't made comments yet? Okay, Terry, do you have comments from one other person that wrote a letter?

Excuse me, Mr. President, can you reconvene?

Oh, sorry. Motion to reconvene. Second.

That's why she's the master clerk. Motion to second, reconvene. All in favor? Aye. Thank you, Wendy. Terry.

Yes, Terry Flynn, 34 Warren Avenue. I do have a statement to read on behalf of someone who could not make it this evening, and then I have a couple of comments on one of the last speakers. SO I'M HERE ON BEHALF OF ALICIA REYES WHO IS A ZONING BOARD MEMBER BUT NOT SPEAKING AS A ZONING BOARD MEMBER. I WANTED TO PUT THAT DISCLAIMER OUT THERE AND SHE WOULD LIKE TO SHARE THAT SHE WANTS TO BEGIN WITH AN OBSERVATION. THIS COUNCIL HAS APPROVED THE AMENDED AND RESTATED DEVELOPMENT AGREEMENT. THE DOCUMENT STATES THAT A CONDITION FOR EXECUTING THE GROUND LEASE IS FOR THE TOWN TO APPROVE THE DEVELOPER PROPOSED ZONING OVERLAY. SINCE THE COUNCIL APPROVED THE DEVELOPER AGREEMENT AND THE OVERLAY ZONING IS A CONDITION FOR EXECUTING THE GROUND LEASE, HAVING THE COUNCIL ALSO REVIEW AND APPROVE THE ZONING OVERLAY AND EVEN THE COMPREHENSIVE PLAN AMENDMENTS WOULD NOT INTUITIVELY BE CONSIDERED BEST PRACTICE SINCE THEY BOTH ARE PART OF SOMETHING THAT THE COUNCIL HAS ALREADY APPROVED. THAT'S HER FIRST OBSERVATION. BUT WE ARE HERE TONIGHT TO TALK ABOUT ZONING. THERE'S A RHODE ISLAND GENERAL LAW TITLED GENERAL PURPOSES OF ZONING ORDINANCES. AND I ACTUALLY NEED TO PAUSE BECAUSE I WAS SUPPOSED TO HAVE WENDY HAND THESE OUT TO THE COUNCIL SO THEY COULD FOLLOW ALONG. And while Wendy's handing those out, the law states that zoning regulations shall be developed according to a comprehensive plan and shall be designed to address specified purposes listed in the law, which is Rhode Island General Law 452430. And the statute is printed out for each of the counselors and being presented to you with a score sheet to this proposal of each of the purposes listed in the Rhode Island general law. And that's what you're getting now. There were clearly several purposes of zoning that were not applicable to this project. For example, the proposed zoning amendments have nothing to do with the coastline or wetlands or wastewater treatment. nor do the purposes of innovative regulation, environmental or public investment protection, disaster safety, coordinating land use with other municipalities, process facilitation, or reasonable accommodations have anything to do with the zoning requests before you. There were some purposes of adopting and amending zoning regulations that did apply to this project, and they do not score very well with the current proposal. The deviation from the request for information, which was based on the comprehensive plan, shows the request now failed to be generally consistent with the comprehensive plan. Public health, safety and general welfare have not been substantiated with concrete financial analyses or impact reports. There is no longer a range of uses, no orderly or balanced development, and no formal land suitability report. No natural, historic, cultural or scenic protection will be achieved with these zoning amendments. Certainly there is no housing choices for all income levels and no low and moderate income housing being established, and there never was. And the word design does not even appear in the development agreement. In that none of the purposes for adopting and amending zoning regulation can be met, It seems that the council would have no choice but to reject the developer's requests. I would also like to end with an observation, Alicia writes. The development proposal to the public has become very vague. What was 15 acres for crafting a town center to include all their local shopping needs and public amenities is now about three acres of hotel and about four acres of protected land. I believe I heard the developer say at the last meeting that the affordable housing minimum is now 20%, an increase after a difficult compromise to 12% from 10%. It appears that the developer will not be involved in the housing, and so the increase to a minimum of 20% no longer affects them. But I want to point out to council that the current developers did not want more than 10%, and it may be difficult to find a developer who will agree to meeting a 20% threshold. An additional concern is that the remaining land of about eight acres may not be enough to attract other developers to come and do what they need to do and still have the public get what they deserve. Please make this part of the draft meeting minutes for review that upon approval will be filed with the Secretary of State. Thank you. That was Alicia's comments. I would like to also address, oh, I only have four seconds. I did not appreciate being categorized in a clump with those that might be protesting, according to Melissa Welch, who is actually Councilor Welch's sister, and some people find that surprising, so I'm putting it out there. Because I think it's fair to know. And not everybody who is protesting the direction of this development is attacking people or proposing alternatives. I'm certainly not. And I think the 2,000 petition signatures also are not doing that. As a matter of fact, the purpose of the petition that they signed is to develop the public land the way the public directed. and elected officials promised it would be developed in both the 2014 comprehensive plan and the 2020-2021 request for information for redevelopment with no hotel and no bank. That was in the RFI, and the bank that... many were protesting was a drive-through bank to boot. The other purpose of the petition was to honor the federal land deed granted to and accepted by Middletown in 1975, keeping the land, now referred to as Potsey Field, in the same place as gifted for open space and recreation in perpetuity. It wasn't a compromise or necessarily a choice for Potsey Field to stay. The town never made a formal request to the National Park Service. The general, I think, consideration or observation of that is one of the criteria to relieve the restrictions of the land deed is attaining public support, which the town simply couldn't do. Thank you.

Thank you, Terri. Yes, sir.

Good evening, Michael Fletcher, 121 Peckham Lane. Excuse the redundancy, and I thank you for all still hanging in there. ANYWAY, I JUST WANT TO HIGHLIGHT A FEW THINGS THAT I'M TAKING AWAY FROM TONIGHT'S MEETING. AS TO MY UNDERSTANDING, THEY WERE LOOKING AT A NEW FACILITY WITH A PROPOSAL OF 144 ROOMS AND 50 NEW JOB OPPORTUNITIES. I THANK YOU FOR YOUR ASTUTE PRESENTATION TO EVERYBODY IN THE ROOM. HOW'S THAT? IS THAT BETTER? ALL RIGHT. So we're looking at a facility, 144 rooms, 50 new jobs. And this is what I'm taking from tonight. And I thank you all, the Kemp and I group, for your astute presentation to enlighten everybody. And I'd like to thank everybody who's spoken before me to represent the town and the community. So what I'm getting from all this is the town's supposed to be compensated $850,000 a year. OK? Some quick calculations. And this is a redundancy, but I have to. I'm going to make some analogies and maybe somebody can, you know, maybe some people can walk away with a little bit tonight and think about it. Everybody. $5,900 per room per year. $113 per room per week is what that's going to generate for the town. $113.51. How many people here go to a mid-range local restaurant, have dinner for two, a couple of drinks, or dessert, and you're going to get the same bill, $113. Now, 2.5% increase, $28.37 more a year. That's breakfast. Anywhere locally with a tip is breakfast. I feel this is a small compensation for highly sought after property. 50 new jobs, I can say I am a successful business owner. My shop is up in Bristol. I work locally in town. The first thing when you approach another business owner is, how's it going? Jesus, help's tough to get. Qualified help is tough to get. I can't find it. Where are we going to fill 50 qualified positions? within the community. Answer me that. We can't sugarcoat this. We have a problem in the trades, and those are filling jobs. Where are we going to fill the 50 jobs? OK, maybe we can bust them in from out of state. Find the qualified help, that's all I ask. You can find help, find the qualified help. Find the help you don't have to babysit. Anybody who's a business owner realizes that today. So a beach sticker for a resident and then I pay my trash pickup, that's more than what a weekly rumor's gonna generate. If this proposal goes forward We as the taxpayers will be, I feel, will be indirectly funding it. And it's not going to be for our benefit. I think everything needs to be brought back to the drawing board, and you can't sell that piece of land for $850,000. Thank you. Thank you, Mike.

Okay. Is there anyone else that would like to comment? Okay. Mr. Gerard, do you want to speak?

