Planning Board - Regular Meeting

Um, thank you. Uh, the planning board meeting for uh, is this a planning board meeting or is this a workshop? Planning board workshop for May 22nd, 2025 is called to order at 605. Uh first do um roll call. Dr. Penoy here. Dr. Roberts here. Miss Ramos here. The chair is here. Miss Manard will not be here. I'm not sure whether Mr. Porter Mr. Porter both here. Mr. Porter and Mr. Also not going to be here. Okay, great. Um what's the next order of business? What comes next? Um, we do have we do have minutes for approval. Oh, yeah, that's right. We do have minutes approval. If you could look over the minutes from the previous meeting and let let us know if you have any comments or corrections. If not, we'll take an order to take a motion. Otherwise, I wasn't here. I was I also was not here. I'll make a motion to accept the minutes as presented. As presented. We have a motion. We have a second. Second. Okay. All in favor? I. Motions are the minutes are accepted as presented. Mr. Chairman, seeing that the board is not uh voting on any items today, I think item four, five, yep, and six are actually that's what I was thinking. Relevant and you could probably go right to item seven if you choose to. So with that tonight's topic is um this

is our second workshop presentation on uh the general assembly 2023 land use and zoning legislation. So, uh, did you want to give that an introduction or should we I I think I'll just turn it over to Supria who's, uh, worked on this flowchart and she's going to be give us give it giving us, uh, an update on where we stand with the update of the zoning and planning regulations and has a presentation, I believe. Is that correct? Yes. Thank you, Sabria. Uh, okay, I'll get started. So, good evening members of the board and the community members. Thank you for being here in spite of the very difficult weather. Um so this is the second public workshop of the updates to zoning and subdivision regulations. Um my name is Supria Kelkar. I'm the senior planner and urban designer with in associates who is the consultant on this project. We also have a working group that has advised us throughout this process and we have been working very closely with the town staff Mark and Bobby uh in this process. So I just want to go over the timeline of this process, the community engagement that has happened up to date because this will be the last community outreach effort in this process. Um so this pro this project kicked off in April 2024. Yeah. Uh April 2024 with a joint meeting. Uh in August we had August of last year we had the first public workshop just informing everyone what this process will be like. Uh in September we had a pumpkinfest outreach. So unfortunately in all of our outreach efforts somehow the weather doesn't seem to cooperate. Um so it was quite stormy that day but we still had a lot of people uh visiting our booth asking questions and that was also the day that we kicked off the online survey. Um just asking people if they have any doubts, concerns. this survey up till today uh

17 more than 170 people have taken the survey and all of the summary results have been uh provided to the town um so they they can analyze what doubts and concerns the community members have and now we are here in May for the second public workshop. This is going to be more of an informational session. So just a background and overview of all the changes that have come through and what our next steps are going to be. So in the 2023 and 2024 legislative session, the Rhode Island legislature enacted a lot of changes to the zoning and land loss. This was done by the intention and concern uh about the significant housing shortage and affordability in Rhode Island. Uh but what it did was because the state changed the law, the town was out of compliance with the uh with the zoning laws. So this process was basically updating um all of the zoning and subdivision regulations. I just want to take a moment on this slide that in 2024 when we kickstarted this process, we were incorporating all the updates of the 2023 legislation and in the middle of that uh the 2024 uh assembly happened which brought forward more changes. So basically rendering everything that we did up till that point redundant. So we had to go back and update all of that again. So if since you're seeing me here since a year, I just wanted to let you know that that's why uh this is taking so long. So again, the goals of this process was increasing housing supply, uh streamlining the development of the projects past the pipeline sooner and then supporting mixeduse development and also uh addressing zoning restrictions and bringing uniformity throughout. These are few of the key sections u actually no these are all of the key sections um that have been updated changed have new language u few of the other things that the town have also been uh doing parallelly to this process is updating the solar ordinance uh

