The most powerful force in the Universe

This land is your land, Part 4

A series on the Charlestown Planning Commission

By Will Collette

Part 1: The Platner Principle

Part 2:  Recommendations for Charter changes – appoint, 4-year terms, no staggering
Part 3, Torturing the beach facilities project to death

Physicists who study the nature of the universe talk about force in its four most recognized and understood forms: gravity, electromagnetism and the two forces that hold matter together, the “strong” and the “weak” force. If you want to get deep into the study of things, there’s the theoretical “unifying force theory,” yet to be discovered that will explain how it all fits together. 

But missing from the debate is any recognition of what I consider to be the most powerful force in the universe, and one we know all too well in Charlestown – the Power to Obstruct.

Planning Commission tried to kill this fire station -
delayed for months by procedural hassles

In a nutshell, in the world we live in, it is far easier to block things from happening – to obstruct – than it is to advance or create things. You don’t need to be a physicist to understand that the power to obstruct must therefore be much more powerful than the power to create.

Charlestown is top-loaded with practitioners of the power to obstruct. Through the efforts – and money – of the Charlestown Citizens Alliance, we have a town council majority plus the entire membership of the Planning Commission who are dedicated to blocking anything from happening in Charlestown, whether it’s decent toilet facilities at the beach, affordable housing or conservation development.

The Wastewater Treatment Commission is tied up in knots. The Affordable Housing Commission has now been packed by the CCA with people who don’t believe in affordable housing.

But Charlestown’s most prolific practitioner of the Power to Obstruct is the Planning Commission. Under the “leadership” of Ruth Platner, the Commission members – all hand-picked by the CCA – have succeeded in torturing and delaying, if not killing, dozens of projects.

One of the most famous recent examples was their slug-fest to attempt to block construction of the Cross Mills Fire Station. See here for details and see these photos.

But where do Platner’s Planners get their power to obstruct? How did they get the power to nit-pick projects over lights, shrubbery, signage, building materials, fencing, rocks, color and so on.

Let’s look at the Charlestown Town Charter because that’s where the Planning Commission’s purpose, structure, duties, responsibilities and powers must be delineated. The Town Charter, basically our town "constitution," must be where the Planning Commission gets its Power to Obstruct.

Let's look at Chapter 40 of the Town Charter, adopted in July 1981, which created the Planning Commission.

The Town Charter describes three major responsibilities for the Planning Commission:

1.      Conduct studies. (§ 40-6. Studies. [Ratified 3-9-1992 by Ord. No. 185]). The Charter lists eleven categories as examples of things the Planning Commission might study – everything from land use to survival after a disaster. However, the Charter does not give the Planning Commission authority to do anything beyond studying these topics.

2.      Maintain Comprehensive Plan. (§ 40-7. Comprehensive Plan. [Ratified 3-9-1992 by Ord. No. 185])The Planning Commission is responsible for creating and then periodically updating the town’s Comprehensive Plan. Interestingly, the only time the Town Charter authorizes the Planning Commission to hold a public hearing is when the Comprehensive Plan is adopted or amended. However, the Planning Commission holds public hearings all the time.

3.      Regulate Changes in Property Lines. The one and only actual regulatory power granted to the Planning Commission under the Town Charter is this: § 40-8. Regulatory powers. [Ratified 3-9-1992 by Ord. No. 185]. The Commission shall regulate the platting or any other subdivision of land in accordance with the provisions of the General Laws of Rhode Island.”

What little power the Planning Commission does have – and based on what is plainly written in the Town Charter, it isn’t much – is subject to the Zoning Commission’s Board of Review. Zoning has the power under § 40-9 of the Town Charter to overturn any “order, requirement, decision or determination made by the Planning Commission…“ and can “grant special exceptions to the rules and regulations of the Planning Commission in harmony with the general purpose and intent of the rules and regulations.”

