Sowams Nursery Housing Rapped at First Hearing on Master Plan

The first public hearing scheduled by the Planning Board on the master plan for the proposed affordable-housing project at Sowams Nursery in Barrington plowed some old ground and some new soil on Monday night in the library auditorium. 

Approximately 60 residents, most of them opposing the “Palmer Pointe” development, listened to Union Studio founding architect Don Powers, who has designed the complex, run through a similar presentation on the proposed project that he has made at several previous public meetings for the developer, the East Bay Community Development Corporation in Bristol. 

Then representatives of CODDER 02806 (Committee Opposed to Detrimental Development and for Environmental Responsibility), the citizens group that is battling the 48-unit rental development, and other residents in that neighborhood took turns rapping the project. They hammered its location, its density, its seeming “partnership” with the town of Barrington, and its financial viability. 

Mark Allard, who lives on Sowams Road not far from the proposed project, said the primary problem with the development is its location on a road without sidewalks where traffic speed has always been an issue. Its location about half a mile from two RIPTA bus stops has been described as an asset.

“This is a major safety issue,” said Allard, who said he has lived 30 years in that spot. “It’s a disaster waiting to happen. People cannot walk on Sowams. There is no access to public transportation. It’s a non-issue.” 

Scott Fuller, a Barrington School Committee member who lives on Belvedere Road several streets north of the nursery, agreed. He asked: “How he would I get there (to public transportation on County Road)? Riding a bike on Sowams is horrifying.”

Bill LeMoult of Hampden Street, the primary spokesman for CODDER 02806, raised a variety of questions about the development, most of which are addressed on the group’s website http://codder02806.blogspot.com/, he said several times.

He stressed, in particular, the R25 zoning of the nursery site, which means two houses per acre versus the 8.5 unit per acre density of the development.

Lemoult also questioned the “partnership” of the town with EBCDC on this project, which dates back a year before the actual master plan was filed in March. He cited, for instance, Barrington giving about two-thirds of its annual federal HUD allocation – CDBG grants – to the EBCDC last year.

“I think this long-standing relationship will interfere with the best interests of the community,” Lemoult said, citing a RI Supreme Court ruling that every board in a municipality must act in those interests.

“What do we want?” he asked. “We want to assure the integrity of zoning laws. What do we do?”

Lemolt suggested that every aspect of the EBCDC be scrutinized by an independent analysis. 

Gary Morse of Westwood Lane, a frequent critic of affordable-housing laws, questioned why EBCDC has not filed “pro-forma financials” with the town as part of its application for the development.

“Should this application even be on the table?” he said, before it is deemed to be financially viable. 

EBCDC has stated in public that it needs tax abatements from the town to make this project financially viable, he said. And the Town Council has not dealt with the tax abatements yet. 

“Why hasn’t the Town Council acted on the tax abatements first?” he said. “It makes no sense putting up a project that will go into default” without the abatements.

Nancy Letendre, legal counsel for Barrington on this project, said the only pro forma financials that the Planning Board must deal with involve the costs of construction and the site plan. 

“It is not responsible for the long-term financial viability of the project,” she said. “Financial viability is not in the criteria for rejecting it.”

The next public hearing on the master plan is scheduled for May 30; it will involve many of the technical details – the engineering and environmental impact and water, sewer and wetland issues.

In the meantime, the Planning Board will make a visit to the nursery site to walk the property and get an up-close look, said Chairman Mike McCormick. If the board members go together, it will be considered a public meeting and posted in advance.