I did, yes. I just wanted to touch on a couple of topics that were raised and there's one additional letter I wanted to read in. At several points, the process has been called into question. I just wanted and certain ordinances were raised, you know, creating scorecards. I'm not quite sure what that's all about. This process of amending a zoning ordinance is governed by Rhode Island General Law 452453. And in that process, once the public hearing opens, which it did in September, it allows for and calls for changes to be made before the close of the public hearing PB, Jorge Boone, As a result of views expressed at the public hearing so references made to my comment that changes have been made to this overlay. PB, Jorge Boone, All of those changes have been made to bring it closer to what the town was looking for closer to what the planning board was looking for potsy field is preserved and saved and retained, I can only say it so many times. Mayor Mrakas, it's apparently not getting through I don't know what else what else to tell you other than it's staying the overlay district specifically calls for it to stay the underlying zoning remains public. Mayor Mrakas, I don't I don't know what else I can say on that the other changes were and they've been brought up the affordable housing percentage has gone up to 20%. And Mrs. Flynn is correct. It doesn't really impact us because we're not going to be the developer of that. But that number was struck between the town staff and us as we revised this because of what Mrs. Flynn recognized, which is the town has to be cognizant of making sure that this ordinance is desirable enough to bring affordable housing developers in. That's the number that the town staff thought was correct. We're supportive of that. But that's still an increase from where it was, which is what the planning board wanted and what we hear a lot of people tonight saying. The other thing that apparently doesn't seem to be getting through is that you still retain control of that northern parcel. We've heard resident after resident get up and say, we still want these aspects of the town center or this aspect of the town center or more affordable housing or some retail that goes along with the affordable housing. Look at that site plan. You still have control. There'll be affordable housing if you want to focus some more space on additional green space or municipal. Not only do you have that, but there's some of the L shape and space behind there that I think you have to play with. So again, changes were made. I think they were substantial. They were made in this process. They were made as a result of hearing the input from the town. They leave you with more discretion to decide on that northern parcel. So I think we follow that process. We've done it in a way that has brought this proposal closer, in our opinion, to what has been asked for. It continues to allow for you to get the revenue from the one lot where the hotel will go. It provides valuable accommodation for the Navy. and allows you to decide on the path forward. And the letter I want to read speaks to this need and the questions that have been raised about the need for this extended stay hotel. And this is from Commander Joseph Perfido of the United States Navy.

And you have a copy of this, and I'd just like to read it into the record.

Dear members of the Middletown Town Council, I am writing in my personal capacity to provide my professional perspective regarding the continuing need for additional extended stay lodging accommodations serving the Newport and Middletown, Rhode Island area. I am an active duty United States Navy commander with over 16 years of military service. Throughout my career, I have lived in Newport for approximately four years and have returned to Aquidneck Island on more than six separate occasions for military schools, training, and extended assignments. In addition, I own residential property in Newport, giving me both a professional and personal understanding of the local housing market and the persistent demand for quality housing and extended stay accommodations. Based on my firsthand experience over many years, I have consistently observed the challenges military personnel, civilian employees, contractors, and their families face in securing temporary housing while reporting to Naval Station Newport. Naval Station Newport is far more than a traditional military installation. It serves as one of the Navy's premier education, training, and research centers and supports nearly 50 Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, Army, and other federal commands. It is home to organizations including Officer Training Command Newport, the U.S. Naval War College, Naval Justice School, Surface Warfare Officer School Command, Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division Newport, and numerous other tenant commands and defense organizations. Unlike many military installations whose populations fluctuate primarily with deployments, Naval Station Newport generates consistent year-round demand through recurring military schools, officer accession programs, professional military education, conferences, research activities, temporary duty assignments, and permanent change of station moves. Thousands of military students pass through Newport annually, while permanent staff, civilian employees, contractors, and visiting military families support these missions throughout the year. The installation and its surrounding defense community collectively support approximately 11,000 military members, reservists, civilians, and contractors, while hosting approximately 17,000 students annually through its training commands. This creates a steady and predictable demand for lodging that extends well beyond the traditional summer tourist season. Throughout my career, I have personally experienced the difficulty of obtaining suitable accommodations while attending extended military schools in Newport. Likewise, I have watched countless fellow service members arrive for training, temporary duty assignments, and permanent change of station, only to encounter limited lodging options. While Navy lodging serves an important role, available accommodations are frequently insufficient during peak training periods, requiring personnel to seek housing throughout Newport and Middletown. Apartment-style extended stay lodging fills an important gap by providing kitchens, laundry facilities, and living space appropriate for assignments lasting several weeks or months. These accommodations better serve military members and families than traditional hotel rooms while also supporting government civilians, defense contractors, and family members attending graduations, commissioning ceremonies, conferences, and other official military events. Based on my experience, my years living in Newport, my repeated extended assignments to Naval Station Newport, and my experience as a local property owner, it is my professional opinion that there is a legitimate and continuing need for additional professionally managed extended stay lodging accommodations in the Middletown and Newport area. This demand exists year round and is driven by military operations, education, research, government agencies, and defense contractors. Additional extended state housing would strengthen the region's ability to support those who serve our nation while also benefiting the broader local economy. Thank you for your consideration. Respectfully, Yosef Perfido, Commander, United States Navy. And I have to read that the views expressed in this letter are my own and are based upon my personal and professional experience. They do not represent the official position of the Department of the Navy, the Department of Defense, or the United States government. But I wanted to read it in the record. I think it's a valuable perspective for you to have as we move on. And just very briefly on the training piece or finding qualified workers, it's a small point. But I think one of the first speakers, Karen, the general manager of one of Rocky's hotels, spoke to it. But they are great at finding and retaining qualified workers because they pay them well. They're long-term employers. They have training programs that will train them up into those positions. And so just a brief response to that comment. And finally, again, I don't want to restate the litany of things that I feel like we can continue to come back to. Potsey Field is retained. You retain control over the northern parcel. You're still generating the revenue, significant revenue, on the lot seven but we've all been through a lot here one comment i'll agree with is that we would appreciate and respect as you come to a difficult vote and decision you know we would like to hear how and why you came to your decision as well and so respectfully we ask for that when the time comes but that's um that's i think all i have unless there's anything else you need to go with yeah uh councillor roberts has a question

Thank you, Mr. President. Mr. Gavin, while you were reading this letter, it dawned on me that there's not even a signature on here. So how do I know this is from the commander of the United States Navy?

Rocky, do you want to speak to Mr. Forfito?

I'm just asking because typically, you know, like Senator De Palma sent something in a letterhead and signed it. I don't agree with what he said. Right.

It came through electronically, but Rocky can identify him.

Yousef had emailed it to me, and I just forwarded it on. Yousef is a commander of the United States Navy, worked here in Newport for years, and was moved down to Groton, Connecticut for a matter of a year, I guess taking over another command, and now he's being deployed. He's taking over command of the George W. Bush aircraft carrier. So in 45 days, that's where he goes. Okay. Okay.

Oh, Martha, Martha, be respectful.

People are respectful. Listen, whether you agree or not, we have Mike, we're not going to go there, folks, we're gonna, we're gonna remain order. We are going to remain order, Martha. That's what we're going to do. I don't want to get ugly here. Let's be respectful of each other, like some of the people who are respectful of you. We all appreciate that.

I understand the emotion, but we need to remain respectful.

OK. Mike, you're going to have to come up, but we're not. Thank you for the explanation. That's all I was asking for. Thanks, Charlie.

