Planning Board - Regular Meeting

I've started the recording, just so you all know. Yeah.

Okay, my phone says it's 630. So I'm going to call this meeting to order. Jared, can we have a roll call, please?

Sure. Thank you. Margaret Polsky.

Here.

John Grisham. Here. Richard Cromwell.

Here.

Paul McGreevy. Here. Jared Pimentel. Here. Kevin Michaud.

Here.

Patricia Antonelli.

Here.

Therese Guzman-Stokes. Here. And Frederick Hunsberry. Here. We have a quorum.

Thank you. Full House, thanks all for being here tonight. May I have a motion to approve the minutes of our last meeting?

So moved. Second.

Any discussion about the minutes? Okay, thanks. Any discussion about the meeting minutes? All right, then I'm going to call the vote. All in favor to approve the minutes of the August 3 meeting?

Aye.

Any opposed? All right. Thank you. Do we have any communication staff? Okay, moving right along. Mr. Jackson, did you want to request? We have two matters before us. I believe you're representing both applicants and you're requesting a postponement or a

Yeah, that's right. Probably about 10 days ago or so, I notified staff that we did have an expert retained, which he was originally available for this evening for both applications.

Yeah.

And a scheduled conflict arose, so he wouldn't be able to be available tonight, sort of pivotal to both cases. So we requested those matters be continued to the August 15th.

Okay. Then I'm going to call for a motion to continue these two matters, a unified development review for minor subdivision application, application number plan 268, 59 Washington Street, tap 12, lot 120. It's an R10 unit. And I guess we'll go ahead, since Mr. Jackson is representing both applicants, we'll go ahead and include in the motion the continuance of application plan 2611, 701 Bellevue Avenue, tap 38, lot 023, R60 residential. May I have a motion?

Sorry, can you specify in the motion what the meeting you're continuing to is?

We are the motion should continue these matters to the October 5th meeting.

So moved. Second.

OK. Any discussion about these continuations? All right. Then I'll call the vote. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? All right. Thank you, Mr. Jackson. I'll take care of. All right then, I think we're zooming along here. We might be on record for one of our shortest meetings in our history. Discussion of reports, actions of the administrative officer, board members, you've had the opportunity to review these administrative matters. Any questions for the staff or any discussion? All right, then moving right along. How about liaison reports, tree and open space commission? Nope. Nope. Oh, and, and Hayden isn't here. So, all right. So we'll, we'll skip tree and open space, the waterfront commission, Dick.

Um, I have nothing to report.

Okay. Any questions for Dick? All right then energy and environment commission.

I was away for the most recent ones, so I was not able to attend.

All right. Any questions or discussion? All right, then. Well, you guys are really helping me out here.

Comprehensive Plan Update Working Group.

I believe we have a brief presentation, let's emphasize brief, from staff regarding the open house and review timelines. Thank you. Here we go. Okay. I believe we have this in our materials. Yes. Yes.

Yes.

By the way, thanks to everyone who participated in the open house. And there were a lot of constructive discussions and a lot of constructive suggestions. And I think we're going to get a summary of what came up then.

Yes, so I will try to keep it as brief as possible. So again, huge thank you to all who participated and volunteered. It was super helpful to have everyone there and conducting conversations with the participants. So looking at the numbers, we had about 87 RSVPs. We estimate a little bit over 70 attendees plus six online comment submissions after the fact, two of which were email, four of which were through our online comment portal. For anyone who couldn't make it, the activities included the 12 engagement stations, including in addition to the large collaborative map outside on Broadway with our sign-in table, which was staffed by our planning board volunteer, Patty. And then we had three informational boards. And if you'd like to look at any of those a little bit closer, they're available online at Engage HQ as PDFs. So we have to recap slides which none of this is new information to the planning board or the city council but. we're including it to frame how we got to where we are. So this slide pretty much sums up our touch points, which are measurable moments of engagement with the community. So we put a plus sign after the 2,650 number because there's a lot of touch points such as informal conversations, discussions, questions that we just can't measure. But, you know, we did our best. And just as a note, to provide you guys with some context on community engagement in Newport, we were told at the beginning of this process to aim for 400 surveys and to not be disappointed if we got anywhere between 200 and 400. So we doubled that and more, which is just kind of a sign of how good our consultant team is and how dedicated the planning board is to making sure people are heard.

