Zoning Board To Hear Appeal From Gravel Company On September 1

Three lots of land owned by a gravel company on Rt. 91 abut the National Wild and Scenic Pawcatuck River, the Nature Conservancy’s 1,100 acre Francis Carter Preserve, and the Tucker Woods Preserve.

On July 14, 2021, Joe Warner, Charlestown’s Zoning Official, issued a notice of violation and a cease and desist order to the owners of the quarry at 565 Alton Carolina Road.

In his notice of violation, the Zoning Official noted that the Extractive Industry on Plat 24/Lot 4 is a legal non-conforming use since it existed before the town enacted zoning and before it was a prohibited use. However he says that the importation and processing of broken asphalt and concrete and washing of sand are new activities and are not “grandfathered” from the time before the town had a zoning ordinance. The Zoning Official also found that there was significant land clearing on lot 4-1 and extraction activity on lot 3 that are not grandfathered.

A snippet of the notice of violation is below:

The owners of the gravel company have now appealed the Zoning Official’s ruling to the Charlestown Zoning Board and that appeal will be heard on September 1st at 7 p.m. at Charlestown Town Hall.

The image below from one year ago (fall 2020) shows the gravel operation on both lots 4 and 3. The Pawcatuck River makes up the west property edge and is seen on the left of the aerial photo. To the south are the railroad tracks and The Nature Conservancy’s Francis Carter Preserve. To the east is lot 4-1 that has sustained some clearing since this photo was taken. To the east along the railroad tracks is other land owned by The Nature Conservancy.

According to the Rhode Island Conservation Opportunities Map, these parcels contain critical and uncommon habitats, high value/high vulnerability habitats, important wildlife corridors, ecological land units, natural heritage areas, wetlands, ponds, streams, and the Pawcatuck River.

For context, the image below shows the three lots in question in yellow, with the river to the west and the Francis Carter Preserve to the south.

This quarry has also been the subject of blasting being reported by town citizens who live a distance from the quarry, with a blast in May being reported from a location 7 miles from the property.

The full meeting packet for the Wednesday, September 1st, Zoning Board meeting, including the landowner’s appeal of the Zoning Official’s decision, is available at the Town’s website.

---

Tom Gentz, the author of this post, is a member of the Charlestown Citizens Alliance Steering Committee, and a former Town Council President of Charlestown. As a Town Councilor, Tom successfully worked to get fugitive dust legislation passed in the RI legislature in 2015 to protect neighbors of quarries from the adverse effects of blowing dust. In 2016 he worked along with RI State Representative Blake Filippi and others to try to pass a bill to authorize Charlestown to regulate excavation and extraction activity at grandfathered quarries. That effort, despite several tries, has not yet succeeded.