I've lived here for a long time. I met a lot of sailors. Just leave an address again, sir. Michael Lopes, 42 Pickering Place, Hong Kong. Thank you. And I even had a friend of mine stay with me, which is an officer candidate in my home. I had a spare bedroom, and he stayed with me and my wife during the time he was over there in the Navy War College. There has always been room for them on this island. It's been a lot more. They had a lot more people at the Navy base in the old days, and it accommodated everybody. They got a hotel. They got a hotel on the base. How is that doing? Is that full? We don't know, do we? But, you know, they find places. I know a lot of my friends own homes they rent out to the Navy. right families and the navy subsidizes their rent so no matter how high it is they get some of that money back for housing and i'm telling you it they can find a place to live okay thank you thank you this this is what we didn't want i mean i i we're gonna we're gonna be here till probably 11 if that's what you want i have no problem doing it but that's what that's how it's going to go

hang on hang on we have a resident coming up sir just wanted to say we have a resident coming up sir hi melissa grinnell 790 green end avenue thank you for letting me speak i do have a suggestion you can have them stay at the two no hotels that are being built right now because we're getting two more hotels so they could stay there right okay thank you thank you melissa

Thank you, Mr. President, members of the Council, Melissa Welch, 535 Walcott Avenue. I'd like to speak from direct experience. I was a student at the Naval War College. I taught at the Naval War College. It was my responsibility to make sure that my guest speakers, visiting officials could find accommodation in the area. As was said in this letter, it's true, there are multiple schools going on at the same time, especially during the summertime, it is hard to find places to stay for a few weeks or a month. I had students who start their class in August, peak tourist season. Many of them cannot get into their housing until September. So they're staying all over the state just trying to find a place to stay until they can get into their housing. Others are coming and going. So they're going to stay in that long-term housing. I've stayed in it myself when I was a student or when I was overseas and I came back to this area So please understand that there is value to that type of housing. I have seen it myself. I have used it myself. Many of my students at Naval Station Newport have benefited from that. And remember that when we have these naval personnel other government agencies, whoever they are, staying with us in our community, they spend those per diem dollars in our community. Our businesses benefit. And we get to know them and they get to know us. And many of them come back here to live as full-time residents and they become our neighbors. So please don't think that this is something that doesn't benefit our community. It most certainly does and it's needed. Thank you.

Thank you. Mark.

Real quick, Mark Donahue, 600 Green End Avenue. I did a quick search for Yosef Perfido. I think I found his LinkedIn page. Perfido Properties, multifamily investor at Perfido Properties, area developer, the joint chiropractor. He's also a US Navy commander. Sounds like the right guy. Groton, Connecticut, Newport, Rhode Island. Sounds like he might be an inside guy for the developers here.

Thank you. OK.

okay okay is there anyone else that hasn't spoken tonight that would like to make a comment before we uh turn it over the solicitor and then we're going to turn over the counselors for their opinions okay uh mr president i wanted to let you know there are people on zoom but there's no one with their hand up and you would if you could close the public hearings please and then the solicitor can give the um the next instruction.

Okay. Thank you.

Motion to close the public hearing. Second.

Do I have to read them back in again?

No, no, but you should just you should close the public hearings. So let's go to number one. And

i'm just going to read them because i want to make sure it's sure it's official and we've covered every base so number one is the uh public hearing has been advertised about his notified public hearing remains open in order to the town of middletown the second reading in order to revision of the middletown comprehensive community plan proposed amendment to the town's comprehensive community plan map l4 as amended in february 2024 future land used to change THE DESTINATION OF SUBJECT PROPERTY FROM INSTITUTIONAL TO LIMITED AND OFFICE BUSINESS IN AREA LOCATED ON WEST MAIN ROAD AND DESIGNATED AS LOTS 4, 5, 6, AND 7 ON TAX ACCESSORIES PLAT 102. SUBJECT PARCELS ARE IDENTIFIED ON THE ATTACHED MAP AND THE PLANNER BOARD RECOMMENDATION IS ON FILE.

MOTION TO CLOSE THE PUBLIC HEARING? SECOND.

WE HAVE A MOTION AND SECOND TO CLOSE THE PUBLIC HEARING. ALL IN FAVOR? AYE. Number two, public hearing advertised but is notified public hearing remains open. In order to the town of Middletown, second reading. In order to member to the town of Middletown, official zoning map, zoning designation of that certain lot or parcel of land presently identified as lots four, five, six, and seven, on Middletown Tax Assessors Plat 102, which is presently designated as public, shall be changed to LBA, limited business, traffic sensitive, and as shown on the attached plan, planning board recommendation on file. motion to close the public hearing second have a motion to second to close the public hearing all in favor aye okay number three is public hearings advertised about as notified public hearing remains open in order to the town of middle town second reading in order to member to the town of middle town town code title 15 chapter 152 entitled zoning code is amended by adding new article 31 West Main Coddington Overlay District, adding a new column and other revisions to Section 602 regarding uses allowed in the West Main Road in the West main Coddington overlay district adding new lines to section 603 regarding dimensional requirements and amendment to the town of Middletown official zoning map indicating zoning overlay district designation of that certain lot of possible land presently identified as lots 3456 and seven, a Middletown Texas flat 102 as a West main Coddington overlay district as shown in the attached map and the plan to board recommendation is on file motion to close the public hearing.

Second.

We have a motion and a second to close. All in favor? Aye. Okay. Mr. Solicitor.

Mr. President, so there are three items on the agenda for you to take action on. The first, as you noted, is a proposed amendment to the future land use map of the comprehensive plan. The second is a proposed amendment to the official zoning map. And the third is a proposed amendment to the zoning code. You should vote on each of those items in order and separately. So a motion on item number one, a motion on item number two, and then a motion and vote on item number three.

Okay. Could you just brief everybody on what happens if it passes and what happens if it doesn't?

What would be the next step if it does pass if the if all of the motions pass, then the next step, at least in this process under the existing development agreement between the town and the developer. THE DEVELOPER WOULD THEN PROCEED TO DEVELOP THE DETAILED PLANS FOR THE PROJECT, WOULD SUBMIT THOSE FOR DEVELOPMENT PLAN REVIEW WITH THE TOWN, WOULD FIRST GO TO THE TECHNICAL REVIEW COMMITTEE FOR REVIEW, THEN SUBSEQUENTLY WOULD GO TO THE TOWN FOR MASTER PLAN REVIEW AND PRELIMINARY PLAN REVIEW. And, you know, depending upon whether any zoning variances were requested would be unified development review with the planning board. That is, and within that process, they would also be required to obtain any required state permits from DOT and DEM. If the motions do not pass, then the process ends here.

Okay.

Do all three have to pass for this to move forward?

Yeah. Yes, they do.

Okay. All right. Thank you.

Yeah, they're all components of the same, of the overlay.

Okay. Excellent.

Thank you.

Okay, I'm going to open it up to town councils on their opinions on what they think about this and whether they should support it or they don't.

Vice President.

