The North Kingstown Planning Commission met on October 15, 2024, at 7:00 PM in Town Hall. The meeting covered a decision on the NKGM1 Solar major land development project, a waiver request for a storage structure addition at Rolling Greens Golf Course, and approval of minutes. Two agenda items were continued to a future meeting.
Item 3A is a decision, the combined master and preliminary plan application of NKGM1 LLC for a major land development project entitled NKGM1 solar, located off the intersection of Furwood Drive, Maplewood Drive, and Elmwood Drive assesses Platte 153 Lots 2, Cessus Plat 154 Lot 5, Zone Light Industrial, located in the groundwater wellhead and recharge area. This was continued from July 16th and uh September 17th, 2024 tonight. And we in front of us we have the decision is written, and I know we got this a little late. And Nicole, um do you want us to do this? Should we go back through page by page? I think it would be best to go page by page just to make sure everyone's reviewed it. And if you have any comments on those pages, we can make sure to incorporate everything together. Okay. And um just just speaking with a couple of my fellow members, there was some questions on clarity because there were a series of communications, and I think that there is two misconceptions or misinterpretations of things, and maybe it would be helpful before we start this just to clarify them. The first was the question of whether or not this is a subdivision. And I I know you you addressed that at the last meeting, but with everything going on, maybe not everyone fully could uh grasp it. And the second issue that I know has been kind of a common theme, and the call that I had gotten from one of the abutters while we were up here was there is uh some discussion that this property recently became industrial. And I think that we have some research of how long this property has been zoned, either general industrial or light industrial after the groundwater ordinance took effect. So thanks, Jim. Uh James Callahan Town Solicitor. So from the beginning of this project, we've reviewed this as a uh land development project, not a subdivision, because there is no division of the land as it stands. There's no separate lots being created. This isn't a situation where say in Kwanset, where you're going to have a warehouse and a facility manufacturing something, and another building for trucks coming in out. It's not that kind of subdivision for industrial purposes. The lot was created many, many years ago. Um Route 403 did divide the lot at one point, but that lot these lots remain the same. They're the same numbers and plots as they were for decades. So in our view, from the beginning, we didn't view this as a subdivision uh application. That makes sense. Thank you. And and Becky, I know you did some research and I I've done a little myself too, but the these clearly weren't recently changed. We're talking about decades upon decades of existing. Yep, so the lots um had the oldest plat map I could find was from the 50s. There was no industrial zoning at that time, but they were zone commercial, which was the heaviest type of zoning designation by the 7074 when our ordinance, the current ordinance was adopted, they were already zoned industrial at that time. So they've been zoned industrial for many, many years. Thank you. Okay. Uh with that, with the decision. Uh yes. Um I understand that this is not a non-residential subdivision, and that the language that was shared with us by the abutters is from that part of our ordinances. Um however, I think the concern of having a residential street feeding into an industrial activity is a legitimate concern. I think we all felt that when we were here before. Certainly I did. Um and one of the questions that I have is whether we have had from the applicant any sort of information that this is the only option for them to enter the um site through the residential area. Has have they studied or evaluated or do we have information on other why other options are not available to them? I haven't, I I don't know anything of what the applicant has looked into, but 403 is a limited access highway, and DOT does not allow curb cuts into the into 403, and that would be their only other frontage. So I don't know if they've investigated anything beyond 403 or furwood drive. I just know that you're not you can't do a curb cut onto 403 for access because it's a limited access highway. And then again, I don't know if there have been other other things investigated by the applicant. If they did that, I they didn't submit it to the town. So just the furwood drive was the the only one that we are knowledgeable of. Well, as a follow-up question, just for my own edification. So if this is not a non-residential subdivision, what is it in our code? It's a land development project. Yep, so a subdivision is literally what it says, it's the creation of additional lots.