retail marijuana and also modernizing the use table this was not part of the MTAC program uh which is sponsored by the Rhode Island housing but I just want to keep it uh in the process so I'll just going through the key highlights of every um every item. So, adaptive reuse. So, what adaptive reuse did was that adaptive reuse for converting any commercial building uh into residential or mixed use um developments would be permitted use by right. I just want to point out that for every section I'm just going over the key highlights. All of these items have already gone through the planning board process. So the text is publicly available uh for anyone who wants to take a deeper dive. Um these developments would also be exempt from off- streetet parking requirements and overall what this did was curtailed the town's authority to limit the density uh on these projects. So again just another way to have more housing through adaptive reuse. So Supria just pause on this for one second. So adaptive reuse basically if there was a commercial use or a commercial building in your community and you wanted to convert a portion of that building at least 50% to residential or 100% to res residential in some circumstances that is now a use that is allowed by right. Yes. Doesn't require you know town council zone change special use permits or anything like that. you're allowed to come in and if you submit and you meet the criteria under that statute, you can convert that building to up to and exceeding a 50% residential use. that that is something that is happening currently and there have been some um questions back and forth uh for a property I'm sorry a property located uh that had been formally used as a banquet facility

here in town and that is undergoing adaptive reuse project currently. Okay, just so the next one is unified development. Sorry, one one followup on that. Is that development limited to the original footprint of the commercial of the formerly commercial property? Yes. So there's no expansion, no additional buildings, anything like that. But but the current like foundation, etc. can be built on. I mean again, it has to be conforming. It has to meet the standards in the text. All of those criteria still stay, but you just don't have to go through the planning board and all of those processes. I I I think the focus of the chairman's question was if it stays within the existing building envelope, yes. Um is is is that a requirement? And the answer to that question is yes. Yes. Great. Thank you. Okay. So the next one is unified development review. And throughout this process um I think you would all notice that the responsibilities of the planning board have increased quite a bit because a lot of things have been streamlined through the planning board now. So what this process does is that it's it allows the planning board to grant zoning relief as part of an application for land use uh land development. Um up till 2016 this was um optional but now it's a required process and I'll tie this back to the development plan review. So again in the development plan review again the if there are any appeals from the planning board they directly go to the superior court. Overall the role of an administrative officer has um has broadened um in this case that would be Mark um and there can be also multiple administrative officers. So again this is just a way to streamline the process of getting development through. I think everyone has this very uh large tree of a flowchart. But what

we are trying to do this is kind of a teaser before the final project uh final diagram. But what it does is lays out the unified development uh process and the development plan review together and what the decision points are, what the timelines are, what do you do if you get an uh what do you do if you get a denial? What do you do if you're approved by condition? What type of if you have a modification and you have something else, where do you go? It lays that out. What we are going to do at the end of this project is mark these with section numbers from the zoning so you can actually refer back to the actual text of what where this came from. So that will tie back in um and I'll let you know what what the intention behind not having this right now is. Um but this is just a reference point. The goal of this flowchart is so that the town and the planning board and it just makes everyone's job easier to have it as a diagram rather than reading through pages of text. Okay. Can I ask a question on the flowchart? So obviously it's very simplified if the plan review um qualifies, right? Then it goes into kind of the simple lefth hand side. But it does say it goes to the zoning officer and then says if the modification is granted yes and it goes off to the left and you get the unified review process. But it also says yes and it goes off to the left to an administrator officer. Is that because both actions have to occur um if if the modification is granted? It just seems odd to me that there's two things on the same answer. Yes. So it goes from the zoning enforcement officer to modification granted and that that is a sec. So the yellow so the zoning enforcement officer will basically decide which process this applies to. Does it need to go through administrative officer or does it need to and again there are conditions in the text to what direction it needs to go.

Okay. Then then I would change that box to the the typical flowchart symbol is a diamond. Yes. Showing you the decision being made. and then move on. Okay, we'll we'll change that. Thank you, Supria. One, for example, uh Mr. Chairman, if someone came in for an administrative or minor subdivision, now minor subdivisions no longer go to the planning board. They go to the administrative officer. If that minor subdivision required um a modification, that would go to the building official. Mhm. He would grant the modification and then it would come back to the administrative officer and go through the administrative review process. If it was a project that required a a development plan review, something that would go to the planning board, but it required a modification, it would go to the building official. He would grant the modification and then it would proceed to the planning board under the plan review. If it's greater than a modification, like a dimensional variance, it would go right into the unified development review process before the planning board and the building official would be eliminated for the pro from the process. I believe his authority is up to 5%. I think so. Yes. Yeah. Okay. So, anything over 5% he wouldn't be able to authorize. Okay. So, the the first part you explained is is can be described using the decision diamond. Um, but the last part you just said is not shown here. It does not show a path that goes around the zone enforcement and it should have that as well. Okay. Okay. Okay. Um then um when the uh plan review does not uh qualify and you fall straight into the administrative officer circle there. So