No questions on this?

All right, moving right along. This is also not new. So this is the 10 takeaways that the planning board requested from the consultant team at one of their presentations. It might have been May. So this kind of framed the open house content. So these were the 10 key takeaways that the consultant prepared in order to frame this kind of overwhelming amount of content into digestible pieces. Just pausing, are there any questions on this? I know it's a lot. I'm going to keep moving and then I will distribute this as a PDF to you guys after this meeting. So getting into kind of the initial results from some of the activities from our open house. So what you're seeing right now is the prioritization activity boards, which are arguably very fun. So what we did, we had two prioritization boards. One is eight short-term strategies and one is eight long-term strategies. Participants were asked, and I believe Frederick was at this station leading the charge. So participants were asked to allocate Newport bucks, which are custom-made monopoly money, or Newport, one sheet which contained a $100 bill down to a $5 bill to the short-term strategies and one to the long-term strategies and to allocate that money how they wanted these draft strategies to be prioritized. And it's little, but you'll see in the left hand corner those little colorful icons. So that represents the different overlapping chapters. So while we are constricted by structure of the regime, we're constricted by just general structure for review. But really, the goals, the strategies, they are interweaving. They are not just for one chapter. They are not in a tunnel. This is what people said. For short-term strategies, we have, I'm just flipping my notes. What you're looking at is a breakdown of what bills people put and then the total value of Newport bucks that people put. Our overwhelming winner by a landslide was adopt zoning changes that prevent or discourage residential down conversion, allow up conversions, and remove obstacles for housing production. So that was the number one strategy that people put money towards. The second place was develop a comprehensive parking management strategy and hire an events manager to coordinate transit and parking and lessen congestion. Do we have any questions before I move on?

That's big. Yeah. Big. Yeah. Yeah. I want to start with that.

Yeah. And so we're going to look at the same data set. So this is the same data. This is the same short term strategies, the same Newport bucks calculated. But these are two different ways of looking at it. So on the left, we have the total amount of money allocated. And on the right, we have the total numbers of bills put under each strategy, which is kind of confusing, but really what this articulates is that there were a lot of people who put money towards certain strategies that may have not been high bills, but they're still strategies that many people care about. So we wanted to show that there's the numeric value and then there's the value of actual bills that people put. The one standout here is that orange number two under my total number of bills. There were 22 Newport bucks put under it. And that strategy is pilot micro mobility programs such as bike share, golf carts, wayfinding signage, and bike safety education to encourage more use of the Newport Access Hub and Gateway Center. Moving on.

Which actually is very similar to parking management. Right. It's another way of talking about parking management.

Right. For long term strategies, we had a little bit more of a uniform increase going on, which is nice to see.

So our top performers, which meant how we evaluated it, they got the most money.

The number one was create a housing trust funded by new revenue sources such as impact fees on short-term rentals or down conversion fees. Number two was implement the urban design vision of the North End Urban Plan by creating tools to drive economic development opportunities. And number three was increase public waterfront access and protect and expand the harbor walk. So we kind of have a nice broad brush, and that's just me saying nice, but that's not formal analysis, but a nice broad brush of different goals from different areas of the comp plan. And again, looking at the data in multiple different ways, in addition, we have another kind of... a lot of bills were put there, but they were a lot of low, low amount bills. And that is a strategy that states to create and preserve spaces for a diverse economy. Any questions on this? I know I'm going through it fast. It'll be more interesting probably to read, but, um, So in addition to the fun Newport Bucks prioritization exercise, we also had 11 chapter stations around this room. And it was very crowded, which is always a good thing to see. So what people were asked to do was to drop a star sticker next to the strategy that they liked the best on each board. Now, we cannot guarantee that everyone went to every station, right? That's just not human nature. BUT THESE WERE THE INSTRUCTIONS THAT PEOPLE WERE GIVEN. SO ON EACH BOARD WE HAD ON THE FAR LEFT PROPOSED TO DRAFT GOALS. WE THEN HAD UP TO 11 DRAFT STRATEGIES IN THE CENTER BOARD WHICH IS WHAT PEOPLE VOTED ON. AND THE STRATEGIES ARE THE OUTLINE SPECIFIC ACTIONS THAT THE CITY AND ITS PARTNERS CAN TAKE TO ACHIEVE THE GOALS. And then also on these boards were real-life case studies for similar communities for the content of the board so that people could go and look up how those projects were executed in other communities. And again, these are available to view on Engage HQ. You can take a very hard look at all of the draft strategies and goals. And so we have some winners with a total of 11 stars. So our number, our two highest performing strategies from the whole entire room, the first one was from transportation and it reads, develop a comprehensive parking management strategy that reduces downtown congestion and provides creative solutions for parking needs. And our number two in the highest scoring is from the outdoor recreation and open space chapter and it's protect and improve the harbor walk and its public access connections.

