North Kingstown Planning Commission Meeting - July 7, 2026
North Kingstown Planning Commission Meeting - July 7, 2026
The Planning Commission met on July 7, 2026, at 6:30 PM at Town Hall to consider three major agenda items: waiver requests for two adaptive reuse projects on Post Road, a pre-application conceptual review for a minor subdivision at 102 Beacon Drive, and a discussion on potential zoning amendments for data centers. The meeting concluded with approval of minutes and adjournment.
Discussion Items
- Waiver Request (3a) – 6578 Post Road (Patriot Builders): The Commission considered a waiver from Major Land Development checklist requirements for a unified development review of a project to adaptively reuse an existing building into 10 residential units. The applicant requested omitted landscape plans be deferred to preliminary plan. Staff recommended approval. Commissioners Richard Lipsitz, Patrick Roach, and others expressed support, noting projects like this improve Post Road facade. A motion to grant the waiver passed unanimously.
- Waiver Request (3b) – 6828 Post Road (Patriot Builders): Similar waiver request for a project involving adaptive reuse of an existing building and new 5-unit residential building (total 17 units). Same deferral of landscape plan. Commission approved unanimously without objection.
- Pre-application (3c) – 102 Beacon Drive (Anthony Simone): Conceptual review of a 2-lot minor subdivision in the Village Residential zone with Groundwater Recharge Overlay. The applicant proposed creating a new lot with a 3-bedroom house while retaining existing 4-bedroom house, both with new nitrogen-reducing septic systems. Key issue: variance needed for bedroom density (7 bedrooms on less than 2 acres, where ordinance allows 4 bedrooms per 2 acres). Staff explained legal non-conformity and options for handling variance. Commissioner discussion revealed split views: Tracy McCue and Margaret Kerr opposed due to creating additional non-conforming lots and groundwater concerns; Richard Lipsitz and Patrick Roach supported if nitrogen analysis shows improvement, possibly meeting a 5 mg/L standard per lot. Commissioner Steven Borowick leaned conditional on 5 mg/L standard. Commissioner Joseph Donohoe absent. The Commission advised the applicant to first obtain a nitrogen analysis using the specific inputs from the groundwater ordinance before proceeding with engineering. No vote taken.
- Discussion (3d) – Potential Zoning Amendments for Data Centers: Staff presented two model ordinances (Smithfield and Mansfield) and recommended an outright prohibition of data centers in all North Kingstown zoning districts due to groundwater concerns and lack of understanding of resource needs. Commissioners agreed, favoring the Mansfield definition (based on megawatt usage) with removal of special use allowances, to create a blanket prohibition. Discussion included Quonset’s separate jurisdiction and need for intergovernmental coordination. Commissioner Richard Lipsitz highlighted past legal issues with marijuana zoning as a cautionary tale. Staff will draft an ordinance for review at the July 21 meeting and forward a recommendation to the Town Council for first reading in August.
Key Outcomes
- Waivers granted: Unanimously approved for both 6578 Post Road (10 units) and 6828 Post Road (17 units), allowing deferred landscape plans to be submitted at preliminary plan stage.
- Data center ordinance: Commission directed staff to draft a zoning amendment prohibiting data centers town-wide (excluding Quonset) using Mansfield’s framework. Draft to be presented at the next meeting (July 21, 2026).
- 102 Beacon Drive: No decision made. Applicant advised to commission a nitrogen analysis meeting the 5 mg/L standard per lot before proceeding. Commission provided guidance on variance structure and groundwater ordinance requirements.
- Minutes: The June 16, 2026 meeting minutes were approved unanimously.
- Adjournment: Meeting adjourned by unanimous vote.
Meeting Transcript
This is the otherwise known as the KFC willing in case you confuse the two projects. They don't quite have their landscape view plans ready, but everything else is ready. So they're asking to have those as items in the checklist so they don't have to complete first to consider them complete to move forward. Um from a stock perspective, that's fine. Obviously, I'm not telling them we do not need to have these done. It's just to move them forward so you can schedule them for meetings and move forward with the applications for review. Any questions on Nicole? I I don't have a serious problem with the landscape long as we're gonna see it at what. Yes, you will still see one. Um if you want to see I perimeter, make sure you get it for preliminary. They um we didn't talk about a data specific. I prefer it done, but as long as we get it before they finish the project. Um for this particular project, there isn't a lot of LTV that will be prone just because of the nature of it, but there still needs to be some sort of plan that goes with it. And they do have LT architect working. Yeah, I agree with Richard. Um even though there's not a line of landscaping there, if they do it, it kind of will be an enticement for the rest of the businesses. Like the OPEC gas station, they just turn around and did a strip there and they put lunch down and they put some plantings. Just that little bit. Absolutely. We have the post-rate facade, this is an aside. We have a poster facade meeting and just those little projects have made a worldly different. So we are even in projects like this, we make sure that they are aware that that's available too. Yeah, I mean, you got a rivals that has done it, and you've got Kingston Wikimorch, so those are little things that work. Absolutely. So hopefully it will catch on. At the bottom of the memo, it says the building height is approximately 43 feet. Those are the these are not laboratory, so tell us how much it exceeds the hype by. I didn't look at it. Um it actually it doesn't. They are looking at it incorrectly, so we'll do it when we get there. All right, we've seen the memo. Thank you. They can go up to 50 feet on post-road when they do affordable housing. So they well, I think they don't think that they're looking at the table but not the footnote. So we'll work with them on that. Thank you. Joe, anything? No. Uh I would entertain a motion to grant the waiver request for the 6578 post-road project. I'll make that motion. All in favor? Aye. Uh moving on to item 3b. A waiver request, major land development checklist requirements for unified development review of Patriot Builders Incorporated for a major land development project including dimensional variance request or the project known as 6828 post-road, consisting of the adaptive reuse of the existing building and a new five-unit residential building for a total of 17 units at 6828 post-road. Also known as Assessors Plat 146, lots 131 and 205 to 210 zone post-road. This is the same as the last one for the other project. This it would be also known as the Allstate property, or we have to call it the mushroom building because of the shape of the building. Um they did ask you for the water modeling labor already, but they've added it to this to just be comprehensive. The same request on this is for umscaping. Again, these are just for us to consider the application complete.
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