Judge to Zoning Board: Galilee Mission Grads Can Rent Inez Street Property

NARRAGANSETT, RI—A two-family home in a residential neighborhood can be rented out to graduates of a substance treatment center with as many as three unrelated adults per unit, a Superior Court judge said.

Justice Bennett R. Gallo, in an 11-page decision filed Dec. 21, sided with Galilee Mission and against the local zoning board and neighbors who saw the plans for the property as an expansion of the treatment center's operation.

The organization has a group home, Mission House, at 268 Kingstown Road, Narragansett, and is licensed, but its director said the residential property at 70 Inez St. would be used to generate rental income and not to provide substance abuse treatment, similar to the arrangement at Mission House.

The zoning laws allow 2-family houses in an R-10 zone, the judge concluded.