So seeing some similarities there.

And I'm really briefly just going to go through the next four, the second highest performing category, 10 stars. So we have a goal from a strategy from land use, update zoning to encourage the addition of housing units within Newport existing buildings or new buildings and keeping the local architectural character. We have a goal from housing, adopt zoning changes that encourage the production of new housing units as well as the preservation of existing units. We have another one from Transportation, enhance Newport's pedestrian experience. And lastly, we have one from Natural Resource Chapter, pursue tree preservation and landscape ordinances to increase tree canopy, improve stormwater management, and protect natural features like rock formations, natural land cover. And then we highlight the top goals from every chapter board. So I'm not going to reread all of them. We've already heard, we've heard the top ones from transportation, outdoor rec and open space, land use, housing, and natural resources. So looking here, we had a tie for the top Three, in economic development. For city services and facilities, we had coordinate with Middletown and Portsmouth to share information, resources, and facilities to improve overall government efficiency and provide mutual benefits for all three of Winnick Island municipalities. And then for water utilities, we had implement a residential landscaping ordinance to limit impervious surfaces and encourage stormwater management in native plantings. And then... Again, we had some ties going on here. So we have historic and cultural resources was tied. Energy was increased user homeowner education about energy utilities, including energy efficiency upgrades to carbonization and electrification and responsible energy use and trade-offs so long. And then we had another tie with natural hazards and climate change. So that's what we heard. And this is my last slide. So does anyone have questions on the previous slides before I continue? So looking towards the future, we are entering our last phase of the comprehensive plan. Our open house was our last large public-focused engagement event. So currently the core project team is working with interface, our consultant team to finalize our review schedule and our review order and how that intersects with our 2026 to 2027 planning board meetings. So generally speaking, the part of the timeline that's highlighted in an orange square right now, we are hoping to do the review in a little bit more of a modern format, kind of. So instead of handing you all the entire draft comprehensive plan and asking you to read it and provide comments, which is an undertaking, we'd like to break it up by sections. So currently, the comprehensive plan is organized into four sections. They have like three to four chapters each. And we're trying to do a staggered review so that we can actually get comments based on section and not just based on the whole draft. So where we're still working it out is the order of review and the format of review, and also the level of detail that we're going to request from both the advisory committee and the planning board. So one thing that can be tricky is if we ask for a staggered review for these, and let's say we ask the planning board to leave comments on a PDF, that could theoretically violate quorum, because if you're all discussing a matter in a non-public forum, that there's back and forth. So it's a tricky situation that we're working on the formatting with, but we want it to be as transparent and as efficient and meaningful as possible. Let's see. Um, and just in case, if you're super curious about the, what criteria of review we have to meet, we will communicate that quite clearly in the coming weeks, as well as the, you know, whatever order of events we cook out. But the Rhode Island general law is title 45 chapter 22.2. And that's where it outlines exactly how many public hearings are required for us and, uh, the review timeline and, that kind of thing. And we look forward to getting that actual timeline to you ASAP. So then once that review, you know, the review incorporates edits, questions, all that thing. Once we finalize that, we begin the official approval process. And this one you guys are a little bit more familiar with. So we, it goes to you for approval. Once you are satisfied with any edits or anything, the final draft is then forwarded to council with a positive note from y'all. And then you the council has to read it once read it twice. And once they formally adopt it then goes to statewide planning and starts off that six month review process. So we've been doing a lot of work backwards working backwards by the statewide review process but also by how we would have to advertise public hearings. So it's a little tricky but we're we will get it done.