if you look on the right then you know you have waiverss uh formal DPR etc. Are those sequential like the waiverss come first? I mean or because you have you have three three paths coming off of that. So I'm so if you look you see to the right of administrative officer there's waiverss formal DPR and apply for relief from zoning ordinance. It seems to me that there maybe is a decision going on there also and that it's not all three things in sequence or something like that or just all three things in parallel. Yeah, that that's I believe they're separate things. They're separate things. It's again missing a diamond there, but it's a decision of an administrative officer to where it goes. I correct me if I'm wrong, Supria, but hold on. A waiver relates to subdivision regulations. Correct. So that would be if they wanted relief from something that is in the subdivision regulations. And I mean it might be multiple diamonds that actually stack and and then like the zoning relief would be something that the board would grant under the zoning under its its um unified plan review. You could have both at the same time. You could have a waiver. Sure. But just just so you know, I Yeah. I grew up as a software engineer. I own I own Gary does flowcharts. Not anymore, but I I learned to do them. Was very old school. I did many many flowcharts. So, I'm fussy about that, which mean if if needed, I'm I'm happy to help offline. So, um I I do want to ask a question on this though. We will be moving forward with this and making uh changes and adding section numbers, but is this a useful tool for the planning board and the town staff to have in on hand? Mhm.

Okay. Yes, I I would also recommend just kind of breaking it so that you know, usually because there's so much here. Um, you know, like your first page would probably cover the would cover the simple stage and then you could go to another page for uh the more complex, you know, when things don't meet modifications and you might even have to split that. And all you do is just have you have an arrow going to it, you know, with some tag to tell you to go to this page, you know, that's all because I think that would allow each one to be bigger, especially you're going to put more information on each one. So, Okay. I I like both. So, I like seeing the big picture and then I would like to be able to see it more broken down even just for visual access. Kind of small. Pretty sure with today's technology that can be done. Yeah, we can we can definitely do that. We can also probably color code every single process and then there's a big diagram and then you map it out to different pages of this is where this came from. So, we can definitely do that. But just to know that this is a useful tool. So we should actually go forward developing more. This is great. Okay. I would think this would be good for applicants too to look at because a lot of times they don't know the process and even for residents that show up and we have to explain the process to them. At least some of them will do the research if we put this on the website. So yeah, it's a good education and we'll and we'll encourage that. Okay, that's good to know. Thank you. Um so that brings us to the next one which is comprehensive permit. Um so this is only available for proposals in which at least 25% of the housing is um low or moderate income housing. Again the process has been streamlined. So there is a new dedicated housing land use calendar in the superior code. So any appeals from the local board of review will go to the superior code. Um again just to reduce administrative delays. I just want to note that the minimum requirement for the town is 20%. So this is for someone who has come

above and beyond than what the town requires which is 25%. Okay. Accessory dwelling unit. So what the state um okay uh what the state did was it provides a uniform definition throughout for what ADUs are. It has set standards for ADUs. Uh again ADUs for owner occupied property up to certain bedroom sizes and footprints is allowed as of right. um and it cannot be used for short-term rental. Again, there's more standards and more requirements in the text, but this is just a general um overview of what they are. Inclusionary zoning will apply to all subdivisions and land development project where the net um addition h is 10 or more housing units. So again, this is where the town limit comes through. So at least 20% of the units within the project should be affordable. um just bringing it back that comprehensive permit was 25. So just just as a note currently or under the old regulations the town's inclusionary zoning kicked in as a major subdivision which would be five or greater. Now it's going to 10 was five lots or greater was a major subdivision. And you need to do 20 20% I think. Right. Yeah. Six. You're right. Thank you. Yes, six notice. Uh the next one is notice requirements. So this is not a set chapter, but this is sprinkled text throughout different sections and chapters of both zoning and subdivision regulations. So few of the things that it impacts is comprehensive plan, major land development, variances and adoptions. Um I'm just going to highlight a few key changes on this one. So anywhere where there's general circulation, it has now changed to local

