Narragansett at odds with new state housing rules

NARRAGANSETT − Town officials have proposed circumventing two components of the sweeping legislative housing package that passed during the last General Assembly session, meant to deal with the state’s crushing housing crisis.

The Town Council held its first public meeting on proposed changes to the town’s zoning rules on Monday night, changes that were vetted and molded by the Planning Board.

Like cities and towns across the state, Narragansett has to change many of its zoning rules because of the changes in state law that will go into effect on Jan. 1.

Narragansett town officials’ proposal would circumvent new state requirements that give people trying to plan new buildings a 15% leeway on town-mandated setbacks, that is, how far back a building is from things like roads and lot lines, by increasing all its setbacks by 15%.

“It’s a direct contravention of the spirit and intent and the legal requirements of the law,” House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi said. “We have a housing crisis in this state.”

In a memo to the Town Council, Community Development Director Michael DeLuca wrote the increased setback requirements would “offset the state’s mandatory relief directive.”

“The Planning Board has taken the position that the universal application of ‘modification’ to virtually every dimensional requirement in the Zoning Ordinance can seriously impact recent strides made to reign-in the overdevelopment of residential land in Narragansett,” DeLuca wrote.

Councilor Susan Cicilline Buonanno was the only person to vote against the proposed changes. In an interview, she said she has faith in Shekarchi and the laws he helped pass to ease the housing crisis.

“The bills passed in June, that’s when the town had them, so why now is it December we’re trying to meet a mandate of Jan. 1?” she said.

The zoning changes still need to come back before the Town Council for a second passage.

What housing crisis?

Shekarchi said he was especially irked by Narragansett’s proposed zoning changes because no one from the town testified before the legislature and the bills that passed were crafted with the help of leaders and planners from across the state.

“We took testimony from anybody east of the Mississippi,” he said.

While Narragansett wants to increase its setbacks by 15% to circumvent the law, the original plan was for a 50% setback variance.

“It’s very disheartening and quite frankly, against the law, to supersede or deliberately contravene the state law and doing so opens themselves up to liability,” Shekarchi said.

The vast majority of the feedback Shekarchi has received has been favorable, with most towns passing the required zoning changes.

“Everybody in the state needs to do their fair share for housing and that includes Narragansett,” he said.

The median home price in Narragansett in October was $930,000, according to data from the Rhode Island Association of Realtors.

“There’s a lack of good faith with these bills, trying to override them,” Shekarchi said. “This is very dangerous for the town and it opens them to legal liability.”

Throwing out inclusionary zoning

The other proposed change that is contrary to the spirit of the housing law is the elimination of inclusionary zoning, which would allow developers to increase the density of certain types of housing developments.

The reasoning in planning documents is that changes to inclusionary zoning, which will require 25% of all units to be affordable and gives a density bonus of two market-rate units for each income-restricted unit, create “untenable requirements related to density formula.”