Town Council’s Proposed Zoning Changes Significantly Increase Development Near Wetlands

When: Tuesday, August 29 at 6 p.m.
Where: Charlestown Town Hall
What: Town Council meeting to discuss changes to the existing subdivision ordinance that will allow developers to encroach on wetland systems and other sensitive areas. Impacted adversely by these changes would be what are called perimeter wetlands, areas that protect wetlands, and forested areas that together cleanse groundwater (the source of our drinking water), control flooding, reduce surface runoff into water bodies, and provide habitat for wildlife. These changes would place the burden of fixing the adverse impacts of irresponsible development on the taxpayers of Charlestown.

The proposed Zoning Ordinance changes:

• Allow all wetlands, ponds, streams, rivers, floodplains, ledges, graveyards, and the like, to be considered as buildable when calculating the number of lots that a new residential subdivision can support.
• Increase significantly the number of house lots allowed on parcels containing this highly constrained land. In fact, the more wetlands or other sensitive areas that a parcel proposed to be developed has, the greater the number of additional house lots that would be allowed, up to double what is allowed now.
• Open for development parcels that contain areas which are so highly constrained that they should not be developed.
• Reduce the amount of land left forested or undeveloped in new subdivisions to levels not seen since before 1988.
• Cause nearly all the upland forest to be cleared and developed in new subdivisions, with associated roads and with some houses being placed in floodplains.
• Increase the number of septic systems that will be added in the watershed and the amount of well water being pumped from the watershed, both of which will degrade the quality of the groundwater.
• Balloon the amount of land that is impenetrable to rain, resulting in greater stormwater impacts, such as flooding of roads and private property, as stormwater storage capacity is reduced.
• Greatly reduce developers’ costs and increase developers’ profits.
• Increase dramatically the taxes that will be necessary to provide community services for the increased number of lots and roads and eventually pay for expensive infrastructure to deal with degraded groundwater, surface waters, and drinking water.

Current subdivision rules that require that constrained land be subtracted when calculating the number of lots a parcel proposed for subdivision can support have been in place for approximately 35 years. These rules have helped to preserve the town’s small-town identity and to protect sensitive wetlands and drinking water supplies. These 35-year-old rules protect complex ecosystems that filter pollutants, such as those carried by stormwater runoff, and provide protection against flooding—all impacts that will increase with irresponsible development.

When the legislature proposed similar, but much less drastic, changes in 2013 and 2016, they were opposed by nearly every environmental organization and other groups in the state. Organizations opposed to including constrained land in minimum lot area were the RI Chapter of the American Planning Association (professional land use planners that include most municipal planners from towns and cities across the state); Rhode Island League of Cities and Towns (representing all municipal governments throughout the state); Audubon Society of Rhode Island; Blackstone River Watershed Council; RI Association of Conservation Commissions; Save the Bay; Clean Water Action; Save the Lakes; Sierra Club of Rhode Island; and the Environmental Council of Rhode Island (a coalition of 63 of the state’s environmental organizations). Elected and appointed officials in communities across the state adopted formal resolutions opposing the 2013 and 2016 legislation. One of the strongest voices against the state legislation was the then–Charlestown Town Council.

Now in 2023 the new Charlestown Town Council has done a complete reversal and is proposing to eliminate the subtraction of all constraints, including wetlands and water bodies. This goes far beyond anything proposed by the pro-development lobby in the state legislature.

In addition to allowing wetlands to be counted towards the minimum lot area, the new ordinance reduces the amount of protected upland (mostly forest) in cluster subdivisions. Currently, 50% of upland forest is required to be protected from development. The new ordinance would protect only 15% of the upland from development. The new ordinance would allow 85% of all land outside of wetlands to be cleared, graded, built on, or otherwise made so that it will be impossible for water to penetrate.

The bottom line would be a great increase in the number of house lots on parcels containing wetlands and a great reduction in the amount of land set aside for protection in all new subdivisions whether they contain wetlands or not.

These changes are bad for groundwater, bad for drinking water, bad for flood control, bad for the health of important inland and coastal water bodies, bad for wildlife, and, significantly, bad for taxpayers.