circulation. Uh there are changes to duration uh of notice for public hearing. Um things need to be posted physically in two municipal uh offices and also on the website. Um everywhere applicant shall bear cost for all the newspaper and mailing all of those things. Um mails need to be sent by first class uh first class mail. So just a few things that um texts have changed throughout these chapters. Next is variances. So two key points on this is that in variances now the relief granted does not need to be the least relief necessary. So doesn't have to be the minimum needed. It can be something that's the best choice or the best solution for uh any applicants that come through for variances. Um, it also removes the rule that hardship cannot mainly come from the applicant's wish to make more money. So, previously that wasn't a hardship, but it couldn't be the only hardship. Uh, but now it's allowed. So, in terms of the least relief necessary, for example, we just recently had a project where they were looking from relief from our 35 foot height difference to 37. And I know it was because an existing building is at 37. That seems to imply that if we wanted to, we we have the discretion to say, well, we'll give you up to 40. Yes. Okay. So, last one, I think the last one is um dimensional modifications. So, I'll just highlight a few things. So, the issuance of dimensional modifications was previously optional. It's not anymore. um dimensional up to 15% u up to 15% must be allowed between 15 to 25 with

certain requirements and standards may be allowed. Uh and anything less than 5% um of dimensional modifications may be granted without notice. So this is something that can be done administratively uh by the AO. Oh, do you have special use permits? Um so again special use permit can be granted with the dimensional variance and this is where the whole unified development and the development plan review comes into play. Um this requirement so in this process uses previously if a use was not specifically listed under a special use permit use list it wouldn't be allowed but this process this change now um if it's not listed it can still be presented. Um and we need specific and objective criteria for of issuance for every single use that is listed in the special use uh permit category. Yes. For the um the last one about um the objective criteria. Uh, is that also depending on what is being issued and is it available throughout our comprehensive plan? Like I'm I'm trying to imagine or remember what that is. I'm not so what so special use permit every use does have a criteria in the zoning uh text. So that so if if any use is included that this use needs special use permit. It just needs a criteria under it like these are the conditions that needs to be fulfilled to grant the special use permit which we have. Yes. Right. And was that part of what you were doing to align? Yes. Okay. Thank you. Next steps. Um so that brings to the end of the process. So right now

what we are trying to do is all of these sections were done peacemeal and were brought forward to the planning board in bits and bits throughout the last few months. Uh what we are trying to do now is combine all of them together and see how the document reads together. Make sure that the formatting is correct. Uh we are going back and forth on drafts making sure that any impact that the changes have on other sections of zoning are actually recorded make sense. Um and then that's going to the town solicitor to have a final thorough check. Uh and then next step for further adoption by town council. So this is where we are at now. We have all the pieces there but we are just working through making sure the d the complete drafts are ready for review. Okay. I I have a question which might be more for you but um in terms of objective criteria and stuff, one of the things we talked about doing is make sure And I'll I'll just say because I I find it disappointing that the on the surface the comprehensive plan could almost become meaningless but you can make it meaningful again by putting in very objective criteria instead of subjective. Correct. So at some point how do we identify the places in the comprehensive plan where we need to add objective criteria against all the new or you know rules that's a hard question Gary that's so you know my job the way that the process was in was initially set up in the 80s and the 90s was the comprehensive of plan was the general conceptual plan of development for the community and then based on that plan you know the community decided where it wanted types of uses to go and what types of uses it would accept. Then from