So how did today’s Charlestown Planning Commission get so much power over the lives of residents and the future of local businesses? How did they get the power to put every project through an endless series of hurdles over every imaginable detail?

The answer is simple. They took it. The power grab was so brazen, and done with such a confident air that most citizens seem to have figured it must be legal, otherwise why would they do it? To his credit, the only person who persistently and publicly challenged the Planning Commission’s power grab was Jim Mageau.

But if you read the Town Charter, you will see the Planning Commission only holds regulatory power over projects that change property lines. Now, granted, this does still give the Planning Commission life-or-death power over new developments or projects that are going to change the map.

Unless they have received the authority from somewhere outside the Town Charter, the Planning Commission should not have poked its nose into such issues as wind energy or for that matter any alternative energy project, so long as the projects don’t alter the map. The Planning Commission has no business pushing unenforceable tree ordinances or doing anything other than studying issues related to shrubbery or lights.

Under the Town Charter, the Planning Commission had no authority to harass the Cross Mills Fire Station over its choice of building materials (the PC hates brick!).

The Planning Commission’s self-described unenforceable ordinance on accessory dwelling units is an example of an area where they had no authority to regulate under the Town Charter.

Where in the Town Charter is the Planning Commission given the authority to nit-pick and micromanage the beach facilities. The ridiculous torture they put the Beach Facilities Committee through was wrong in every respect, including a usurpation of power not granted to them under the Town Charter.

The Planning Commission’s authority related to affordable housing is their regulatory power under § 40-8 of the Town Charter relating to plat lines and land subdivision. But where in the Town Charter are they granted the authority to write sweeping new legislation to overturn the state’s affordable housing law? That is a sweeping over-reach, even for Platner and her minions.

The arrogance of power is such that, once begun, the wielder of that power will always seek more. Take Ruth Platner’s ultimate power-grab, “The Platner Principle.” Platner has stated, repeatedly, that under town zoning, that any land or property use not expressly permitted under the Charter or Ordinances is prohibited.

Not everyone agrees with the Platner Principle. When I tried to get a straight answer on whether this meant that the solar panels on the roof of Town Council President Tom Gentz’s house are illegal, I got three different answers. Four, if you count the Platner Principle, which would require Gentz’s solar panels to be torn off since no where in the zoning rules are solar panels expressly permitted.

But Town Administrator Bill DiLibero had a different view. Town Building Official Joe Warner had another. And Affordable Housing Commission chair (and expert on land use law) Evelyn Smith had yet another opinion.

Until someone stops Platner and the Planning Commission, they will continue to exercise illegal powers over the life of Charlestown residents. They will continue to stall, nit-pick and attach conditions they have no legal authority to add. They will use the clock to try to kill projects. They will use selective, false or misleading information to set bad, sometimes downright ignorant, public policy. They will continue to. jerk around people and businesses who mistakenly come before them for approval, when the only actual regulatory authority the Planning Commission has is over property lines.

It’s time for a change in the Planning Commission. And that change may be forced by the courts. The cases challenging and counter-challenging the Whalerock wind turbine project are sitting before the judge. The parties have made their arguments.

Nick Gorham, attorney for Larry LeBlanc’s Whalerock project, not only argues for the right of his client to proceed with the project, but also raises some disturbing questions about the legitimacy of the Planning Commission and its method of operation.

Gorham argues that the Planning Commission overstepped its bounds and assumed regulatory power it does not possess – which you can see for yourself by reading the Town Charter.

Gorham also challenges the notion that we are the only municipality in Rhode Island that elects its Planning Commission when state law requires such bodies to be appointed.

I don’t know how the judge will rule in this case – there are lots of other issues in this very messy case. Personally, I’d like to see the judge rule against allowing Whalerock to proceed but also nip the Planning Commission’s usurpation of power by affirm its very limited regulatory power and directing that Charlestown conform to state law and appoint, not elect, Planning Commissioners.

Expect a ruling from the court soon.