Planning Board – Meeting Minutes
Tuesday, June 9, 2020 - 7:00 p.m.

 

*Pursuant to Governor Gina M. Raimondo’s Executive Order 20-25, dated April 15, 2020, this meeting was held in person and electronically via Zoom and was publicly advertised.

 

Council Chambers, Westerly Town Hall
45 Broad Street, Westerly, RI 02891

 

 

A.    CALL TO ORDER

 

Mr. Hall called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m.

 

B.     ROLL CALL AND REVIEW OF STAFF ATTENDANCE

 

Members present:     Chair James A. Hall, IV, Vice Chair Richard W. Constantine, Secretary Christopher K. Lawlor, Alternate Secretary Justin M. Hopkins, Members Dylan Kosten, Jason A. Parker, and Joseph M. Montesano

 

Members absent:       None.

 

Staff present:             Assistant Solicitor for Planning & Zoning Atty. Scott Levesque, Town Planner Nancy Letendre, Director of Information Technology Marc Tate, and Minute Taker Stephanie J. LaSota

 

C.    APPROVAL AND REVISION OF MINUTES

 

1.      None

 

D.    OLD BUSINESS

 

1.      None

 

E.     NEW BUSINESS

 

1.      Comprehensive Community Plan: 2020-2040

Continuation of a Public Hearing to review and discuss the proposed 2020-2040 Comprehensive Plan for the Town of Westerly during which the Board will accept and address public comments. The Planning Board may conclude the public hearing and provide a recommendation on the form and content of the Comprehensive Plan to the Town Council for adoption or continue the public hearing to another date.

Ms. Letendre reviewed the reason for the meeting and reminded the Board and the public there is a potential for a continuation date on Tuesday, June 23 at 7:00 p.m.

Ms. Letendre entered into the record two documents posted to the Town of Westerly Web site. She said Exhibit G  is a June 1, 2020 letter addressed to Town Hall from The Watch Hill Conservancy (WHC) regarding their view and comments of the May 18, 2020 Comprehensive Plan draft. Ms. Letendre said the items in red are text corrections and they will be proofreading the entire document at the end of this review process. She said it will also be reformatted before it goes to the Town Council. She added that she hasn’t had time to go through all the WHC recommendations, but she has been in touch with them about some of their suggestions. She further detailed the contributions of WHC.

Ms. Letendre introduced Exhibit H into the record, which is a June 5, 2020 letter from Stano and Erin Trombino regarding changes to the future land use map (FLUM) regarding 117A Moorehouse Road. Ms. Letendre explained the details of the letter.

Ms. Letendre discussed the Comprehensive Plan schedule with the Board, explaining that because of Covid-19, the timeline has changed. She suggested the Board continue the public hearing to June 23 and by that time she will have more of the information prepared. Mr. Hall commented that other entities also requested more time to review the plan. Ms. Letendre said June 23 is a realistic date where they could finish up the review and provide the Board and the public with a document to send to the Town Council. She said one of the first items on the July Planning Board agenda would be to approve the draft and send it to Town Council. Mr. Constantine agreed with the timeline. Mr. Lawlor asked if an additional meeting was needed between June 23 and July 21. Ms. Letendre said it would only be if something very specific arises that requires the Board’s input. Ms. Letendre said public comment can come in up until June 23. Atty. Levesque said the Town Planner has been working diligently on many things including a three-hour meeting today regarding changes to development plan review (DPR.) The Board members thanked staff for their work on various projects.  

Mr. Lawlor made a motion to open the public hearing at 7:19 p.m. Mr. Hopkins seconded the motion. The motion CARRIED by unanimous vote with no abstentions. There was no one from the public present in the Council Chambers, however there were public citizens present on the Zoom application.

Atty. Steven Surdut thanked the Board and staff for their hard work on the draft Comprehensive Plan and the extension of the public comment period. Atty. Surdut repeated what he mentioned at the June 2 public hearing regarding concerns with the FLUM and a client’s property. He said they are currently gathering information regarding the Manfredi property and will submit it to the Town.

Ms. Letendre reviewed some of plan’s chapters to check for Board comments. Ms. Letendre said the housing chapter is progressing well and she would save that review for June 23 and will strive to send the edits to the Board in advance.

Ms. Letendre reviewed the transportation chapter. She said Principal Planner Benjamin Delaney spearheaded this specific chapter and gathered the information. She talked about potential for future transportation in Westerly and what the Town already has as assets. Mr. Lawlor offered a language edit on page 208 regarding parking in Misquamicut being a problem in the summer. Ms. Letendre noted the change. She also said she would investigate Amtrak updates to the Westerly Train Station, which may not be noted in the current draft of the plan, as well as any updates to the bike path study. Upon Mr. Lawlor’s suggestion, Ms. Letendre said she will make the clarification that the Town doesn’t receive any funds from the Westerly Airport and she noted that there is a paragraph in legal information that reflects the current situation where the Zoning Ordinance ends and where Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulations begin. Mr. Lawlor also asked for clarification on a statistic in the same paragraph and Ms. Letendre said she would check that data and update it.

Mr. Constantine said he noticed in the State comments that some of the data was old and he asked much leeway they give the Town since it is a struggle to have current data when it takes time to prepare the document. Ms. Letendre said some data is imperative, like in the housing chapter. She said one thing to do in the future is update the plan’s data as soon as the 2020 census is released. Mr. Montesano said the next iteration of data in housing has been caught up to at least 2017 numbers.

Mr. Kosten commented on the WHC memo to the Town Planner regarding their comments on onshore and offshore wind turbines. Ms. Letendre explained the comments were meant for determining what WHC would like to see in the future. Ms. Letendre said the offshore boundary for the Town is about 15 miles. Deborah Lamm, Chairman and President of WHC, thanked the Board and staff for their work. She said regarding the comments on turbines, in WHC perspective, the issue of doing marine spatial planning would be a wonderful tool to enact and consider given that they are a coastal community. She said the thought was to consider those things in advance of getting applications, so they are not constantly reactive. She said the Planning Board and Town has spent a lot of time on how to use land and WHC is asking for the same consideration to be given to the coastline, the waterways, and other bodies of water.

Ms. Letendre said an amazing job was done in updating the section of the plan for services and facilities. They have a good understanding of what type of infrastructure and services are available, she said. Ms. Letendre said she was surprised by the number of social service programs and agencies in the community. She said there is also a very good analysis of energy usage and conservation within Town facilities that has already been done.

Ms. Letendre reviewed in the infrastructure chapter the biggest issue is the stormwater management system. She said the Engineering Department has been working with the contractor to try to map the system and understand it better, which will help as they move forward to more densely developed urban areas and areas of Town without service.

There was discussion on Tuesday’s meeting logistics. Mr. Kosten reminded the Board he will be absent on June 16. Atty. Levesque said his expectation is that the zoom option will be extended past June 14 but they will see what happens. There was no further public comment.

Mr. Constantine made a motion to continue the public hearing to June 23, 2020 at 7:00 p.m. Mr. Kosten seconded the motion. The motion CARRIED by unanimous vote with no abstentions.

 

F.     ADJOURNMENT

 

Mr. Constantine made a motion to adjourn the meeting at 8:05 p.m. Mr. Lawlor seconded the motion. The motion CARRIED by unanimous vote with no abstentions.

 

Respectfully submitted:

Stephanie J. LaSota Minute Taker

 

Approved by vote of the Board on June 23, 2020