As the new chairperson of the Warren Planning Board, Blake Costa is in the process of putting his mark on the body, knowing full well the importance it holds to land use in the town and the need to abide by the relatively recent spate of legislation passed by the General Assembly.

Costa, a member of the board for two-plus years, formally took over the gavel this past spring. He replaced former chairman Fred Massie, who resigned his position entirely in December of 2025 after spending the better part of the last two decades guiding the body through what later became an avalanche of amendments to state housing laws, especially.

Costa credited Massie for his efforts, saying he hoped to build upon the foundation he laid. Initially, Costa said he sees the need to update the board's practices and procedures to match the aforementioned changes.

"Our SOPs (standard operating procedures), our need to be updating zoning ordinances, and just building on what we have in place," Costa said of what needs to be done in the short term. "We've built a nice educational packet for board members now that can lead into a more public educational packet. It can be distributed to the public so they know how land use works and how boards work and how we have to build findings based off fact and how we have to articulate, how we have to adhere to general law."

Costa said it's incumbent for residents to understand the parameters under which the board operates. It can't simply take a position without considering all of the outside factors required to make decisions.

"I think there are some misunderstandings that planning boards operate under the subjective input from the community, which is very valuable and does help us craft our decisions, but in the end as you see with the litigation we've had in the past with comprehensive permits. We're responsible to the law and the ordinances, as well as a comprehensive plan," Costa explained, referring to the cases brought against the town pertaining to, among others, the proposed "Settlers Green" and Liberty Street School developments.

"I'm trying to get ahead of them, to be educational. Let the public know how land use works and why everything's not cut and dry where we can just deny an application based on feelings, and how we have to be more objective to craft in our opinions when it comes to motions or decisions on applications," Costa added.

He continued, "So that's kind of my thought process on how I'm approaching the board right now. And I feel like we're going to have a lot of positive change coming out throughout the end of the year."

Costa was slated to submit to the town council at its August meeting a revised informational packet, which would given to his peers and available to the general public, detailing how the planning board functions.

"I'm hoping they endorse it and they allow us to put it into play," Costa said of the council. "In addition, we're going to clean up our SOPs this year, as an objective of mine, and then get a cleanup on the zoning ordinances. So those are three big action items that are going to go to this council. I think it'd be good to get some awareness on the public."

Ordinance updates
Besides the individual cases that come before it, Costa and his fellow board members have eyed revising the town's zoning ordinances to match Warren's new comprehensive plan, which was completed in late 2025 and received approval from the state last year.

"I think the board prior did a great job bringing the comprehensive plan across the finish line," Costa said. "I think we have like a fiduciary obligation to not only implement that, but to also update everything else."

The aim is to have the ordinances revamped and ready to be sent to the council for its consideration this fall.

"We're prepared probably by September, no later than October, but we're trying to do September to have something to town council," Costa said. "A lot of it is been done with our consultant and planning director (Bianca Policastro), and the objective there is not to write new ordinances, but clean up our ordinances, to bring them into compliance with state law, and just set a baseline...Here's what the ordinance should look like. Here's a new organization of how we present the ordinances, so they flow for not only the applicant, but for boards as well.

"So we can easily access pertinent information and make it easy for both applicants and boards, kind of create efficiencies in the government, which I know don't always go hand in hand, efficiencies in government, coming from the private sector. I don't see why we can't have more efficiency. So that's our intent, no major material changes."

Joint meeting
The planning board and Warren Voluntary Historic District Commission recently held a joint session when the two groups informally exchanged some thoughts and ideas on how better to address matters each face.

"It went really well," Costa said the meeting, which took place on July 21. "There's like 18 historic commissions in Rhode Island. And our historic commission's only one that's voluntary. It doesn't have a formal board setup in accordance with Rhode Island General Law. So, we used the opportunity just to kind of educate them on Rhode Island General Law, and things they can do to set up a more formal board."

Costa said the planning board took the opportunity to explain how it goes about making its decisions based on the state mandates they must follow and to span any divide, perceived or otherwise, between the two.

He added, "Part of being the (planning board) chair was reaffirming to them historic aligns very closely with land use, and we want our boards to be partnerships. We want to be a resource for them when it comes to land use, and ordinance crafting.

"So it's kind of just an opportunity for us to bridge the gap between the two boards, and just remind everyone we're on the same team, and just to kind of extend an olive branch to see how we can support them. So nothing deliverable came out of it. It was just like, 'Hey, we just want to educate you on how we see the (commission) compared to the rest of the state, and where there may be growth opportunities. And just kind of let you know that the planning board is here to support you where we can.'"