Newport Planning Board Meeting - December 1, 2025
Newport Planning Board Meeting - December 1, 2025
The Planning Board convened to discuss the ongoing Comprehensive Plan update, review a unified development application for 102-108 Girard Avenue, approve amendments to subdivision regulations, elect officers, and finalize the meeting schedule. Staff presented data on the city's demographics and economic density, highlighting challenges regarding second-home ownership and housing for seniors. The board unanimously approved a new development project and regulatory changes while setting the schedule for the upcoming year.
Consent Calendar
- N/A
Public Comments & Testimony
- Member of the Public (Jared): Expressed concern regarding the potential influx of second-home owners and New York/New Jersey residents driving up costs; asked if demographic data could be broken down by secondary vs. primary residence status. Staff responded that while they could analyze tax roles vs. American Community Survey data, the correlation was not yet fully refined.
- Member of the Public (Paul): Raised concerns about housing density and whether the changes would alter the R10 zoning status of neighborhoods; questioned if oversized lots in existing neighborhoods would need to subdivide into smaller sizes.
- Member of the Public (Sonny): Expressed concern regarding the logistics of the Tree and Open Space Commission liaison role, noting missed meetings and lack of minutes; proposed relying on staff summaries instead.
- No members of the general public attended the public comment period regarding the Girard Avenue application or the subdivision regulation amendments.
Discussion Items
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Comprehensive Plan Update:
- Mindy (Consultant): Presented an overview of the city's economic diversification efforts, noting the city is almost completely built out. Announced an upcoming public engagement event at Rogers High School featuring interactive activities, including a raffle, photo booth, and food, with both in-person and asynchronous online participation options.
- Board Members: Asked how the analysis would account for non-full-time residents (tourism) subsidizing infrastructure and services for year-round residents. Staff confirmed the team would review the Harbor Management Plan and intersection with water-based transportation, as moorings and slips are a significant part of daily capacity.
- Board Members: Queried the demographic shift toward higher household incomes (specifically the 33% growth in households earning over $100k). Staff agreed to investigate this data against peer cities in New England and clarify the proportion of second-home owners.
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Girard Avenue Application (102-108 Girard Ave):
- Jay Lynch (Applicant's Attorney): Requested approval for a preliminary plan to add a 1,400 sq. ft. structure with four rental units (including one ADA/compliant unit) to the westernmost building. Required variances for: side yard setback (6ft vs 10ft required), lot coverage increase (22% vs 20% permitted), and parking location (front/side vs. rear required).
- Board Member (Dick): Expressed concern regarding the lack of a sidewalk on the west side of Girard Avenue; suggested adding a sidewalk to ensure public safety and connectivity for the bus station across the street.
- Staff/Board Interaction: Discussed the city engineer's preference for stormwater runoff over a sidewalk on the west side, but agreed to require a crosswalk connecting to the existing sidewalk. A debate ensued regarding accessible parking for senior units who may not have ADA placards; the Board agreed to ensure designated parking is available close to the building, though not necessarily marked as "senior only."
- Board Member (Paul): Expressed strong support for the inclusion of conduit for Electric Vehicle (EV) charging; insisted this be a formal condition of approval.
- Board Member (Jared): Suggested including a specific exception in lease conditions for active-duty military members to allow for 9-10 month leases required by orders.
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Subdivision and Land Development Regulations:
- Staff: Presented state-enabling legislation allowing "oversized lot subdivision." This permits subdividing vacant lots in areas where 50% of surrounding lots (within 200 feet) are smaller, provided the new lots are at least 3,000 sq. ft. and match the neighborhood character, without needing zoning variances.
- Board Member: Clarified that this does not change the underlying zoning district (e.g., R10) but allows subdivision based on existing patterns.
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Administrative Matters:
- Officers Elections: Nominated and elected Maria Pelaski (Chair), Dick Krell (Vice Chair), and Jared Pimenthal (Secretary) for the next term.
- Meeting Schedule: Board voted to approve the drafted schedule including a July 13th meeting (subject to cancellation if no agenda items) and voted to keep the meeting start time at 6:30 PM to accommodate commuters from off-island.
Key Outcomes
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Girard Avenue Application: Approved unanimously subject to conditions, including:
- Final development plan approval by the Administrative Officer.
- Installation of a crosswalk connecting the site to the public sidewalk across Girard Avenue, coordinated with the City Engineer.
