In a recent letter, Rob Galford argued for granting one Little Compton farmer a stand-alone, trial special-use permit to host weddings, writing that our ordinance should be based on facts, site-specific safeguards, enforceability, and fairness — not fear of the most extreme hypothetical outcome. (Mr. Galford does not live within earshot of a wedding venue.)

In fairness, Little Compton cannot grant one farm a stand-alone permit. The zoning amendment now under consideration would let all (large) 20-plus registered farms host weddings, each up to 10 a year, 200 weddings town-wide. It should be noted that there are 90 registered farms in Little Compton.

Consider the weddings alone. Assume a four-month wedding season, mid-May through mid-September, with events limited to Thursday through Sunday: 16 days a month, 64 days total. Two hundred weddings divided across those 64 days means three weddings every single Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday for four months. Even one wedding on each of those days, every week, all season, is worth imagining: chronic traffic, amplified noise, and bright lights across Little Compton every weekend for a third of the year. Is that what is considered “fair” for the residents of Little Compton?

Consider the traffic alone. A wedding with 150 guests at two people per car is 75 cars. Add roughly 10 more for officiants, caterers, musicians, electricians, and other staff, 85 cars, for one wedding, not even counting catering trucks, vehicles for the band/band equipment, trucks for furniture (tables, chairs, dishes, linens) or any other required deliveries. On the road, each car needs about 14 linear feet (average a 9-foot car length plus 2.5 feet at the front and back for safe spacing). Eighty-five cars x 14 lineal feet is roughly 3,570 feet, well over half a mile, on top of Little Compton's ordinary daily traffic: residents going to work, to town, to the beaches, to homes and businesses in Sakonnet.

The numbers that are offered are not “hypothetical;” I offer such so that readers can judge for themselves what this amendment would really mean. I ask my neighbors and fellow Little Compton lovers directly: how does this feel to you? If this zoning amendment passes, Little Compton will irreparably change.

We need to preserve the Little Compton we know and love.

Terri Bahr

Little Compton