The Gateway to South County should not be a Roundabout

The Route 2/102 western intersection is an important location such that comprehensive planning for this area must be achieved through a cooperative effort among Exeter, North Kingstown and the appropriate state agencies. The need of further study to determine the appropriate type of development as well as establishing a traffic pattern that will promote this area as a true gateway to South County and preserve South County’s rural character and enhance its tourism potential is essential.

As the designated representative of the Exeter Planning Board along with the unanimous support of the Exeter Town Council, I have raised many planning concerns in the media and at public hearings in opposition to North Kingstown’s amendments to its Comprehensive Plan and zoning at this location to accommodate the Rolling Greens development proposal. Among Exeter’s concerns, this proposed development is outside the Urban Service Boundary and is in contradiction to Rhode Island Statewide Planning’s Land Use 2025 goals and policies to preserve the rural character of this area of North Kingstown and abutting Exeter. The Rolling Greens proposal would promote the continuation of suburban sprawl and commercial strip development along Ten Rod Road and South County Trail into Exeter and South County.

The recognition of this area as unique and worthy of the protection is not a new revelation but its preservation is now threatened. Of immediate concern is the Rhode Island Department of Transportation’s proposed construction of a roundabout at this intersection. Before any construction is performed, a comprehensive effort should be initiated to determine its impacts on area residents, North Kingstown, Exeter and South County. The construction of a roundabout at this location would surely further the undesirable transformation of this intersection as a high speed pass-thru location.

The re-routing of thru-traffic at this intersection is essential to promoting this area as a true gateway to South County as a destination location providing access to the rural corridors of South County Trail southward and Ten Rod Road westward. This goal can best be realized if RIDOT diverted southbound thru-traffic away from this intersection and back onto Route 4 for which its construction was intended. Reallocating the Route 2/102 roundabout dollars to roundabouts at the Route 4 intersections of Oak Hill Road and Allentown Road would better serve all RI residents by eliminating two stop lights. This would reduce Route 2/102 thru-traffic volumes thereby minimizing undesirable pressures of strip-mall type development and promoting more destination types of development that will complement the rural character of South County. It would also reduce the negative impacts and safety concerns of the immediate area that would otherwise be exacerbated. Most importantly it would enhance the promotion of tourism resulting in an economic stimulus that would continue a self-evolving trend of preservation and appropriate development at this location and for the entire South County region.

Frank DiGregorio

Exeter