Thank you. I have a number of things to say. And you will notice that I'm reading from a prepared statement. Whenever you're ready. A statement that I have created over the years that we have been dealing with this issue. A statement that hits on the high points I believe to have been significant throughout the process. A statement that reflects the many hours of public input through hearings like this one, town council meetings, planning board meetings, emails, phone calls, and recorded documents that I have listened to and read. I hope that each of my colleagues has done a similar exercise as they each share some of the details they use to make their decision when casting their vote tonight. I feel it is not only our job as counselors to explain our decision, but our responsibility to make our thoughts known to the residents that we represent. We are a democracy, at least still here in Middletown. And though we may not individually draw the same conclusions, we as a body will adhere to the majority opinion and move forward. I encourage my fellow councilors to use my statement to point out flaws you see in it or to stand in agreement with other parts that you feel are valid. You people is how many of the opposition has referred to the council as if we are somehow different than yourselves. We are taxpaying residents. Every decision we make up here affects our own households, our families, and our friends. I am one example of a group of current counselors that are lifelong Middletowners. I was born here, went to Middletown schools, bought the house I grew up in where Cheryl and I have raised our four boys, three of which now own homes in Middletown. They also went to Middletown schools, three of which, I'm sorry, and their children, our grandchildren, go to Middletown schools as well. I'm not going anywhere. Most likely will die in Middletown. Others up here have been long-time Middletowners, creating the same ties to our community. We stepped up to serve. We're elected by the majority of voters. We are not a group of out-of-town shareholders that fly in for a quarterly board meeting. I take exception to the baseless accusations of corruption, backroom deals, and lack of transparency. In fact, I believe it is unlawful without presenting unlawful, certainly immoral, for someone to accuse another of these types of offenses without presenting a shred of evidence. While speakers spin their conspiracy theories at the podium, playing off the jeers from their supporters, I have to stay silent and respectful. If you can find one penny that I have accepted from any developer, do tell. If you can prove If any family member of mine has benefited from a decision that I have been part of, please come forward. Given the time and effort that people spend on trying to derail town projects and the willingness to conjure up theories and conspiracies but presenting no evidence to back it up, I'm going to guess they have nothing. How many times has it been said, you're not listening to us? We don't want this. Sounds simple enough, but here's the rub. I think it's pretty clear I am listening and you are speaking into a microphone so I can hear you. The problem is that you want me to believe that you speak for the majority of the residents. I shared some thoughts on this at the last council meeting. The cliff notes are that the vocal minority often represents one and a half to three and a half percent of the population. Then why aren't there more supporters here? Two main reasons I see. One, to come up here and speak as an individual is not easy. It takes a fair amount of effort, both physical and mental. And secondly, I think the opposition has created a toxic environment by filling the room with those who are against. But more importantly, the people that I talk to, those that approach me or I know do not share the views of the opposition. Nothing is free. Everything has a cost. There's no such thing as free shipping. Make no mistake about it. You are paying for it. Same applies to this project. The new library will not be free, whether it was rebuilt where it currently stands, built on Enterprise Drive, or built on the moon. It has been said throughout this process that the new library will be built with no increased cost to the taxpayer. Now, what does that mean? Some people continue to believe that the developers are going to build it for us as part of the deal. Incorrect. The revenue from the project, the money collected in property, room taxes, et cetera, can be used to pay the mortgage on the library. Point is, the proceeds from the development were enough to cover the cost of the payments to the bank for the money the town borrowed to build the new library. So taxes would not have to be raised for the project. Now I'm going to ask you to think about this logically for just a moment, and biases all aside, as if you were reading about it in a local paper while on vacation. Here's what the article says. The town of Middletown facing the need for a new library gets estimates for new construction based on a bigger state of the art library the community needs. The cost is determined to be about $24 million to build on the existing site. Town officials get word of a comparable building by virtue of its construction type and size and it's for sale and it's adjacent to the town hall for $3.3 million. It will need renovation, but the completed cost will be half that of the original plan. Doesn't require any temporary moving of the books or services and can happen much sooner. What a great opportunity. But the library is now not part of the town center. The town center idea, though a great concept, cannot be realized on West Main Road without a significant investment from the taxpayers. The 2014 comp plan and RFI the town advertised included many features a town center could include. Understandably, the town asked for all sorts of amenities. Personally, I pictured driving through the middle of a small Vermont town. There's a gazebo flanked by kids skating on a rink, people on benches drinking cocoa. When the first RFI went out, it was in the midst of COVID, and we only received one response. So the decision was made to try again. The second round produced three proposals, which were evaluated, and the best one was chosen. Now, this is going to be a little bit of a rough transition, but bear with me. A developer submits a proposal using an RFI as a guideline. Their plan outlines what they could build, what it would look like, and in this case, what revenue the town would receive as the landowner. In this case, the developer's plan included a hotel. Did the town ask for a hotel? No. But the economic viability of the proposal relied on a hotel being a piece of the puzzle. Mr. Kempinar currently owns and operates four other hotels in Middletown. He's had a relationship with the Naval War College for decades, whereby military personnel who are teaching or otherwise involved with the Navy base use his hotel for extended stay housing. As we're all aware, the base was experiencing an increase in personnel, and as a result, the need for extended stay housing will also increase. Another point to clarify here is that the difference between not wanting another hotel and not needing another hotel. Among the long list of requirements to apply for a loan to build a hotel is a market analysis for the bank to have confidence that there's demand for additional hotel rooms. And even with the 144 rooms from this hotel, there is still more market demand. So you can say you don't want another hotel, but there is a need for one. And let's not forget, the parcel in which the hotel is proposed to be built was the exact location of the Navy Lodge. Then there's Potsy Field. Again, for clarification, nothing to do with the developer. I think making Sergeant Potts a focal point of this discussion was very unfortunate. I honestly feel the town was being respectful to his memory. I still firmly believe that moving the memorial to the north of the property and incorporating it into a much bigger public recreational space, which would accommodate a variety of users while providing a better history of Sergeant Potts, was the best way forward. By leaving the 3.8 acre parcel as is, the 15 acres loses the ability for connectivity as the field lies directly in the middle. Think about leaving the whole parcel as open space. The southern end is grass, potsy fields in the middle, and to the north has two buildings that will need to be demolished. If Middletown were New York City, houses everywhere, no place to go but Central Park to get outside, I could understand. But Middletown has so many open spaces and public lands for residents to use. Dunlop Wheeler Park at the beach, Paradise Park, Linden Park with its new playground, Wyre Soccer Fields, Oliphant, the trails at Valley Park, our schools, Arbor Woods Boulevard, Tibbetts Land with the Sekonic Greenway running right through it, Howland Park, Demery Park, Second and Third Beaches, the Satruus Wild Refuge, all in our town, available to our residents. Why, then, would you want to go to the corner of West Main and Coddington? We've heard suggestions that it could have walking paths and benches and a bandstand, a gazebo, a playground, bathrooms, water features, sports courts, shady trees, green grass, a big parking area, and so on. Well, of course, it could, but we, the taxpayers, would have to pay for it all. And not just the construction. Don't forget demolition of JFK and the current library. but the maintenance, grass mowing, nets, benches, roofs, paint, snow removal, bathroom cleaning, and so on, means more employees, more equipment into the future. And this is a double-edged sword. Not only is the upfront and annual cost of this open space or park significant, there is also no revenue coming in, which means taxes are going up. A little bit of confusion. Remember back just a few months ago, there was a lot of discussion during the budget cycle to keep our tax increase to 2%. The rough amount necessary to accomplish this reduction on the town side was $880,000. The first year payment from the hotel alone is just south of $800,000. But the annual revenue from the project is being viewed as minimal, a drop in the bucket. Yet the same relative amount of money represented a significant and necessary reduction for taxes for the residents. The job of the council is to look at all the relevant information and make an informed decision. Like any issue, if I only gave you one side of the story, only a handful of the facts, the resulting decisions would be quite different. To the task at hand, I continue to believe the development of this parcel is in the best interest of the town. The proposal from the developers has been consistent throughout the five years we've been discussing this particular project. They've agreed to the planning board request and done everything the town has required. The overlay makes sense to me as it sets up for future conforming use of the property. Thank you for listening. I'm a yes.

Thanks.

Okay.

Thank you, Tom. Charlie.

