Planning Commission Reinstates Subdivision Approval From 2007
Covid-19 pandemic is heating up the housing market and growth in Charlestown is accelerating at a rate not seen in over 20 years.
The Charlestown Planning Commission is a fact-finding body that reviews land development proposals for consistency with the Municipal Comprehensive Plan, zoning ordinance, subdivision regulations and other land use policies and regulations. They don’t have the power to pick and choose projects, but they do work very hard to permit responsible development in our town while reducing negative environmental impacts and keeping development in conformance with town regulations.
One recent example is the Red Maple Drive subdivision on Shannock Road (about 1,500 feet north of the intersection with Wordens Pond Road), which had been stalled for many years. (see the picture above). The subdivision had preliminary approval by the Planning Commission in 2007, which gave the developer permission to build the road and any needed drainage. The road and drainage were finished in about 2011, but then the Great Recession hit and with it a depressed housing market. The paved road into the woods has been sitting there ever since. The subdivision approval had expired in 2018, and the Planning Commission could have asked for a redesign, but the road and drainage are built and changes in subdivision regulations would not impact the number of lots. Instead the Commission worked at their November and December meetings to get the subdivision in conformance with all the 2007 conditions of approval. Now that the Planning Commission has reinstated the subdivision’s Preliminary approval, the new owners will need to finish installing underground utilities, re-vegetate some cleared areas and with final approval from the Town Planner, proceed to develop the subdivision.
Charlestown normally sees about 20 new residential lots created per year. The Planning Commission currently has almost 80 residential lots/units in various stages of review and an additional 360 self-storage units and other commercial developments proposed. Growth in Charlestown is accelerating at a rate not seen in over 20 years! The Covid-19 pandemic is heating up the housing market. Many people fleeing the cities are moving to beautiful Charlestown with its low taxes and many areas of still unfragmented forest. This reinstated subdivision may be just an early step in an unprecedented demand for growth in our town.
The Red Maple Drive parcel:
- is 67.6 acres with 800 feet of frontage on Pasquiset Pond;
- contains almost 45 acres of wetland which will be combined with 14 acres of uplands to become common open space (olive green on the map below);
- all lots have a 20 foot no-clear-cut along the road and in front of lots (bright green on the map below);
- the cul-de-sac tear-drop will remain treed (bright green on the map below);
- there are 8 lots of 1 acre each;
- 6 of the lots have rear lot buffers (bright green on the map below) which combine with public open space to make a 100 foot no-clear-cut buffer along Shannock Road and abutting properties;
- the common open space and no-clear-cut buffers are protected with an easement to the town;
Map below shows part of property with lots, open space, and no-clear-cut buffers.
Locus map below shows all of property between Shannock Road and Pasquiset Pond
Maps and information are from the meeting packets and video of the November 18 and December 16 Charlestown Planning Commission meetings.
Virginia Lee, the author of this post, was President of the Charlestown Town Council for the recent two terms that she served on the Council (2014 to 2020). She was the Town Council liaison to the Agricultural Commission, the Waste Water Management Commission, Coastal Pond Management Commission, Zoning Board of Review, Charlestown Potable Water Working Group, the Historical Society and the committee updating the Harbor Management Plan. She is a former member of South Kingstown’s Town Council, Zoning Board, and Conservation Commission. She is a former member of the Board of Trustees of the South Kingstown Land Trust and a former member of the Board of Directors of Save the Bay. She retired from the URI Coastal Resources Center in 2012. Virginia plans to write occasionally about the work of the Charlestown Planning Commission over the next year or so.
January 18, 2021 @ 12:34 pm
Just curious…. do we not have any “ minimum acreage” requirements or anything of the kind to build in Charlestown? For some reason I thought there was a 2 acre minimum, I see these lots are 1 acre, and have noticed homes for sale on websites with even less.
January 18, 2021 @ 2:55 pm
It is a Cluster Subdivision. You can read about that type of subdivision in the Zoning Ordinance at https://ecode360.com/8493867 . The underlying zoning for this parcel was mostly 3-acre minimum with some 2-acre minimum along Shannock Road. The number of lots allowed is based on the underlying zoning, but each cluster lot is allowed to be 1-acre. The rest of the land becomes permanent open-space. In a cluster, the number of developable lots cannot be greater than the number permitted under a conventional subdivision.
Charlestown has land zoned from 3-acre minimum down to half-acre minimum. Most of the land is zoned 2 and 3 acre minimum. Land in the villages and along some roads is zoned 1 acre.
The area around Charlestown Beach Road and next to South Kingstown is zoned as little as half acre. These lots were platted before zoning and the current zoning just reflects the existing lots.
Preexisting platted lots are called legal non-conforming lots when they are smaller than the district minimum. When you create new lots, they have to conform, but old lots are “grandfathered” unless they have some other problem, like being entirely wetland.
I hope that makes sense.