Town Council Continues To Explore Housing For 3 Properties Designated Open Space

The 2021 Charlestown Comprehensive Plan Future Land Use Map designates the town-owned properties on Niantic Highway (Map 16, Lot 13) and Ross Hill Road (Map 16, Lot 6-1 ) and the former Kenyon Dye property between Rt 2 and RT112 as Open Space/Conservation (OS-C).

At the October 28 Town Council meeting, the Council voted to proceed with a plan to try to develop these for affordable housing by determining where housing could be built. If the properties are developed, the Comprehensive Plan will have to be changed to designate them for residential development.

Because the properties on Niantic Highway and Ross Hill Road were given to the town in 2015 without the involvement of state grants or conservation organizations, the properties are not legally protected from development by conservation easements.

Both the nearly 25-acre Niantic Highway and over 7-acre Ross Hill Road properties abut Westerly Land Trust properties, contain wetlands, core forests, and streams, and are designated by the state as conservation land. They are part of an over 1,500-acre open space parcel that contains several Westerly Municipal Land Trust properties and the state Woody Hill Wildlife Management Area.

The Niantic Highway property is identified by the state not just as conservation land, but also as a climate corridor with confirmed diversity, and as part of an Ecological Land Unit.

Core forests are forest lands that are unfragmented by development or roads, are greater than 500 acres in size, and are a threatened habitat type in Rhode Island. An Ecological Land Unit is a landscape with a diversity of geophysical characteristics that supports diverse plant and animal communities. Climate corridors are lands with a diversity of habitat types and temperature variations that can help wildlife adapt to climate change.

The Niantic Highway property is used as trail access to the state Woody Hill Management Area by hikers and mountain bikers.

The Ross Hill Parcel is smaller at 7 acres, but has many of the same environmental values and is also identified as conservation land by the state.

The properties have significant constraints to development with areas of ledge and steep slopes and will not be able to support large numbers of houses, but if development happens anywhere on the property, it will result in fragmenting the forest and diminishing the conservation values of the properties.

The former 62-acre Kenyon Dye property between Rt 2 and RT112 is also designated open space in Charlestown’s Comprehensive Plan. It is not designated conservation land by the state, but it abuts other land in Charlestown that is designated open space and is mostly forested.

Part of the property nearest to Sand Plain Road is the former site of the old Kenyon Mill dumpsite. The property was abandoned by the owner during bankruptcy and now is owned by no one. It is believed that any person or government that takes ownership of the property will also be acquiring any of the liability associated with the old dump site that contained solvents and hazardous waste.

In 2008, the Environmental Protection Agency removed thousands of drums and containers, but contaminated soil remains. Whether the town develops the land with housing or not, the contamination needs to be removed and liability associated with taking ownership of any part of the land needs to be determined.

In 2021 this parcel was designated open space because the liability of developing this parcel seemed far too great, even if the land is free of contamination. As forested open space it complements the other open space it abuts and adds to wildlife habitat in the area.

Meanwhile nearly 500 dwelling units of new housing under the state affordable housing law have been proposed in Charlestown in recent months. These would increase the town’s population by nearly 20%. At a time of such high population growth it seems unwise for the town to also develop our designated open space properties.