Thank you, Mr. President. I wanna thank the residents first and foremost. This process has been going on now for some 15 years almost, and you've taken part in this process. And that's important because we attend a lot of town council meetings and there's nobody in the audience. And these are record numbers of people coming out as well. And I think that's important to really highlight that this is not just, we've had to go through and use our schools just to hold these meetings as well. I think, you know, you've gone to planning board meetings, you've attempted community meetings, you've attended special meetings that we've had here, and it's the same thing I keep hearing. You don't want the hotel. You know, your voice matters to me. It really does. I, you know, your voice matters because I will say you guys saved Ponce Field. You saved that. We didn't save it. You guys saved that because you spoke up, because you got active in your community. And that's important. It matters. And you made that happen. Now, we've seen some of the best in our residents. There have been people that stand up and point out things that I didn't know about. And I do a lot of research on this. Well-educated comments, well thought out, well prepared. We've had some bad, too. I'm a little disappointed in some of the personal attacks on the developers, on some of my colleagues as well. I know. I've been there, too. I get your frustration. But I don't, you know, I think next time, maybe the next topic, maybe we can kind of avoid the personal attacks. I also want to thank the town staff, Wendy, Karen, Sean, Peter, everybody that's helped set these up. This is not an easy task to get this meeting set up tonight. And I think they do an amazing job, and I think they deserve some support here as well. They've made this possible. This is not easy to pull off, trust me. Maybe some air conditioning next time, Wendy. Can we do that? I want to thank the developers too. For many years of my career, I've sat right there where you guys are. I've been in home building, I've been in solar development, and I've been there. You guys are here doing your job and you've taken on some personal attacks here. I don't think they're warranted. To me, the town, and this is just, it's not a personal attack on anybody. My experience here, I've lived here for 18 years. Wasn't born here, but I've lived here for 18 years. I follow this stuff. I'm that guy that used to sit in front of public access at night and watch town council meetings. You know, that was me. And I followed this. And I remember when this property was bought, I go, why is the town in real estate? But then I saw the first renderings, and I saw some of the first ideas, and I started to see some of the input that residents were giving. And I got on board with it. I got involved in some other things in town, and here I am now. But to me, this process, we could have done it better. And I do think we should restart the process, because I think we mishandled some things here. Just my opinion. I want to thank my fellow counselors who, again, have been involved with this. It takes a lot of commitment to be up here. Many of them take personal attacks and are just doing their job as well. But we do need to listen. I take this seriously. I was elected to serve the residents of this town. And I've gone through all the notes, all the meeting minutes from all the meetings that have been held. I think somebody listed it out. It's an incredible amount of meetings taking place for this topic. And the vast majority of people that I saw did not support a hotel to be the focal point of this project. You know, it's not just that. I go out in the community. I spend a lot of time in the community. I talk to a lot of people. I drive my wife crazy because I talk to everybody, right? But like, I don't hear it. I don't hear the support for this project the way it is now. I just don't hear it. I hear what the vast majority says is they don't want the hotel. They want something different for this property. Things have changed a lot in the 15 years. This town has changed a lot since I moved here 18 years ago. I would argue the traffic on West Main alone, I live off of Oliphant Lane, it takes us 25 minutes to get from Newport to my house now. 25 minutes. And we're going to add more to that. I think we really, maybe it was a good deal 15 years ago. Maybe I would have supported it. But to me now, I just can't. because although i think developers i don't work for the developers i work for you the residents of this town and i have to listen to you i also think it's important to listen to other committees in this town the planning board has made several recommendations on this project and and i'll go back to the 2022 recommendation where they stated that the residents do not want the hotel to be the center of this project. That is our most powerful, I would argue, committee board that we have in this town, the planning board, especially now with some of the changes the state made. And we have to listen to them. Even the last round when this came to them, same thing. It's not the same plan. I think Leon pointed it out like he's right. It's not the same plan that went in front of the planning board. And I understand we we can move around that, but it's not the same. It just isn't. A lot has changed in this town. You know, I this is easy for me. I ran on this. I was opposed to this project from the beginning. My colleagues have a much harder decision to make tonight. They really do. They were part of the decision to get us to this point. And I respect that decision. They had to make a decision, but they have a really hard one tonight to make. But for me, I can't stand behind this. I just can't. I think we need to restart this project. You saved Potsie Field, let's restore it. Let's do something great with that facility. so with that um again it's very simple for me i work i work for the residents and the vast vast majority of residents that i've spoken to i've listened to at these meetings i've seen on facebook i've seen in public they don't want this project as it is now so i cannot vote for any of the amendments thank you councillor conington

Vice Chair Welch, Council Roberts, tough act to follow, but I'm going to do my best. It's probably not going to be well received, but that's okay. I have listened to all that has been stated over the last year and more at planning board meetings, town council meetings, and zoning overlay public hearings. Much has been largely against the project. Many have been largely against the project. I've also had many people in the community come up to me and tell me they support the project, even just a hotel. As unpopular as this statement is going to be, during that time, there is nothing that was mentioned that has changed my position. I supported the original project, and I now support the hotel and the revenue that it will provide to the town. Most say the income is insignificant. However, that amount would have allowed, as Vice Chair Welch alluded to, would have allowed the council, if they so choose, to reduce the tax rate to 2% this year and thereabouts, and if needed, could have been utilized and appreciated by the schools for programs they had to cut. Sorry about that. The members of the town council who originally supported the project didn't publicly speak out about the Potts family. If I recall correctly, from President Rodriguez, It was because the family, I believe Sergeant Pott's sister and brother-in-law, stated he would be rolling over in his grave if he knew his name was being bantered about. For clarity, to my knowledge, no council member has ever stated the family supported the moving of the memorial. In considering the relocating of the honoring, the council slash town wasn't desecrating it, but rather relocating it and hoping to enhance it. This isn't something that is done often, but it isn't unheard of. Whatever happens going forward relating to Pottsy Field and the recreation area, it should be improved and made more multi-use, as well as making Sgt. Potts' story more available to anyone who visits. Additionally, the members of the public that made up the Civic Advisory Committee should be applauded for their efforts and, if possible, re-engaged when a final determination for the area, in part or as a whole, is determined. The way they've been treated by some of those who are against the project is abhorrent. I personally thank the members of the CAC for their collective efforts on behalf of the town and the community. I could say a lot more, but I don't know that it would be constructive. As your collective minds are made up, mine is as well. With that, I support the overlay and the whole project going forward.

Thank you. Okay.

Thank you.

Okay. This is Von Villis. Council Von Villis.

I'm making this statement to ensure that the public understands my position on the West Side proposal. After many years of support, I experienced a period of uncertainty during which I may have sent mixed signals to the public. In early June, I stated that I had mixed feelings about the West Side project and it was time to look at options. This was regarded as a switch in position and I was accused of empty talk with no action. This criticism provided impetus and I began asking questions which resulted in a review of the original plan. the changes to the proposal over the ensuing years, and the final result, based on historical information as well as the revised plan that meets the original expectations as proposed for approval tonight, and which I now fully support. Last week, I sent a letter to the media outlets explaining my fact-seeking and change in position But because I had sent the first letter in early June, my current letter was regarded as related to the election and was not universally published. Let me be clear. This issue has nothing to do with the election. My only intention is to support what I regard to be the right thing for the town. The following is the content of my letter, which some of the media chose not to publish. The title was, Action Speaks Louder Than Words, and I thank one of the writers who gave me that idea. I came to Aquidneck Island as a military child, following US Navy assignments in San Diego, California, Norfolk, Virginia, and Yokosuka, Japan. my parents bought a house in the development which overlooked Coddington Highway, the Anchorage Naval Housing, and the Naval Lodge, which was then on the corner of Coddington and West Main Road. So I am more familiar with the location than most Middletowners. The announcement a few years ago of the assignment of additional ships to our area resulted in a proposal to build temporary housing for the military families as well as for the contractors expected to come to the area in conjunction with the anticipated naval station development. The original proposal for the West Side seemed to be a natural solution for military families, especially for someone like me who had military connections and had lived nearby. But as time passed and Kennedy School closed, the size and purpose of the development grew and further expanded. with the relocation of the library so that what was originally intended to be a similar but better and more modern replacement for the Navy Lodge became a monstrosity that took over the center of our town. Over time, my own commitment to the project gradually diminished. especially when many of the town residents began to regard the Westside Commons as a tourist attraction and rejected the whole idea. At that point, I found myself asking what had happened to the original concept, and I, in fact, took action by pursuing answers. As a result, I discovered that although there are a substantial number of hotel rooms in Middletown, which I had assumed are only tourist facilities, roughly half are actually extended stay apartments, temporary housing for families relocating to our area, something that is not widely known and that even the Naval base applauds. And in addition, since the town will still own the land, the substantial rent for the new facility can be used to tear down the old school and library buildings in order to clear the land for housing and recreational purposes without additional expense to taxpayers. In summary, I am now fully supportive of the revised Westside proposal, which focuses on similar half hotel, half extended stay facilities, but leaves Potsey Field and the remainder of the property for the town to use at its discretion, with the expectation that any new plans developed by the town will include areas for housing, recreation, restoration, and enjoyment.

Okay. Thank you, Councilman Dulles. Chris or Dennis or myself, who wants to go? Okay. Thanks.

Okay.

Thank you, Dennis.

Okay.

Can you guys hear me?

