Residents gained a greater understanding of the scope and scale of the amendments required to update the town's zoning ordinance to bring it into compliance with state and local mandates when the council and planning board convened a special session on September 29.

According to Warren's Planning and Community Development Director Bianca Policastro, between 2021 and 2026 the Rhode Island General Assembly has introduced and passed 54 zoning changes and corresponding enabling legislation into state law.

The director said the new laws were primarily geared towards compliance, streamlining housing permitting, creating a unified development review, define adaptive reuse and the clarify the appeals process.

Warren Planning Board Chairman Blake Costa explained some 200 alterations to the town's zoning ordinance are likely required to meet the changes in state law while also making the local book reflective of what was put forth in its own updated comprehensive plan. The chair said it is anticipated to take the next "four to five years" to complete the endeavor.

Representatives of the engineering firm Weston & Sampson, often a collaborator with town officials on like matters, presented an overview of the initial draft revisions to the council, the board and the audience at the September meeting.

Weston & Sampson's Jason Parker led the exercise with input from colleague Susan Mara. Parker said the process has been broken down into four phases: A-D.

Phase A included the draft, which the council eventually gave first passage to at the end of that night's proceedings. A second public hearing on and potential passage of the first package of amendments will take place during the body's regularly scheduled meeting next month, Tuesday, Nov. 10.

Phase A, Parker said, was eyed as the beginning of the amending effort. The consultants took the opportunity to bring clarity to the language used by the town, making it more comparable with what the state has instituted.

Parker noted Warren is not alone among the other municipalities around Rhode Island in needing to make substantial alterations to its local legislation, saying, "These new regulatory changes that have happened don't really fit very well in anyone's existing zoning ordinance structure."


Himself a planning official before in Narragansett, Westerly and South Kingstown, Parker continued, "And as a planner previously, when these changes came about, it caused a lot of confusion. And a lot of confusion for those of us that are in the trenches every day."

The initial restructuring and reorganizing in town was broken down into 10 articles. As Parker described: Article 1, general provisions; Article 2, definitions; Article 3, zoning districts; Article 4, use regulations; Article 5, dimensional requirements; Article 6, non conformance; Article 7, development standards for specific uses; Article 8, regulations for specific development types; Article 9 administration and enforcement; and Article 10 procedures.

Costa observed of the structure, "The purpose of this was, we found that the ordinances were way out of line with state law, so we didn't want to bring significant material changes that may require a campaign for public input. We wanted to keep this focused on bringing us into compliance with general law, and not introducing new material changes that could potentially extend this process and continue to expose the planning board to loopholes throughout our ordinances. We have to get through this now."

Each of the articles was discussed in depth, some more so than others. Among those matters broached to a fuller extent were such things as flood zones, parking requirements, special use permits and accessory dwelling units.

The latter led to a lengthy back-and-forth amongst the council. Town Solicitor Anthony DeSisto brought come to clarity to talks, telling members ADUs are a "by-right" provision in state law for all residentially zoned districts. In commercial districts, the town would have more standing to prevent their construction, though there could be exceptions.

As Parker opined, "If you had a non-conforming residential development in a commercial zone, (Warren is an) old community, like so many others, they're scattered everywhere. I think you'd be hard pressed to deny it."

The hot-button national issue of building data centers in town. Currently, it is not listed as a permitted use, which has left many locals concerned one could be constructed here.

Town Building Official Matt Cabral, however, said just because something like a data center is not on the books now does not mean it would be allowed to be built.

"It still needs to get a special use permit, which would make it go before the zoning board," Cabral said, adding, "So there are checks and balances."

On the overarching topic of the permitted use table, Parker said, "If the intent is to strengthen the prohibitions, if there's a concern about the prohibitions, then I think the recommendation would be, one, to define each use that you want to prohibit. So it's clear as to what you're talking about to identify it in the use table as 'N' for not permitted across the board. And three, provide a supplementary section that establishes a purpose behind why it's not allowed, why it doesn't fit in the Town of Warren."

Costa said he intends to do just that, bring an amended/updated use table to the floor at the planning board meeting set for October for its consideration, then forward its recommendation to the council.

Said Councilor John Hanley, who has also served on the planning board in the past, "I would rather see that the prohibited uses come back as a separate item after the planning board puts together a package, decide which uses you think should be prohibited and present them to us."

In bringing the presentation to a close, Parker said, "The major takeaways is that (the zoning ordinance) is cleaned up and presents an amendment that's effective for the reader, effective for staff to utilize. It should be easy to go back to find things without having to remember some special section that a certain part of the ordinance might be hidden in it, which could get missed. It's reorganized. All the terms, types and procedures have been addressed, all the adjustments to the legislative changes have been incorporated."