LETTER: ‘The town’ should mean more than the administrator

This letter to the editor appeared in the Westerly Sun and is reprinted here with permission of the author
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A debate has emerged in Charlestown on whether the town administrator should inform elected officials of information or decisions staff make that impact land use and the community that is our home. Informing the Town Council, Planning Commission or Zoning Board means the information becomes public. Those panels have televised meetings, detailed minutes and other written public materials. What these panels know and discuss quickly becomes part of a community dialog. The town administrator and other high level staff have no such legal obligation to make their work and conversations public. But when staff keep their work and decisions so extremely private that they don’t inform the boards they work with, the result is that the public is excluded entirely.

A failed grant application recently surfaced that was written by the administrator over at least a two month period about nine months ago. Those months before and after it was submitted provided plenty of time for the administrator to inform the Town Council and public. The grant described planned land use changes, some of which seem positive and are well known, but some of the ideas have never been discussed in a public meeting and have never appeared in public documents. The neighbors to these proposals have no idea what is proposed. The grant application may have died, but the ideas proposed in the application have not.

One aspect of the proposal is to convert 66 acres of forested land, zoned residential, at the corner of Sand Plain Road and Route 2 into an algae to energy facility. The property has several acres that were used historically as a landfill by Kenyon Piece. That area was and still is being cleaned. The grant explains that by classifying the algae growing ponds as “agriculture,” no zoning changes will be needed since agriculture is allowed by right in residential districts. Because something is grown and harvested doesn’t make it agriculture. Pharmaceutical factories grow microbes in large batches to produce antibiotics, but I hope our Zoning Ordinance isn’t being interpreted to define these as farms.

Algae fuel production can take place in open ponds, or water and fertilizer can be pumped through large tubes that are exposed to sunlight. Whether the ponds are open or holding tanks for the tubes, they can occupy many acres. The algae need to be harvested on site where refineries convert the algal oil to anything from diesel fuel to jet fuel. Reports estimate about 350 gallons of water are consumed to produce one gallon of algal oil. Algae, in theory, has the potential of producing about 5,000 gallons of fuel per acre. Fresh water supplies are not considered suitable for use in cultivating algae, since algae can use salt water or even sewage outflows as a water source for growth.

According to the grant application “the town” is “currently in contact with an algae-based renewable energy developer who is considering expansion.” But who does the grant writer consider “the town” to be? It isn’t the Town Council or any other public body. It certainly isn’t the public. None of these groups knew of the proposal. Does “the town” have any more proposals out there? Is “the town” in conversation with anyone else?

“The town” should be all of us, the public bodies whose work is open, and all the people who live here. Planning proposals that change our community, no matter how good or bad they may be, should always be public and subject to public debate at the earliest opportunity.

Ruth Platner
Charlestown

The writer is a member of the Charlestown Planning Commission.