Letter: Questions Remain for Proposed Lafayette Village District Zoning

About forty neighbors from Lafayette came out in the bitter cold this past Tuesday to attend the NK Planning and Zoning Meeting. The commission was considering a change of zoning in the village that was requested by someone on the Town Council. Most of the residents who got up to speak said that they didn’t understand why the current zoning needed to be changed. In response to the numerous questions Chairman Chip Gardener asked the Town Planner to put a chart on the NK website that would explain the complex CVD zoning regulations so that the general public could have a chance to access the impact of the proposed changes.

Despite the confusion, a few key pieces of information came out of the meeting. The first was an assurance that a store the size of Walmart could not be built in the village. Stores would be limited to 15,000 square feet (about the size of a CVS or Rite Aid). But the second fact was less positive. The boundaries of the CVD zone would not be permanently fixed. The town could add contiguous properties to the zone at a future time. This brought a comment from a resident who expressed concern that strip malls might begin to work their way up and down Ten Rod Road from the center of Lafayette village just as, he said, “they do on Long Island”.

Other questions remain that will hopefully be answered by the Town Planner’s chart. Could the CVD zone push into the many long-established residential neighborhoods just off Ten Rod Road? If retail development was restricted to the main road how would the homeowners be protected from commercial development that they might not want right next door or in their backyard? What would their recourse be if a neighbor wanted to sell their home to a retail developer?

The North Kingstown Comprehensive Plan advocated that new business be concentrated in places like the Post Road. There are plenty of vacant stores to redevelop along the four mile strip from Gillian’s Pub to the East Greenwich border. Why should the town be encouraging development by rezoning places like the rural Rolling Greens area and historic Lafayette village? The residents of North Kingstown have repeatedly voted to protect and even increase open space. Why does it seem like we are determined to pave every square inch of the town?

If there are obstacles to redeveloping properties like the vacant and crumbling nursing home in the center of Lafayette Village; why can’t they be addressed by the current zoning laws? Revitalize what already exists commercially and preserve the residential community around it – don’t displace it.

Planning and Zoning Chairman Chip Gardener lead an open and well-conducted meeting. The members of the commission honestly seemed to want to give the homeowners in Lafayette the information they needed to be informed and feel secure. He assured the residents that agendas for future meetings would be posted on the town website and that individuals could even request an email alert the next time the Lafayette CVD issue made it on to the agenda. We are fortunate to have a commission so eager to be even-handed and open to hearing and responding to the comments from the public. The interests of ALL the people are best served when transparency is the government’s priority.

Donna Hutchinson
North Kingstown, RI