On August 6, 2024, the North Kingstown Planning Commission held a meeting to conduct public hearings regarding the Unified Development Review for a major land development project, Hollow Ridge Vineyards, located at 2845 Tower Hill Road. The commission also discussed updates on state legislation and zoning amendments, reviewed and approved previous meeting minutes. The meeting was chaired by James Grundy.
Welcome to the Tuesday, August 6th, 2024 Planning Commission meeting. First item on the agenda item 3A. Nicole, do we want to hear 3A and 3B in aggregate and then we'd decide on them if there's no objection? Makes more sense from everyone. Okay. Item 3A is a public hearing, unified development review of the zoning variants and special use permit of jewel vineyards and winery LLC for a major land development project in title Hollow Ridge Vineyards. Located at 2845 Tower Hill Road assesses plat 5, lots 9 and 20, zoned very low density residential and located in the scenic overlay district. Item 3B is unified development review for the combined master and preliminary plan application of jewel vineyards and winery LLC for a major land development project in title Hollow Ridge Vineyards located at 2845 Tower Hill Road. So this is Plat 5 lots 9 and 20 zoned, very low density residential located in the scenic overlay district. And I see some people we don't normally see it on meetings, so just so everyone knows how this works. Staff will walk us through the staff report after questions from the commission, the applicant will present their presentation. After that, there'll be another question section, and then we will allow public comment so everyone will have an opportunity to speak. We'll just ask you to come up to the podium and then uh wherever it takes us from there, it'll take us. So with that, we'll turn it over to Becky. Are you thank you, Jim? Again, um, just to reiterate the process. You've only seen this once before since the state law changed, but it's a unified development review. It's both for the major land development project and the zoning relief that they're seeking. And as we did with the post-road apartments application, the commission has to make a decision on the zoning relief first with a condition that the major land development project be approved, and then you would make a decision on the major land development project. So you can review them together just when you it comes time for the actual vote at the end. Just do the zoning relief first with that condition on there for land development project. Um the conservation commission actually uh reviewed the application as well. They attended the site visit and they offered a letter of support with no actually no comments or recommendations at all, just a letter of support. So as you know, um from I think most of you were able to be at the site visit, they've already established the um grape finds on the property and obviously making it a farm agricultural use, which is required for the um development standards for farm winery. Um they're proposing to put a agricultural building at the front of the property, kind of where the greenhouse was for the previous use. They're putting an addition on the re what was um I think used as a retail building in the past. They're gonna put an addition on that toward the front of the property, and then they're building a brand new building toward um as you go west on the property uh for tasting and um the production facility kitchen. There's gonna be some space on the second floor. Um so there's three separate buildings that they are proposing in addition to um an on-site wastewater treatment system, which they received approval for, and a new um public well, which they've also received uh approval for as well. Um it's a hundred and twelve acre site, but they're only um the project area is 13, about 13 acres, and they're only um disturbing about six acres with this application. Um there was a previous wetland viol wetlands violation from DEM, but they've remedied all those have been remedied um to date, so there's no issues there. There are several development standards for the farm winery use. Um the few that uh we will speak a little bit about tonight and it was outlined in the SAP report. There's a couple that they need some um zoning relief for. So I'll briefly touch upon what zoning relief they are seeking without going into too much detail. It was all in the staff report. If you have questions, I can clarify or the applicant can clarify. They need the special use permit for the farm winery use. Um they need a dimensional variance for the um new ad building at the front for the front setback. It's required to be 200 feet on that um type of road in a residential zone. Again, if it was a business zone, that setback would be a lot for it's it's like 25 feet, but in a residential zone, it's based on the type of road, and this type of road dictates a 200 foot setback. The um addition to the existing building toward the south needs two setbacks, one from the front, one from the side to the south. Um they need two um dimensional variances for the buffering requirements. One is where it abuts their residential property to the south, and then one from the front property line. Uh they also need um a very small variance on the amount of retail that they're proposing. It exceeds the 1,000 square foot requirement by 79 square feet. And then they need a series of variances for the sign that is proposed. And one has to do with the size, the height, the type of sign that they're seeking, and the setback. Regarding some of the other site, not constraints but issues. It's not in the flood zone.