North Kingstown Planning Commission Meeting - November 21, 2023
North Kingstown Planning Commission Meeting - November 21, 2023
The North Kingstown Planning Commission met on November 21, 2023, at Town Hall. The meeting included two major discussion items: a presentation on soil health stewardship training from the American Farmland Trust and a workshop on zoning ordinance amendments to implement new state laws, including inclusionary zoning, density bonuses, and adaptive reuse. No votes were taken; the meeting was informational and to gather commissioner input.
Discussion Items
Soil Health Stewards Training
- Staff members Nicole and Jenna attended a three-day training in Fairlee, Vermont, hosted by the National Agricultural Land Network (American Farmland Trust). The training covered soil health practices such as no-till farming, cover cropping, crop rotation, and grazing rotation, as well as techniques for communicating with farmers.
- The town holds conservation easements over farmland in North Kingstown (total protected open space is approximately 8,000 acres, though the exact farmland acreage was not immediately available). The staff will develop a soil health action plan by the end of November and plan to create a webpage with resources and fact sheets for farmers and homeowners.
- Commissioners expressed interest in sharing the information broadly, including with homeowners, and noted the potential synergy with other town efforts (e.g., a resident lawn care fact sheet).
Zoning Ordinance Amendments: Inclusionary Zoning, Density Bonuses, and Opt-Out Discussion
- The commission discussed how to implement new state laws requiring changes to inclusionary zoning and density bonuses. Key topics included:
- Whether to opt out of the state inclusionary program and establish local affordable housing requirements.
- The possibility of keeping inclusionary zoning only in certain districts (e.g., Post Road) with appropriate density bonuses, versus spreading affordable units across the town.
- Concerns that the state law's density bonus (two market-rate units for each affordable unit) could lead to overdevelopment and strain infrastructure (sewer, water, roads).
- Commissioner Jim Grundy suggested a municipal contribution other than density bonuses (e.g., fee waivers) to offset the cost of affordable units.
- Staff noted that many towns are currently discussing options but few have adopted changes; removing inclusionary zoning may make it difficult to reinstate later.
- Commissioners also discussed the need to maintain base zoning and avoid nonconformities. The town already has many housing options (mixed-use, age-restricted, etc.), and the new state mandates may conflict with existing local planning.
Technical Review Committee (TRC) Ordinance
- Nicole presented a draft ordinance to codify the existing TRC, which currently operates as a subcommittee of the Planning Commission. The TRC meets to review technical aspects of development applications before they go to the Planning Board.
- Commissioners expressed strong support for the current system, noting it works well by allowing frank discussions among staff and avoiding surprises at public hearings. The draft would formalize the TRC's role but not change its function.
- The commission agreed to consider this for a formal recommendation at a future meeting.
Adaptive Reuse Ordinance
- This item was a required update to allow adaptive reuse (conversion of commercial buildings, offices, schools, etc. to residential) in all zoning districts per state law.
- Commissioners reviewed a draft ordinance and raised concerns about allowing residential in industrial zones, citing potential incompatibility (e.g., noise, environmental issues) and loss of industrial land. However, the state mandate requires permitting it in all districts.
- The commission noted that many adaptive reuse projects are already happening (e.g., office-to-residential conversions on Post Road) and that the ordinance provides a useful tool, but it should define "commercial building" to avoid unintended conversions in heavy industrial areas.
- A formal vote on the draft will be needed at the next meeting.
Key Outcomes
- No votes were taken on any items. The commission directed staff to:
- Continue refining the zoning ordinance amendments for inclusionary zoning, density bonuses, and adaptive reuse based on the discussion.
- Bring the TRC ordinance and adaptive reuse ordinance back for formal recommendation at the next meeting.
- Develop a soil health webpage and outreach materials.
- The timeline for adopting the zoning amendments remains by the end of the year, but staff acknowledged the complexity may push it into early 2024.