All right. I want to thank everybody for coming out and speaking up and for all the meetings you've attended over the years. And I want to thank the builders as well. I am a local resident as well. I think most people know that. I don't need to go into my family history and all that. I am also a businessman. I've been in business for over 40 years. And one thing in Rhode Island that I've always said to companies I work with in Rhode Island, you deserve a plaque for being in Rhode Island and having a business. This is the worst state to do business in. I traveled the nation. This is the worst state to do business in. And I gotta say, since I've been on the council, I've, I've gotten so much resistance to change. It just, you know, and, and this whole process, I don't agree with it, but we get advice from our counselor and our town administrator that this is the way it works. This is how we do it. This is how we go through the process. And I'm constantly saying, when are we going to listen to the people? When are we going to put this out in front of them? We keep making decisions that I feel the public should be aware of before we make the decision. And so, you know, I believe we need housing has been one of my top priorities. And it was first targeted towards senior housing. And then over the years, we realized it's housing. It's just housing, and it's affordable housing. It's military housing. It's salve housing. We need housing. And so when this hotel was proposed, and I heard that it was a long-term stay, I stayed in one of these before. And it worked out really well. So I thought that this project, that hotel, was going to fit into the mix of the total plan. The total plan. I mean, I was all excited about the original design of this where You know, we had the open space. We had the library. We had housing. We had bike paths. We were looking at, you know, different ways and restaurants. And it was nice. And then it just kept changing. Changed on the builder side. Things were put in it that originally weren't in the plan that got people up in arms. Things changed in regards to what was in the park. There was a request by the planning board to do certain things. They didn't all get met. We were told we're only going to get 10% housing. I mean, there's so many pieces of this are changing. And now we're at one piece. And so... I TALKED WITH THE COUNCIL AND WHEN WE CAME BACK AND THE THING WAS THIS WHOLE PROPOSAL WAS CHANGING AND WE GOT TO THE POINT WAS, LIKE, OKAY, ARE WE GOING TO MOVE FORWARD OR NOT? AND WE TALKED ABOUT, YOU KNOW, THE BUILDERS, YOU KNOW, LET'S TALK WITH THEM AND THEY WERE RECEPTIVE TO SAYING, WELL, MAYBE WE'LL JUST DO THE HOTEL. I think we need to, if that's the case, I think we need to pump the brakes and talk about what we're going to do with the rest of the park or of the common area. What are we going to do as a project that we originally set out to do? Let's bring it out there. Let's tell them we want to do housing. We want to have an open space. But no, we're not doing that. Okay. I THINK THAT, YOU KNOW, IN BUSINESS, WHEN SOMETHING CHANGES THIS MUCH, WHEN THE CUSTOMER THOUGHT THEY WERE GOING TO GET A AND THEN WERE PROPOSING D, WE SHOULD PROBABLY, I'D LIKE TO SEE US TABLE THIS DECISION. I'D LIKE TO OPEN IT UP TO THE COMMUNITY AGAIN OF WHAT WE WOULD LIKE TO SEE IN THIS FACILITY. I THINK THEN IT'S GOT TO GO BACK TO PLANNING. And let's see where that gets us. And I do want to speak for the council and also Wendy and team. Everyone is trying to put their best foot forward. There's no one up here taking money. There's no one up here trying to do things backhanded. Could we be a little bit more transparent? Probably. Definitely. But we want the compromise word was used. I thought that was good. It's a compromise. In business, we compromise. We have to compromise. Otherwise, we're not going to get anywhere. And we do need businesses in Middletown. But we also need open space from housing and things along those lines. So I would like to see this be tabled. Let's take another step back. open it up to the community of what you would like to see in here, put it out to planning, and let's see if we can get a community center here that benefits everybody. And it's a compromise. So I'd like to see that.

Okay, thank you, Dennis. Council Logan.

Excuse me. So I'm normally a man of very, very few words. If you've watched me up here the last few years, I don't like to speak too often. And when I do, it's a very impassioned speech that I normally bring forward. I want to clarify the record. John, thank you for quoting me, but you misquoted me. What I said, and this is when I first appointed to the council, when I drive that parcel of land, I feel like I throw my wallet out the window every time. Why did I say that? Because the town two years, three years prior bought that parcel for $1.3 million for economic development. There's no economic, there's no development. That was taxpayer dollars. So that was my anger that came out from that because there should be something going on there. Along that entire stretch in that corridor, I got a lot of stuff written down here. I've been thinking about this for probably two and a half weeks now. Not an easy decision to make, right? Everything's a balancing act in town. So I'm just gonna start to chug-a-lug through a couple of these little pieces, right? First and foremost, I would like to see that parcel sold. I think Middletown deserves its money back for it immediately. We could probably sell it for twice for what we bought it for. Then it can go out to development. You can send it to RFP at that point for the highest bidder. That's what the RFP is used for, because we're gonna be selling something. We wouldn't go with an RFP for procurement for this. We'd put an agreement in place. We're not buying anything. We're developing. Taxes are going up. I want to make something very clear to everybody. There was a few years where there were some zeros. We talked about that before. That has a long lasting impact downstream because you have contractual obligations that have to be paid for. And when you don't collect the revenue for that, you just kick the can down the road and they grow exponentially. You need to be aware of something. Just this last year, there was a blue ribbon commission that came forward. Said we're gonna figure out the school funding formula. This has caught my eye. Because that commission, which has now been referred to the state for further study, says Middletown, Newport, you can afford to raise your taxes to pay for your school, so we're going to give you less money. If that becomes law and that changes the funding formula, we are $400,000 in the hole right out of the gate. We've got to find new mechanisms for revenue. And I understand people think $765,000 or any other number that's been thrown around is not a lot of money. It is. It is. I went back and looked at our budgets. The school's asking for a 4% increase of $1.3 million. That's almost 60% of their ask. It's a lot of money. It doesn't seem like it on paper. It's a lot of money. It will add value someplace else and hopefully take it away from you, the taxpayer, the resident taxpayer, and put it someplace else.

A couple of things that I want to bring up with this.

I know I said I want to sell the property. I agree with Dennis here. When we first started this process, it was a grand idea. It was to develop that entire length of that property for something that Middletown could be proud of. We need housing. Affordable housing is an issue. It's not just an issue here, by the way. The issue comes because, one, it costs a lot of money to develop housing. Two, there's a lot of red tape with what you've got to go through for zoning to even develop said housing. And three, the fees for developing and building said housing is out of control. These are all things that have to be addressed. We have to think about that. Housing as we want to build it, and we've done this right across the street from Town Hall, we purchased that parcel for a reason. to address the citizens' concern about affordable housing, allow folks with lower median income to actually purchase a home, not the land, but have some generational wealth that they can build upon. There's a cost to that. It's gonna cost us as taxpayers to do that. So just know that that comes with the territory. Nobody's just gonna come and build it for free. There's going to be a cost for that. We need to factor that into what we're doing as we move forward. So back to the overarching entire overlay. The project's changed. It changed significantly. I loved the first designs. I thought it was great. It had all kinds of components in there. Was there some things I didn't like? Yeah, drive-throughs. You heard me the last time we had that up there. No, I'm a no-go for drive-throughs there. Way too much pedestrian traffic. Other pieces of the puzzle? Absolutely not. But then the project changed. The housing component fell out. And that was probably the biggest piece of the puzzle. We had an opportunity for increased green space to do something a little bit different to honor not just Sergeant Potts, but others. We could have put a great veterans memorial there with a multi-use field, a great veterans memorial. But then it changed. We had an opportunity to purchase a building to put a library. You know, I did roll my eyes earlier at that. You know why? Because it's a damn good business decision. Ask anybody in the game. 24 million to build a new library 11 to retrofit and get donations it's a it's a really good idea it's a really good idea and that section of town is transforming as well there's more residents that are going in there this library is going to be used because there's going to be people actually very close proximity to it and then if you think about if we could put a trail through to the new elementary complex there's additional opportunity there and it's going to give us something we've needed for years Enhanced services at that library. When I first got on the council, they didn't ask for anything. They got no increases for two or three years. Well, we gotta start increasing that. That's a public service that needs to happen. We need to do more there to give back to the citizenry. Thinking long-term again, not just short-sighted. Where's I going with this? Library, done with it, not talking about it anymore. I grew up on the west side. For those of you that don't know me, I had very humble beginnings. I grew up behind Dunkin' Donuts, Buck Road, Woolsey Road. That was my stomping ground. I got bad news for everybody. The traffic over there has sucked forever. It's gotten worse, yes. It's never gotten better. And it ain't gonna. Our population's dwindling, but there's more traffic. I don't understand that at all. I don't know how that happens. But I know it's not gonna get any better. Do I know that we have more work to do for public safety when it comes to roads and crosswalks and sidewalks? Absolutely. It's one of my big agenda items. It always has been, and it always will be, because I think we need to have pedestrian thoroughfare across our fine town, not just on the west side, but also on the east side. I know that's a tender subject for a lot of people. The overlay as it's written today, it doesn't work for me. It doesn't work for me. Now, if we were just zoning that one parcel at the end that is deemed for economic development that we bought all day long, I'm in for a hotel there if that zoning was just standalone. There's not other pieces of the project there. Those are missing. So I don't know if it warrants a complete overlay of that entire area. I do know we have a lot more work to do. There's a lot more work to do. And I'm sorry that you feel like you're not heard. You are heard, constantly. You're not at these meetings alone. We're at all these meetings too. I hear you, but I'm not a man of many words. And yes, I spend a lot of time at the BJ's on Saturday and Sunday. You can catch me there. A lot of people do. And a lot of people tell me a lot of things. Some of them are nice, some of them not so nice. But I stand there and I listen. Because I value their opinion. Again, humble beginnings. I'm a resident here, lifelong, left and came back, Marine Corps veteran. I've seen things. Long-term stay and accommodations, incredibly important for us. You know how many temporary duty orders I've gone on and had to stay at a Motel 6 for a week and a half? That's no good. I can't cook for myself, so now I'm definitely spending my per diem someplace else. That has to be an option. And I can't stress this enough. We started this conversation talking about how this all came to be, and it came because of a base realignment. They went through the Navy Lodge because they were moving services off of Naval Station Newport. I just want to bring one thing to the table for everybody to chew on and think about. Base realignment's coming back here in just a few short years. If we don't have those services to support those service members at Naval Station Newport, they may choose to take some of that service and bring it elsewhere. It's a very delicate balancing act. But where I'm at, now that I've gone on this diatribe and I didn't even look at my notes, so I apologize for that, where I'm at, I don't think that this project singly warrants the entire overlay. I can't support the overlay as it's written today. What I want, I don't want applause. What I want is I want us to sell that parcel. You want your money Middletown back? Let's sell that damn parcel. Let's get it off the books. And then let's see what happens. Right? I think that's a different approach. I've got a lot of skin in this. I joined the council when all this stuff started. So I've been at it from jump. So it's tough for me to say that because I know what we need in this town. We need more green space, absolutely. We need more housing components, absolutely. We need more small business, absolutely. Small business is what makes this community tick. Where are we putting it? We're at this weird crossroads, but I can't support the overlay as it's written. Thank you.