there you would go to your zoning ordinance where you'd get very specific in particular areas and zoning them and creating you know the the dimensional requirements for use. And then from that the third step was the subdivision regulations which was basically more focused on um creating plats and subdividing lots and and things like that. So the subdivision was based on the zoning and the zoning was based on the comprehensive plan. Now, I don't want to critique the general assembly, but basically what they did was they disregarded everything except zoning and said, "Well, what we want to do is we want to look at zoning and we want to make it easier." Not that there's anything wrong with that. Sure. And more efficient to get through the process. But they never went back and readressed the comprehensive plan, right? They just said, "Oh, by the way, your comprehensive plan used to be good for five years. Now it's good for 10. Yeah. And and we're going to change all the zoning. And also consistency is not a requirement anymore, right? Consistency is no longer a requirement. So So they got very prescriptive from commu for all communities with their zoning and almost made it or trying to make it as uniform as possible from community to community. So, so to to to put objective criteria in your in your comp plan, we'd have to go back and just restructure the whole plan. Okay. You'd have to go back and restructure it because then then it can still act short of the consistency issue, but then it can still act as it should, which is essentially a master plan for the town. It's it's a guiding document for development within the town. Yes. um instead of it's more which means it's the top level. It's the big picture instead of right now and we're going to end up building the we need to

adjust the big picture based on the changes we're making at the in the details which is okay that can be done. Yeah. Uh but this way but then it can be used and then moving forward any changes you make the comprehensive plan we'll just follow that practice. Yeah. And then it's kind of backwards, but but then but then once we do this one exercise, which I realize won't be trivial, but then it then we can do it from top down after that. Yeah, it could trickle back down. Right. Right. Right. So, but I I just think it's something we have to figure out how to how to get to that point. That would be the next stage of the process. Right. Well, especially because we did make a decision to be we aired on the side of simple and restrictive. Yes, that's correct. And once we do this process, that's what's going to allow us to be less restrictive, which I think you could go back. Yeah. At that point, you'd be you you' you'd establish those, you know, the comprehensive plan is a policy document. So you'd go back and you'd reook at the policies for the community, make whatever adjustments to those policies are necessary. There could be some very prescriptive like I I'll just take one for example, when we're talking about open space and preservation of open space, right? It's not very perspect uh uh prescriptive in our comprehensive plan. What type of open space? It just lists open space and says you should preserve open space. What does that mean? Yeah. Right. So I mean for so you could go back and say you know our focus should be on this type of open space or open space that links to other you know areas here and not just arbitrarily say preserve open space. That's I mean that's here's how we'll do it. Exactly. you we we we'd set up the criteria for where we should be focusing and what type of space we we should be focusing on preserving. Yeah. Um Okay. I have a follow-up question to that and then another one in terms of the um getting

uh specific about an open space plan in our comprehensive plan. Can we prioritize that as a board? like can we request prioritizing that because I know that that's something you mean prioritizing the reviewing that section of the as part of what we're talking about. Oh, sure. I'm fine with that because I know that's something that people in the town feel really strongly about and we run into it on a plan. We're not to go off on a tangent, but we're having those discussions internally currently with the administration as uh I know that the uh town administrator met with the chairman of the conservation commission and um some other people who have uh land trust and some other people that have interest in preserving open space to get some input and ideas from them. and the and you know the long goal is to do exactly as we're talking about and that's why I kind of use that as an example because it's fresh. There may be properties in the town and we're off on a tangent now but that are worthy of preservation that the town as an entity believes are worthy of preservation and those should be literally listed in the comprehensive plan. If this property becomes available, the town should try to acquire it. Yep. that doesn't exist right That's very specific and that's the kind of that's for example what I would be talking and then there could be criteria that you know you know you could do the same priority you could do the same even on the commercial side saying here are specific areas where where we should be emphasizing uh opening up more commercial property right or yeah or nodes of areas where we would like to see additional commercial expansion um where there isn't I mean you can look right around the corner up here 102. There's no water line down 102, which is which is constraining the