Meeting Transcript
of the North Kingstown zoning ordinance amendments, North Kingstown land development subdivision regulations and amendments uh to implement new state laws. Can we do the soil stuff first to get that over with? Not over with but over with so that we can concentrate on all the amendments. You want to make sure that we get to it before we break for the evening. Yes. I'm too tired to go over this. We have a motion to adjourn. No, I drove all the way here just for the meeting. So you're staying here. Which is a discussion National Agricultural Land Network. Soil Health Stewart's training. And there are cookies. There are oh Steve, thank you. That was very kind. No pressure. Or thank your wife or yeah. So um I wanted I asked Nicole if we could put this on the agenda tonight because as you saw in the packet um the town applied for and received um I guess it's a it's a small amount of money but it was also the ability to participate in the training that was being put on by the American Farmland Trust. I think officially it's the yeah the National Agricultural Land Network. So we applied and we were accepted. So Jenna um in our office and I went up to a to uh two day well three day training up in Fairley Vermont and um we got to learn they ate but it was nice. I mean they did they you know part of the the funds you get is is they do pay for your stay there. They pay for the training they you know put us up in a cute little place on a lake. It was pretty cool. It was Lake Maury um in Fairley Vermont and part of the training was in classroom training. And then part of it was we actually got to go to two different farms um for the day and have lunch on one of the farms on Wednesday and we got to see firsthand some of the soil health practices that they're advocating for and um basically what they want to teach us is as easement holders. So the town holds conservation easements over farmland in North Kingstown. Many of the organizations that were at the training were actually land trusts so we were one of the only municipalities at the training so we were a little bit it was a little awkward for us because it was very we have a very different experience because unfortunately the preservation aspect of what we do is a very small part whereas all the other folks there this is all they do is land preservation and ag easements and other conservation easements. But it was pretty cool we got to learn about soil health so there was some science to it but it was things I did not I didn't know anything about it and most folks there were clueless when they went there. So we were all learning together. But we also learned about how to communicate with our farmers like if you want to engage them a lot of them have been doing the same practices for generations and sometimes getting them to try something new is difficult. So we also learned about how do you reach out to them how would you approach them and a lot of what they focused on toward the end of the training was showing them that their bottom line benefits from it so that if you're using your equipment less and if you are you know you're not tilling all the time it can actually end up saving you money and making you more money with less you have less labor costs. So it was actually cool to see that aspect of it too and um we got to go first hand and do a soil analysis. I got to take home a little cool tool that's still in the back of my car but it's for compaction because one of the things that's hard for growing um and growing well is compaction because you're driving your tractor over it for could be a hundred years in some or more in some instances and the soil has become so compacted that it's not healthy anymore. So they gave us a tool to measure how compacted the soil is so it was just trying to give us the basics so when we go reach out to our farmers to teach them the benefits of no-till cover cropping um crop rotation grazing rotation that we have a little bit of an understanding and so one of the things we have to do is develop a soil health action plan by the end of this month and it's pretty simple and I gave in your packet I gave you the general parameters of what it is and one of the things um I started drafting it's not finished yet is I would share information that I learned at the training with the conservation commission the planning commission just to keep you guys in the loop you don't necessarily work with us on the conservation of property but it I think you're very aware of it um and I think as even when developments come before you sometimes you know there is a soil health aspect to some of the discussions that we have so I'm really just sharing the information with you guys so I put a bunch of fact sheets in your packet there's a bunch of resources on the link that I gave you in the word document um that I sent you and so it tonight is really just kind of introducing you guys to what we um did at the training and then um we are planning to do some targeted mailings to our easement holders and to other farmers to try to give them information. We are not experts we're just going to be a resource to help them if they'd like to try to adopt some of the practices that might end up producing better yields you know and save them money. So it was pretty cool. It was different. Something I never thought I would experience before. So it was inju it was fun. It was good. So that's it. Quick question. How much uh acreage does North Kingstown have that's farmland? How many different farms are gosh? I mean, I don't have that number. We have over total protected open space, it's like 8,000 acres. Just I have never parsed out just the farms. Um we probably had to actually for the application, but I don't know if I aggregated it. We had to have an assumption. Yeah, I can look it up for you.
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