10/6/2010
Town approves zoning changes that restrict corporate corridor landowners
Rhode Island's Market Has Changed. Developers, Builders, Investors and Sellers Must Change With It.
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By GERRY GOLDSTEIN, Valley Breeze & Observer Correspondent
SMITHFIELD – In a five-hour meeting supercharged with anger, political division, and allegations that the Town Council has sold out small business to the interests of giant Fidelity Investments, a split council on Monday approved zoning changes that sharply limit land use along the town’s “corporate corridor.”
The 3-2 decision, with the Republican majority in favor, brought an immediate pledge to sue from the major landowner in the area, Jackson Despres.
He said the rezoning will slash the value of property occupied by his more than 70-acre Smithfield Peat Co., render it unmarketable for future development, and is a land grab by the town to satisfy the wishes of nearby Fidelity.
“What you are effectively doing is confiscating all of our property,” he said.
Emotion ran so high that at one point, Democrat Stephen Archambault, who with colleague S. Jean Cerroni opposed the decision, told Despres, “I pray that ultimately, you’re successful against the town.”
Archambault, a lawyer who recently lost a primary bid to run for state attorney general, said a lawsuit could cost up to $100,000 and that taxpayers would foot the bill.
The hours-long clash, coming with just a few meetings left in the current Town Council’s term, focused not so much on the zoning changes as on contentions by Despres, Archambault, state Sen. John J. Tassoni Jr. and others that the council was making a reckless decision because it lacked essential information.
They said the council should await the findings of two studies of the corridor along Routes 7 and 116. One involves traffic patterns in the area, and the other is a state master plan that would detail appropriate future uses of property there.
Archambault said that if the studies confirmed the need for more corporate zoning the council could vote for it at that time.
But Republicans said the assessments would take too long and that they felt a responsibility to make the zoning decisions now, because they are more familiar with the issue than a new council will be after next month’s election.
Council President Ronald Manni said because of its location near major highways, the area has future potential for corporate development that would “generate big dollars for the town.” The new zoning limits land use there largely to office space, although some other uses are permitted with Zoning Board approval.
Throughout the evening, Archambault hammered away at his argument that without seeing results of the two studies, the council majority was deciding the issue in a vacuum.
He declared, “This is an improper decision of the council. I’m not part of it, I don’t condone it and I am embarrassed by it.”
Cerroni said that without the study results, the council could be making a mistake.
Referring to the owners of about a dozen parcels affected by the changes, she said, “What do they do the rest of their lives with our mistakes?”
In an emotional statement that ran well over an hour, Despres – whose business is recognizable on Route 7 by its towering mulch piles – said the town has already reserved some 1,600 acres in the area for Corporate Development zoning, that less than 25 percent of it has attracted tenants, and that with millions of square feet of office space in Rhode Island empty because of the economy, there is no market for corporate development.
He said the only way to make the land saleable is to adopt zoning that permits mixed commercial uses. His property is currently a combination of less-restrictive Industrial, Commercial, and Highway Commercial zoning.
Despres, who said he and three generations of his family have lived and worked here for half a century, asserted that the new zoning deprives him of what was to be his retirement nest egg.
“I won’t take this lightly – you haven’t seen the last of me,” he said.
He can continue, under grandfathering, to operate his excavating business there, he said, but, “I know what you’re proposing won’t work. I know you don’t particularly like my piles,” he said, “but you’d better get used to them, because I can’t sell under Planned Corporate.”
His lawyer, Michael A. Kelly, said the rezoning would devalue Despres’ land by 50 to 60 percent and that he would seek a reduction in the $100,000 a year he pays in property taxes.
Despres accused municipal officials of kowtowing to Fidelity, which strongly favors corporate zoning in the area and opposes retail. Fidelity did not seem to be represented at the hearing.
However, in a letter to the town last May, it noted its “significant investments in the area” and its support for the more restrictive zoning plan.
Despres told the council, “I strongly suggest we change the name of this town to Fidelity, because they run the show. You sold us out but good.”
He said he viewed the decision as political payback for some of his stances on zoning issues dating back many years.
Archambault appeared to agree with Despres’ take on the investment firm’s influence, saying, “I’ve bumped heads with the reach of Fidelity many times.”
Kevin Bouthillette, a small-business owner, said, “Many times I feel that the town has sold its soul to the large corporations.”
The zoning changes were recommended by both the municipal Planning Board and the local Economic Development Commission.
Town Planner Michael Phillips, while endorsing the changes, said he could see a need for some easing of restrictions that would allow a wider range of uses.
But, he said, the town is already beyond the deadline under a state mandate to update its land use plans.
Despres’ lawyer, Kelly, challenged the statement, saying a recent court ruling indicated that “it’s not a mandate at all, it’s instructionary.”
The EDC’s vice chairman, Joaquin Andrade, told the council that it should adopt the new zoning now, to avoid any possibility of non-corporate businesses moving in and producing “a re-invention of Route 44” where commercial buildup has produced traffic congestion.
Despres and others dismissed the statement as ludicrous, noting that for the foreseeable future, business development will continue at a standstill.
Despres said he had no plans to sell his property for development in the six to eight months estimated for completion of the state’s master plan study, nor could he sell it in the current economy.
Councilor Flynn contended that if past state performance is an indicator, the study could take up to 15 months.
“We are the governing body of the town and it’s incumbent on us to make the decision tonight,” he said, especially in view of the Planning Board and EDC endorsements.
The council’s 3-2 vote produced cries of “incompetence” and “politics” from several opponents of the changes as they filed out.
There was also an outcry from Democrat Archambault, who first attempted to make an opposing motion but was gaveled down by Manni in favor of Flynn.
Archambault declared that during his time in office, “I’ve never been stifled before – shame on this council.”
Town Solicitor Edmund Alves said Flynn had been preparing a motion to approve the changes before Archambault jumped in, and therefore it took precedence.
The hearing was the most vitriolic of the council’s two-year term, pitting the three Republicans, all seeking re-election, against the two Democrats, who are not running again.
Some of the evening’s sharpest sparring involved Despres and Republican Maxine Cavanagh.
Despres, noting that Cavanagh recently sold development rights to her own residential property on Log Road to the town’s Land Trust for $390,000, said the town “should give the same opportunity to Planned Corporate owners who are losing the value of their land.”
Cavanagh’s dealings with the Land Trust began when she was a private citizen prior to her election victory in 2008.
She, meanwhile, said that in a previous Planning Board work session on the zoning plan – a meeting that at one point was leaning toward some concessions on zoning restrictions -Despres announced that he would never cooperate with the town no matter what it proposed.
Despres responded, “That is absolutely not true. It’s preposterous that I would say that.” But Cavanagh continued, “I’m not going to change my mind. I heard you say that.”
The EDC’s Andrade backed Cavanagh’s version, with the exchanges reflecting the intensity of a long and wearying evening that continued past midnight.
Alfred Costantino, a businessman and chairman of the town’s former Charter Review Commission, supported Despres’ contention about land values, telling the council, “I believe you are condemning this property inadvertently. I can’t see anyone speculating on this property for offices.”
Sen. Tassoni urged the council to go slowly and to consider the study results because “This is a major, major decision you’re about to make that will have effects beyond our lifetimes. Without proper documentation, you’re asking for big trouble.”
Robert Esposito, who recently ran unsuccessfully in the Democratic council primary, said a variety of new ordinances have been eroding property rights.
“I don’t know how you can go home and sleep at night,” he told the council.
Council President Manni said that especially in these bad times, “the community needs to move in a new direction and to seek out new possibilities.”
