Planning Commission covers its “B-List” at July 25 meeting

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.

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?

Shelter Harbor country club - zoned commercial in Westerly but open
space in Charlestown where YOU get to pick up the difference

In another root canal moment, Platner and Town Planner Ashley Hahn-Morris sparred over the history of the land comprising the Richard Heavers estate. Platner would not give up her position that based on the history of the various parcels that were combined to create the Heavers property, zoning the farm “open space/recreational” made sense.

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

Charlestown Wine & Spirits - designed to be dark sky friendly but
higher than arbitrary 15-foot limit

When the town finally adopted[3] its dark-sky-friendly Lighting Ordinance, they left one loose end they were directed to study and design a fix – how tall should commercial lighting be?

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

Gentzville - the CCA's vision of affordable housing (except not in
Charlestown - note the illegal windmill in the unit on the left)

This discussion had two main components. In the first, Council Boss Tom Gentz reported his disappointment that his dreams of a state legislative solution to the wishes of the CCA to make the town’s affordable housing obligation go away didn’t pan out. He was disappointed that only Charlestown (i.e., Gentz) pushed to get the General Assembly to enact a one-year moratorium on affordable housing development and to mobilize a Joint Legislative Task Force on Affordable Housing.

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.

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.

But because Lodge is not on Commissar Platner’s “approved” list, Tremblay blacklisted Lodge from getting the work. Click here to read the details – don’t miss reading Tremblay’s e-mails.

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?