Any questions? No, I really appreciate all the work that you've put into this, Becky, and the entire planning staff, every member of the board who has participated in this entire process, and appreciation in advance for the work you're going to be putting in in the months ahead. I will say that however we structure the review process, I personally am interested in hearing other people's comments, other members of the board's comments, rather than just the echo chamber of my own comments. So whatever process that is, being able to, all of us having that opportunity, that input, because you all think of things I don't think of, and vice versa. Frederick, you look like you're trying to say something.

I was just going to try to figure out how to turn this on.

There you go.

Becky, we should be able to give you input. Is that correct? So, in other words, you could aggregate what you're receiving from each 1 of us.

That is the goal that is. Yeah. So there will have to be between the advisory committee and the planning board. There will have to be a staff quality control. Not quality control, but literally just lumping all the comments into 1 document to that sent interface. So theoretically, yes, you can give that to me, but or any staff member, but we just have to read the fine print of if a materials introduced in a public hearing, and then you submit feedback to a staff member after the fact, that's something that we need to be careful about.

But at least in the first round, you could aggregate it. And then to Margaret's point, you could, then we could review all of that together.

Yes, yeah.

with the comments.

Any other questions or requests or suggestions?

Is there anything from the open house or anything, given where we are right now, anything in the data that surprises you or other members of the staff? Anything you want to bring to our attention?

Yeah, we don't have like a formal analysis of the open house feedback. We have like the quantitative, this is how much money was put towards each. Um, at first glance, no, I but it's also such a large undertaking to go through it. And also, it's always very important. In community engagement, you get a different five people completely different. angle, which is why we have so many different methods to gain feedback. And following the open house, actually, this past Friday, I went to the Newport Hez movie night, and shared that participatory budgeting. And the answers were also different, because it was a different group of people and different age levels. So it's just very interesting.

So any of you who've been participating in this whole process, anything that surprised you or anything you want to follow up on?

I thought the result, the zoning answer was bigger than I anticipated.

Yeah.

Disproportionately bigger.

I would have expected actually for people to be more negative about that than positive, actually. Yeah. Interesting. And lots and lots of support for housing.

But I think what's good on that subject is I think there's a sense of empowerment that residents feel that they have been given in terms of zoning. And so because I think we put that into the ether out there during these meetings, and clearly it was absorbed.

Sweet.

I was glad you showed...

Sorry, this tear's too short. I'm glad you showed not only the total number of dollars for each, but how many people responded to it in number of bills. Because... To me, that would signify that in some areas, there were people who felt very strongly about certain things, but it was a select few of individuals who felt very strongly. And yet the number of bills tell you how many people care about a certain topic, which isn't surprising. I mean, we all have our one agenda that's very important to us, and we'll put all our big dollars in it. But it also tells you that there are a lot of people concerned with something by having the number of bills. So thank you for breaking it up both ways.

Yeah, that was all interface, just so you guys know. I'm just the messenger. So I will relay that to them.

What's also surprised me in a positive way was how well interface is dialed in to Newport. and dialed into the process. And they brought, I mean, I was pleasantly surprised in the process. You know, when we started, I did not anticipate just how much they could bring to the party. And they did a great job. So far, of course, they still have a way to go.

Okay. Thank you. Yeah, no problem. I'll look forward to more. I think we had one last report, bicycle and pedestrian advisory commission, but I think that's also Hayden who's been attending that. I don't think there's anyone on the board who's doing that.

Is there anyone who's interested in attending that, being a liaison to that commission?

Well, you'll always have another opportunity if you want.

All right. With that, unless somebody has some other business they would like to discuss,

I'll call for a motion to adjourn. So moved.

Second. All right. Any discussion?

All in favor? Aye. Thank you very much, everyone. And it is 6.57.