The meeting was held at Town Hall at 6:30 PM. The commission reviewed three major items: two pre-applications for major land developments (The Edge townhouses and Greene Farm agricultural center) and a potential modification to the Harbor View final approved plan regarding a retaining wall built without approval. The meeting concluded with approval of the December 2, 2025 minutes and a motion to adjourn.
Meeting of the Planning Commission. Pursuant to RIGL 42466C. Notices been posted on the Secretary of State's website. We'll move on to general business item 3A is a pre-application submission of Moran Properties LLC for a 66 unit. Major land development comprehensive permit pre-application submission, known as the Edge Townhouse Development, located off Devil's Foot Road. On Assessors Plat 147. Lots 30, 34, 37, 67, 68, and 79. And assessor's plat 181, lots 13 and 28 in the post-road zone. For those that have not been here before, this is a pre-application, not a public hearing. Okay, thanks, Rich. Again, I'm not going to repeat the platinum lot for the application before you, but it is a pre-application comprehensive permit major land development project. The property probably looks familiar to you guys. The applicant has been before you for two separate applications. One was the edge. I think I can't remember the number of units. I'll let the applicant address that if necessary. But he got preliminary stage review for the previous edge application, and then he did a pre-application for 165 Namcook. So now this application before you tonight is combining all of those lots starting fresh with a totally new design concept. So generally the you'll be familiar with the property, but it is a new design concept. And as most of you know, um, the comprehensive permit process allows for a more streamlined review process whereby the planning commission can grant both any adjustments from the zoning ordinance as well as the major land development project application. Um as you've seen in the past, we do consider these um land development applications when they are comprehensive permits. Um in order to qualify um as a comp permit, they have to have provide 25% of low MOD units, which they are. They're proposing um 66 units total with 17 of those being low and moderate income deed restricted. Uh they are proposing several buildings on the property um multifamily with six sixplex units buildings for 36 units, one five plex, which is five units, four quadplexes, which will be sixteen units, and then three triplex for nine, again totaling out at that sixty-six and the post-road zone. Um you're allowed 10 units per acre with 20 percent affordable. Again, this is a comp permit. They're proposing 25% affordable, and they are asking for an adjustment on the density which um to have 11.4 units per acre. Again, having that five percent more low mod and a little bit more density seems reasonable for this application, especially considering they're gonna have water and sewer um capabilities for the site. Um let's see. Um speaking of adjustments, in addition to the density adjustment, they are asking for an adjustment on the first floor commercial requirement within 400 feet of post-road. You've seen this one before as well. Typically for other applications, um, we've kind of had an inclination to look at the corridor as a whole. So if one site cannot include commercial on the first floor, there's a lot of commercial in this area and in the corridor, and we kind of take a more comprehensive approach on reviewing that first floor commercial requirement. And then the third adjustment is on the average bedroom count. Um it's 2.25 for the post-road district. This is slightly over at 2.3. So the applicant can um either add that as an adjustment or if they wanted to reduce, take one unit out. Again, they have options. It's pre-app, they'll get better direction from you. Their design concepts may change and they can address um whether they want to move forward at with a little bit of an adjustment from that or reduce the number of units. There are a few um buildings on the property now. The applicant intends to raise all the buildings and start from scratch. You might recall also from the previous applications that the little lot that used to be the state right-of-way that they've obtained has no zoning or comprehensive land use designation. The town will be the ones to address that, not the applicant. That was discussed during a previous during the edge application master plan. Um let's see. And yep, I already have gone over the history. It's um generally consistent with a comp plan. Obviously, it's gonna provide a range of housing options in keeping with town character and having a diversity diversification at the housing stock. This does include some three bedroom units, which we have not seen lately.