commercial development. When you go there, you see a new a new property next to a new property with an old property in between. You're like, why is that there? It's there because there's no, you know, you're smiling. It's it's like that because there's no public utilities there, right, to accommodate the development, right? and and maybe, you know, I'm not from North Smithfield, so I don't want to speak for the town, but maybe that's the desire of the town is not to extend utilities in that commercial area to constrain the development. I really don't know, but that's a conversation that needs to take place, right? But either way, I think we can be specific those two topics, we we need to get specific the way you said about mentioning specific areas, specific properties, etc. So yeah, when you're talking, we're talking about the economic development element and the land use element when you talk about that type of thing. Well, it also allows you to not end up with a hodgepodge of stuff, which is what we have in many areas, right? You do, right? Yeah. So my other question um is in terms of the next steps um and knowing that the town council approves the um these changes um what uh knowing that this was to align it with state law, what what would that review entail? Is it more having them understand what it is or is there actually a substantive review that they give? Like I'm just curious what their role is in reviewing it. the council. Yeah. So, we will be going before the council and presenting to them a track changes document. They'll get it long in advance. We're going to get it to them long in advance when um allow them to digest it, make a presentation. There's a requirement that there's public hearings. The public will be invited. That document will be advertised and posted. You'll be able to see it on the, you know, on the internet or on our on our um web page. and um there will be a dialogue, there'll be a

presentation to the council about the specific changes as you're have you've been through incrementally and uh and they'll make a decision at that point, right? Yeah. But I I think to your point, it's you're right, it is about compliance with state law. So, in the end, you could boil it down to well, we're either going to be in compliance or not. Um but obviously, we're doing it in a way to make it easy to be in compliance. But I I feel that that process is important because if nothing else, I mean, it does two things. It educates and it puts a fresh set of eyes on it because we're we're in it deep and now they start looking at the changes and then they can question and maybe some changes come out of it or we can be better worded, you know, those kind of things. Well, and because I wanted to point out that I thought I liked how um you highlighted about or you did, I'm sorry, about the um the pines for example, just as an example. I think when going through that process, it would be really good to lift up examples like that because if residents come to those hearings and then the town council, it just gets everyone on the same page because I think people um can get whipped up about things and then they don't even know what the facts are. Yeah, that that's what happened with the adaptive reuse. It just, you know, it's that's what social media is for, to confuse all the facts and present misinformation, right? That's what that does. Anybody to declare themselves an expert, you know? Thank you. Any other questions? By all means, make a motion to open public and a second. Second. Those in favor? Yes. Okay. The public hearing is open at 6:40. Yes, of course.

The dog. Yeah. Okay. Yes. So I I can forward the presentation to the town and they can Well, how will we get it to you then? Oh, okay. Great. I know. I just want to make sure. Yeah, I know. I just want to make sure. Yes. I I will make I'll make sure to ask you. No, the the the colors and the shapes are not related in a flowchart. Yeah, the shapes the shape I mean you could look up flowchart symbols, okay, and you will see there's a standard that's been around since the 1950s or whatever for flowcharts like a a diamond is a decision point, you know, boxes, you know, there's actions, there's all the there's it's a very simple process. We we will make sure to add a legend and I'll send the updated document but the color coding is important because you're right that's where it's grouping similar things that yeah the colors mean something. Yeah, Phil, I think the as far as the denial, right? So, at any stage of any application, there's a potential of a denial. And you know, I while while Supria was doing that, I actually circled all of those, right? Because they're all the same. Mhm. And so basically I think the the emphasis there is should a project be denied the process now it no longer like if the the planning board used to deny something it would go to the zoning board right and then the zoning board would be the board of appeal and then it would have to go to the superior court. Now everything upon a denial in the recording of the decision 20-day appeal period right to superior court and so you'll see they all say the same thing. So that's that's again where as you're improving this yes they actually all the places where it can be denied if they are denied it

should flow to one place that says you know 20 days appeal supreme court superior court right and then that'll simplify this a lot you know in software that would be a sub routine just so you know we we have a we have an IT software person looking at this as we do it so I'll I'll make sure to bring the comments to it because if if one of my software engineers developed code based on that, I'd be having a talk with them. But I I I understand it's another language onto itself. Yes. I I do better with text than social. Gotcha. Okay. Um that's that's all I had. I guess there any more comments? Nope. Move to the public hearing and a second, please. Second. Second. Those in favor I the public hearing is closed at 6:43. Thank you. All right. Thank you very much. I think we're at that magical point. Mr. Chairman, yes. There's no further matters before the board to adjourn. We have a motion to adjourn. Second. And we have a second. Those in favor? I opposed. No. Meeting is closed at 6:44.