PROVIDENCE – The town of North Kingstown would gain a say – but not veto power – over development at Quonset Business Park under a bill passed Wednesday by the Senate.
Currently, the power to approve projects rests solely with the quasi-state Quonset Development Corporation (QDC), a separate subsidiary of the R.I. Economic Development Corporation.
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Both bills allow North Kingstown’s director of planning to determine whether proposed projects are in “substantial conformity” with the town’s comprehensive plan. If the director objects, the QDC will need to hold a formal meeting to decide whether to move forward with the project.
The QDC would be under no obligation to bow to the planning director’s wishes, but the bill would give him or her a role in the formal decision-making process for the park for the first time.
“No quasi-public agency should be endowed with the power to go it alone, to propose and approve its own plans in a vacuum, without any consideration to the impact of that plan on the surrounding community,” said Sen. James C. Sheehan, D-North Kingstown, who introduced the bill.
Sheehan said the QDC has, at times, “not given high priority to the local community” in its deliberations, and that his legislation would ensure the QDC gives local concerns “full consideration.”
Some North Kingstown officials and residents have gotten upset at the QDC in the past as it debated projects, including an incinerator that was never built and a container port.
More recently, tension grew when the QDC approved a shopping center at the entrance to the park. The shopping center includes box stores that some North Kingstown officials said failed to meet the town’s comprehensive plan.
The House Municipal Government Committee is expected to hold a hearing next week on a House bill identical to Sheehan’s, House spokesman Larry Berman said in an e-mail.
David Preston, a spokesman for the QDC, said the agency was still considering its position on the legislation, but added that the bill “really doesn’t do anything substantive.” The QDC has objected to similar bills in years past.
Additional information is available at qdcri.com.
