Road bond refund,
light poles, open space and affordable housing
By Will Collette
After a short
hiatus, Charlestown’s version of political root canal, the Planning
Commission, returned to action on July 25. Barely.
The Commission assembled a quorum with four of its seven
members present. They actually lacked the three member quorum they needed to approve their last set of minutes (you have to have attended the meeting to vote to approve the minutes).
On board for the July 25 meeting: Planning Commissar Ruth Platner, her top lieutenant Linda Fabre (who is moving out of Charlestown), George Tremblay (who has his eye on a Town Council seat) and Alternate Joann Stolle, who brings her style sense and shingle collection to the table. Stolle’s term is up in November, but she is not running for re-election.
On board for the July 25 meeting: Planning Commissar Ruth Platner, her top lieutenant Linda Fabre (who is moving out of Charlestown), George Tremblay (who has his eye on a Town Council seat) and Alternate Joann Stolle, who brings her style sense and shingle collection to the table. Stolle’s term is up in November, but she is not running for re-election.
Gordon Foer, who is running for re-election, was not
present. Neither was Jim Abbott, another member whose term is up but is not
seeking to return. Kathryn O’Connor was also absent.
In my earlier article on this meeting, I described in detail the main event. That was a rambling discussion about how to come up with either an updated or new Comprehensive Plan for Charlestown. The last time Charlestown prepared a 5-year update to the Comprehensive Plan, they took two years to do it.
But at the July 25 meeting, Planning Commissar Ruth Platner
was pretty blasé about having only eight months before the Plan expires to
actually create a brand-new Plan. It looks like her plan involves simply
writing it herself, but we’ll see.
But that wasn’t the only business discussed on July 25.
Even though we’re in the middle of sleepy summertime, the
Planning Commission had a chock-full agenda. They quickly disposed of their
first item, which was to approve repayment
of an old road bond of $4800 to Platner’s archenemy, Evelyn Smith[1].
This was done with little discussion and no snark.
Is Charlestown properly classifying open space?
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| Shelter Harbor country club - zoned commercial in Westerly but open space in Charlestown where YOU get to pick up the difference |
This argument took several minutes and dealt in the arcane
history of the Heavers lands. The argument was also pointless since the Town
Council has already resolved to go forward in its support of the Heavers’
family petition to rezone the land. Even George Tremblay had to ask why this
item was on the agenda.
That gave Ashley an opening to point out that, in the
process of researching the Heavers land, town staff had found other
“open space/recreational” zoned property that doesn’t conform to the zoning
ordinance requirement that the land be owned either by a governmental
agency or a nonprofit group.
Platner dug in her heels and said that everything was fine,
that the zoning designations are perfectly appropriate, even the Shelter Harbor
Golf Club, which is zoned – and taxed – as OSR in Charlestown[2]
but commercial in Westerly. As
you send your First Quarter property tax payment – due next Wednesday, August 1
– bear in mind that your taxes are a little higher to subsidize the membership
fees for the landed gentry who play golf at opportunely zoned Shelter Harbor.
Ashley’s last word on that was that some of the homeowners
with properties zoned OSR that are really residential might find they have a
big problem when they try to sell their land. I couldn’t see clearly on the
Clerkbase, but it seemed to me the Planning Commission members responded with a
collective shrug.
Lighting Loose End
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| Charlestown Wine & Spirits - designed to be dark sky friendly but higher than arbitrary 15-foot limit |
Planner Hahn-Morris surveyed several model sites and
produced a short memo for the Planning Police, noting that all of the sites
considered to be good examples of dark-sky-friendly lighting actually exceed
the 15-foot height limit in the ordinance.
Platner and the Planning Police were really committed to the
15-foot height limit – a height that includes whatever base the light pole is
on, since the distance that counts goes from the ground to the bottom of the
light.
Platner pushed to keep the ordinance language setting the 15-foot
limit in the ordinance, with an amendment to allow up to 20 feet in height if
an expert – hired by the town but paid for by the property owner – determines
that the combination of height and lumens is such that the fixture gets the job
done with the minimum amount of light trespass.
The Planning Commission will discuss this some more during
their August 2 workshop. I wouldn’t expect quick action on this matter since
Platner seems content with what she has and reluctant to allow any leniency
toward Charlestown businesses.
The CCA's Affordable Housing Blues
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| Gentzville - the CCA's vision of affordable housing (except not in Charlestown - note the illegal windmill in the unit on the left) |
Gentz sounded very sad when he noted that the bill for a
one-year moratorium never got out of committee and even sadder when he noted
that the chair of the Joint Legislative Task Force, Rep. Brian Patrick Kennedy,
wasn’t returning his e-mails. Apparently, the General Assembly is unaware of what
a hot guy Tom Gentz is.
Hey, there's this video that might work for Tom - click here.
Hey, there's this video that might work for Tom - click here.
George Tremblay led the discussion on the research and study project he has promoted for the past year to find the data to back up his
theories that we don’t need more affordable housing. Tremblay, as you may
recall, wanted to hire a consultant for this project, which he intended to
control down to the smallest detail. Only one consultant applied for the job.
That was Melina Lodge, who lives in Charlestown, has the perfect credentials and
experience for the project and offered to do the work for a fraction of the
cost Tremblay had expected to pay.
So the town is using a low-paid, inexperienced intern to do
the job. So far, the data he is collecting from Charlestown and the other local
towns in Tremblay’s plan (Hopkinton, Richmond and Exeter) isn’t proving to be
very helpful. Or, more accurately, the numbers aren’t providing the CCA
Planning Commissioners with the rationale they wanted for their anti-affordable
housing positions.
The problem is that all the Planning Commissioners were
elected to office under the CCA banner. The CCA hates affordable housing. The CCA hates any housing that attracts families with children – indeed,
they even have a mathematical formula designed to show that families with children are parasites. It seems the only housing the CCA actually likes are
shoreline McMansions for rich, out-of-state retirees.
But they can’t just come out and say all this. Tremblay
wants to find the numbers that will convey the same message without the need to
say the words. The intern was told to try some more to find the elusive magic
numbers that will give the CCA the rationale to bar the door to families with
children or vacationers.
I’ll bet the intern can’t wait for the new semester to
begin.
[1] When the
CCA accuses Democrats of being in league with developers, they are referring to
Evelyn Smith, a lifelong Dem. While Evelyn used to be a home builder – she and
her late husband John built many of Charlestown’s middle-class houses – she
hasn’t built anything in years. Though Evelyn is a good friend and an
authoritative source we often consult, she also has not served on the
Charlestown Democratic Town Committee in many years.
[2] I
analyzed Ashley’s memo, lists and maps. They show that the problem of
miszoning seems to be concentrated in approximately 400 acres of prime
Charlestown real estate that is zoned – and taxed – as open space/recreational
when it is actually commercial property. Click
here for a detailed analysis.
[3] Note to
Planning Commission: it took nearly ten years to finally pass the lighting
ordinance despite the enormous public support for the concept. The devil is in
the details. So it will be in whatever you decide to do on the Comprehensive
Plan. You may get it done in April, but what year?