- Installation of at least two bike racks within 100 feet of building entrances.
- Verification of stormwater compliance with the Utilities Department.
- Verification of compliance with the 2024 Energy Code.
- New Condition: Conduit must be laid on-site for future EV charging.
- New Condition: No leases shall be less than 12 months, with the explicit exception of active duty or reserve military.
- New Condition: The applicant will make reasonable efforts to design the final plan to provide designated parking near the entrance for units housing seniors or individuals with accessibility needs, even if not strictly ADA-rated.
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Regulatory Amendments: Approved five standards for subdivisions and one standard for land development, effectively incorporating the state's "oversized lot subdivision" enabling legislation and updates for online permitting.
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Schedule: Finalized meeting schedule for the next year with a 6:30 PM start time.
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Adjournment: Meeting adjourned at 8:19 PM.
Meeting Transcript
And so part of our task, as it was um in the prior uh strict uh comprehensive plan was is to think about how can we diversify the economy. And so we've been mapping where are the um the key employers and understanding the density of jobs as distributed throughout your city. And one of the things that we're you know thinking about is the fact that the city's almost completely built out and there's really limited opportunities for new development. And so we'll be working with you all and working with staff and working with um the members of the public to understand and reflect where and how uh new development should occur. So I showed this graphic last time I was here, but this is just a reminder that um the plan has these 10 elements, they're all really interrelated, and so um we will be thinking through um all of these topics and working together to think about how we can strike a balance between development and preservation, between growth and sustainability, between pressing current needs and long-term resilience. And so um like I said, this this trip is really about listening for us and uh reporting out what as I just did, some of what we're uh understanding about your city. And we will be back before you in February, uh having um done our part to analyze the information that we learn from people tomorrow at the event and all of the um activities that will be at tomorrow's event will also be replicated online so people who are not in town or not able to attend um can participate uh asynchronously and um we look forward to sharing with you what we hear uh next time we're in town. So just one last plug about tomorrow. Um we'll be there, like I said, in the student commons uh the big atrium at Rogers High School for three hours. There's no formal presentation, it's really uh intended for people to stop by as they're able and do as many or as few of the activities as they feel uh inspired to do. Um there'll be a raffle and um like I said, uh photo booth and um food and drink and cookie decorating and a whole bunch of questions and interactive activities for people to um engage with, whether they are um five years old or you know, much older than that. So um happy to take any questions you may have tonight and uh otherwise if you're able tomorrow, stop by. Thanks, Mindy. Questions for Mindy. Do you have a sense already how many people may be there tomorrow? I have no idea. That's always it's like if you um field of dreams, if you build it, will they come? I don't know. We're hoping for a big crowd. Yeah. Right. So I have a couple of questions about some of these data. The um population, is that year-round population? Does it include students? What what is the composition of that number population? The um 25,000 would be the year-round population and it does generally include students. Um so I think um we've done some math that we're not it's not quite ready for prime time to understand like exactly um how many do we think you know, include um part-time residents and then the visitors. So I think we're still um refining our numbers. We'll be interesting to learn more about that. And and it's certainly an issue that comes up a lot when we're talking about planning uh questions about short-term rentals and things like that. Um the other question I had uh had to do with um, will your economic analysis take a look at the varying utilization? So if you have revenues coming from specific sources, will you also look at who are the greatest consumers of like infrastructure and other kinds of city services? Um I think that will depend on the data that's available. So um, but I think that's a a good question. Um are you talking about um like utilities or are you thinking about like services or yeah, the infrastructure basic infrastructure services and are we in other ways, in other words, uh one hypothesis would be that tourism and um dark how non non-full-time residents, people who who do not who only live here part-time, they might be subsidizing uh people who do live here full-time. Yes. Or maybe not. I don't know. Yes, I know the economist has um thoughts on that particular question. Yes. That'll be interesting. That for some of the other um inquiries, it will depend on, yeah, if we're able to attach data to sure particular parcels of land use. But I I think so far the data's been really good. And so um we're happy to um follow a lot of inquiry inquiring threads. Okay. Um anybody else? Yeah, the um uh there's a lot more use of things like carbor, harbor facilities. And will you be incorporating more of that and looking at the transportation, the housing side, the water, the um because it is a focal point of tourism and and people coming and going um because when you sort of measure housing, um, a lot of the boats on the water are technically second homes. Yes. Um that's a very good point.
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