Thank you, Chris.

OK, the way I see it, it looks like three to three. So not an easy position to be in, but there's no pressure. So I'd like to address the residents. First, I want to thank everybody for the time you spend and you put out. I want to thank the developers. You guys get your teeth kicked in. We get our teeth kicked in. You know, the I want to thank the staff. I know you don't like being here, Wendy, till 1030 at night, 11 o'clock. I don't think any of us do. Having said that, I want to talk about words like transparency. You got to sit here because you're elected and you got to you got to take some of those hits, even though they may not be true. Words. Transparency is for me is You know, there's a perception when residents see that, okay, there was, is it an RFI or is it an IRFP? Why are you doing the zone and overlay over the whole property now? I will tell you, every single council up here voted for that revision. Every single councilor. That's a fact. And that was a public record. When I used the word transparency in It's more geared toward when you're sitting as a counselor, certain things have to go to executive session by law. And when you're in executive session, there's certain things that you would love to talk about publicly, like Dennis said, but you can't. That's part of executive session until you take a vote on it, and then you vote on it in public. That's how it works. So perception of transparency, you're not gonna get anybody more transparent than the group up here, whether you like them, dislike them, whatever it is, okay? That's a little bit troublesome, but you get that. It's part of the job. You have to accept that. But I just want to make sure we talk about that openly and publicly. That's how the process works. Respect. Again, we're going to take some hits. But the text, this was never about the Kempanoff family or the Karam family. This is about the town of Middletown. They happened to be the developer we chose, and we chose them because it wasn't one RFI that went out, it was two. And the second one came back, and it was three people. It was this group, it was Bucci Group, I believe it was, and they were gonna do the same thing, to develop that piece of property. And we all liked the plan originally when there was housing in there, and there were shops in there, but nobody's gonna come in and do it for free. They're just not going to go, hey, Middletown, we're just going to come in and build this for you. These are business people that are going to make money. It doesn't matter who it is. It has nothing to do with this group. Nothing. Because he's local, people are taking pop shots at him. If you don't like him, that's fine. You don't have to like him. But then I want to use the word balance. Because a lot of things we do is we're trying to create balances of You know, moving the town forward, one of the things I've learned in the years I've been here, you cannot hold back a town. People do not like change. Some of us don't like change. You cannot hold back a town. You see other towns around the state that struggle. I like that song. Anyway, they struggle because they're resistant to change and they don't want to make those hard decisions on what's best for the town. So we try and balance budgets. We try and balance businesses. You know, we try and balance land use. There's a lot of things you try to balance and you're up here doing the best you can for your town. So I just want to talk about that a little bit and make sure that everyone understood THE EXECUTIVE SESSION, EVERYONE UNDERSTOOD THE 7-0 VOTE, EVERYONE UNDERSTANDS THE PERCEPTION OF TRANSPARENCY. AND PEOPLE'S PERCEPTIONS ARE REALITY. YOU CAN GO UP THERE, SOME OF YOU ARE PROBABLY SAYING, HE'S JUST BLOWING HOT AIR RIGHT NOW. BUT THOSE ARE FACTS. AND THEY COME RIGHT FROM THE HEART. LET'S TALK ABOUT THIS PROPERTY. WE BOUGHT THIS PROPERTY WITH THE INTENTIONS TO DEVELOP IT BECAUSE IT WAS THE MOST VALUABLE PIECE OF PROPERTY THAT THE TOWN OWNS. THAT'S WHAT WE DID. WHEN WE DID IT, We make decisions of, okay, how are we gonna get our money back on this property? And what's the best use for it? I know last time somebody, look, the whole thing gets emotional, right? A resident couple said, we'll move it to Hugendorn. Come on, that's not a good idea either, right? So you try and make businesses where they should be. Having said that, we paid 1.3 million for the property. which means the town to get its return on investment, the number we were given was 785,000. I'm not sure where that changed, but that's the number we were given. With a 2.5% increase a year, every five years it would go up 12%, okay? So we would get, the town would get their ROI or return on investment back within two years as a business person. You think about that. You're gonna represent the residents and go, okay let's talk about that balance and let's talk about um getting a return on the property we bought for the residents those are good intentions so in two years with that 785 we would have got we got more than what we paid for the property back okay so so not many towns do that and also would have a residual uh much needed revenue for the town for the next I DON'T KNOW IF WE ENTERED INTO A 99-YEAR AGREEMENT. BY THE WAY, THAT AGREEMENT WAS NO SECRET. AT THE LAST MEETING WHEN MR. GALVIN SAID THAT, SOME OF THE RESIDENTS GASPED LIKE IT WAS A SURPRISE. WE HAD AN ORIGINAL AGREEMENT WITH THEM. SO WHAT WE DID WAS REVISE THE AGREEMENT. AND, AGAIN, THAT WAS AN EXECUTIVE SESSION WHERE WE COULDN'T TALK ABOUT IT. WE COULDN'T GO, HEY, RESIDENTS, WHAT DO YOU THINK? OTHERWISE YOU'D GIVE YOUR COMPETITORS AN EDGE ON NEGOTIATING. We are, because of Newport, a hospitality destination and benefit financially because of their economic benefit or our economic benefit from them. This project creates not only revenue but also jobs. One of the things Chris touched on a little bit was one of the things that concerns me is the Navy is the single largest employee here, right? So one of the things that concerns me as I look to um, try and take away the emotion of that property and the motion of, of the decision and the Navy. If we don't support the Navy with BRAC realignment coming up, it's coming up. I don't know how many people were here in the seventies, but when the Navy pulled out, we were in, we were in desperate need. This town was in desperate. So, so those things crossed my mind about, okay, how can we support the Navy? and make sure they know that look we got noah coming we got some some coast guard folks coming or two carriers whatever it is coming um is it middletown sole responsibility no it's the islands and whoever else uh portsmouth and newport as well so that that really sits in the back of my mind about you know um you know moving forward down the road not not today not next year down the road so Um, BRAC is scary. Um, you know, if we don't, um, support, everybody knows that, that every successful community is built on the backbone of small businesses, right? So if you have small business and you have small successful business and you have people contributing to those businesses, um, you know, it helps, helps your, your town thrive. So, listening to the residents and Chris hit on it and some other folks said it that you know you might not think you're being listened to but you are you are being listened to and that's whether we agree or respectfully disagree you are being listened to I was at a council my first two years in the council in 1998 I've been on and off a few times it was a council and they were doing a proposed center potentially in the valley and basically weren't listening at the time. And so like four of them get kicked out. I was one of them. I was new two years. I didn't know what I was doing. I'm not sure I still do. But anyway, you gotta listen. That's one thing I've always stuck in the back of my mind, whether we agree or respectfully disagree, you have to listen. So as you look at the proposed hotel on paper, and you look here, and then you look at the drawing renderings, it looks pretty good, right? I've always thought it looked good. And then, you know, in the past two weeks, I sat over in Ruby Tuesdays one day for, I don't know, about 15 minutes, and I was just looking at the property, and you see it on paper, it looks good, and you're trying to envision it in your head what it would look like in front of you, a four-story building, with the front here that says Middletown and the wall and a nice little park that they, they call it a park, but it was one of the stipulations from the planning board, what it would look like. Would it fit on that property? And then two days later I was down at Walmart, I was coming up to Coddington and I pulled over on the side to get a side view of the property to what it would look like, because I wanted to make sure in my head that it fit and i felt confident about that if it did or it didn't um i tried to envision the traffic while i was sitting there and we all know chris is right the traffic has always been a mess it's gotten worse um you're right you know the the population goes down but we're a tourist destination And people want to come to Newport and they want to stay in hotels in Middletown because it's cheaper for them. Not everybody can afford a $900 room a night or a $1,000 room a night in some of these places. So at the end of the day, for me, the plan doesn't meet the vision of the people of the town of Middletown. So the current proposal, one of the issues I have with it, I would probably support the hotel. if we were just zoning that piece, because I think we've made some mistakes along the way and we need to own those as a council. And some of the mistakes that we made were, you know, it sounded good when we had the overlay over the whole project, but as Dennis said, it's really changed. So as it's changed, you know, we thought, I thought, I was one of the ones that thought that, okay, it's still okay to do that because we have future plans. We don't know what they are, but let's get that overlay out of the way now. until it was brought up hey this isn't the right thing to do and really you shouldn't put an overlay over over potsy field so i believe at this point in time it's inappropriate to include potsy field in the zoning overlay i truly do um i don't think the favorable favorable recommendation of the planning board no longer applies to this revised project um I, too, have been a lifelong resident of Middletown. I'm 63 years old, been here my whole life. My family came here in the late 1800s, and they've lived in Middletown the majority of their whole lives. You didn't need to hear that, but I felt like I had to say it. Every resident in this room, including this council, cared deeply about this town. Make no mistake about that. Whether you agree with what Peter agrees with, or Dennis agrees with, or I agree with, or Charlie agrees with, You're up here, you run for council because you want to try and make a difference. You don't come up here to be not transparent or not listen to a resident. One of the things we really need to go back to is, I say it all the time, we can respectfully disagree. We really can. And we can do that with class and we can do that with purpose. And that's what we need to do as a community. Um, the town's changed. Somebody said it earlier. Um, you know, it's not the same town in the early 2000s, the mid, you know, 2010, 2000-ish, uh, in that area. It's really changed. And you sit as the town council, and again, you're always looking for ways to generate revenue because that's part of your job, um, and to, to, to lessen the burden on the taxpayer. And I, I, I believe that the 785,000, that's a lot of money. When you're sitting up there and trying to figure out a budget, and you're short and the superintendent has to come with $880,000 in teacher cuts just to get the 4% on his budget, that's difficult. And now the formula is gonna change again potentially. It's not a good recipe for the town. So those dollars did look attractive and they do look attractive. But when you sit as a counselor, you're always looking for ways to generate revenue and reduce the burden on the taxpayers. So having said that, I want to go back a little bit when this project came before a council. I think it was 2000. It was after we purchased the property from the Navy because, and don't forget, I played softball. I played against Chris Potts. I played in that field for 22 years. I played on that field when the field was the other direction. The home plate was toward the anchorage when there was nobody living in there. The Navy abandoned it. So there was a Navy lodge there. And I remember it because I got lucky one night, hit a home run over the fence and almost hit the Navy lodge. But that's my thoughtful story. So having said that, that piece of property, I spent a lot, probably more than most people in this room will ever spend on it. I'm very familiar with it. But at the end of the day, I think we need to take a step back here for a little bit. I think if we're gonna do something with that corner, then we do something definitively with that corner and separate it from the rest, whether we rezone it and then go back to the drawing table or we sell it. I'm not opposed to, I have to see where that goes, but everywhere I go, I think, you know, I say to myself, is it just the people in this room that don't want it? Because you see a lot of the same faces. that not discarding you, but you have to ask yourself that. And then I say, then when you get outside of there, you're talking to people and a lot of residents, even your friends don't want it. Now they don't know a lot about it and some people don't pay attention and some people do want it. But, you know, I just wish, I wish there was more support for it. I do. And it just seems like You know, at the end of the day, you're going to do what's best for Middletown. I don't care about the election. You want to vote for me? Great. I'm going to work my ass off for you. If you don't want to vote for me, then don't vote for me. This is not about the election. I want to make that perfectly clear. Any decision I make is about the town of Middletown. Respectfully agree or respectfully disagree. That's what this is about. So... I think people opposed to this is bigger than this room. Again, I do think we need some type of development there, whether it's a hotel and it's zoned separately. And we do generate revenue from there. But I think we do need to go back to the drawing board on that. So I'm going to make some people happy. I'm going to make some people pissed off. I think I have to do what's best at this point with the facts in front of us from the town. So that's kind of where I stand on it. So it's not about that. It's not about winning or losing. It's about doing what's right for the town. And I think at some point in time, this isn't over. And I think we need to, and the word, you know, John, you put out there that I said that it was a compromise. It was a compromise. It was a compromise from what it was. Things have changed. I don't mind being quoted. He was accurate. But I think, look, at the end of the day, what we have to do is we have to move forward as a community. Nothing is more disturbing to me than when we can disagree all day long. And we heard you loud and clear. But at the same time, we have to work as a community. We have to do that. You're all good people. You can be upset, and I can be upset, and we can go back and forth on how long you're speaking or how many times you get up, but whether we like the project or not, but we have to move forward as a community. We are going to accomplish nothing and not move the town forward if we don't work together, because this property does have to be developed, and it has to be developed in a certain way, okay? Whether you agree or not, okay?

So that's where I'm at with it tonight.

Having said that, we have to read each one individually and vote on each one, okay? So we have a motion. We have already closed the public hearing. I'm going to turn it over to the Vice President.

Motion to adopt the first ordinance on its second reading.

Second.

We have a motion and a second to adopt. All in favor? Aye. Anybody opposed? OK. Number two is Vice President.

Motion to adopt the second ordinance on its second reading. Second.

We have a motion and a second to adopt the second ordinance on its second reading. All in favor? Aye. Raise your hand, aye. Anybody opposed? Aye. OK. And number three, Vice President.

Motion to adopt the third ordinance on its second reading. Second.

We have a motion to second adopt the audits in its second reading. All in favor? Raise your hand, aye. Anybody opposed, raise your hand. Okay, so it looks like we're gonna go back to the drawing board here. I just wanna end by saying that, look, look, we are not perfect. We are going to do what's best for the town every single time. The problem is is that we're humans and we make mistakes along the way. So when you look back at it and you try and correct your mistakes or you try and go back to the drawing board, that's what you need to do. And I think that's kind of where my mind at and that's where four members of the council lie tonight. So I'll turn to one more motion to the vice president.

Motion to adjourn. Second.

We have a motion and a second to adjourn. All in favor? Aye.