Letter: Please vote to reinstate funding

Posted 6/16/21

To the editor:

I write to ask that you attend the Financial Town Meeting (the “FTM”) on Wednesday, June 16, at 7 p.m. at the high school, and that you vote to reinstate funding for …

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Letter: Please vote to reinstate funding

Posted

To the editor:

I write to ask that you attend the Financial Town Meeting (the “FTM”) on Wednesday, June 16, at 7 p.m. at the high school, and that you vote to reinstate funding for Barrington. The town council voted unanimously to create the Affordable Housing Fund and fund it in the amount of $500,000.  The committee on appropriations voted to remove it by a split vote of 3-2. You should attend the FTM and vote to reinstate those funds because, for a lot of reasons, this is good for Barrington.  

I’ll focus on just one of those reasons: the people of Barrington, and not some state board in Providence, should decide what kind real estate development to approve and where to approve it in our Town. This isn’t always possible, under the Low- and Moderate-Income Housing Act. R.I. Gen. Laws § 45-53-1, et. seq. (The “Affordable Housing Act”).  

For example, in 2011, a for-profit developer sought to build a condominium complex in a rural section of town on George Street near Four Town Farm. The developer wanted to shoehorn 27 units in an area that, under the zoning provisions, could have supported a maximum of 3 or 4 homes.  Because the proposal included 7 affordable units, the Affordable Housing Act gave the developer certain advantages to bypass zoning restrictions.  

The Barrington Planning Board ultimately rejected the proposal because the dense condominium complex was incompatible with the neighborhood character, was located in an area with inadequate infrastructure (no water or sewer, and a substandard roadway), presented serious environmental concerns (because of the need for a massive septic system near well water), and threatened the endangered Terrapin Turtles. 

Under the Affordable Housing Act, the developer appealed, and the State Housing Appeals Board (“SHAB”) overruled the decision of our planning board and permitted the project to move forward. SHAB was able to overrule the planning board because Barrington had not made sufficient progress in protecting affordable housing. 

In 2019, in order to protect valuable open space, protect the terrapin turtle, and protect a potentially valuable historic site, the town council proposed, and the FTM approved, the purchase of the property for $1.1 million. We protected these things and prevented a totally incompatible dense development, but it wasn’t cheap, and it was just one development. 

Now the town council seeks to invest less money, in part so that taxpayers need not spend more money in the future protecting local control of real estate development. Under the Affordable Housing Act, one of the standards SHAB must consider before overruling a local board is the “extent to which the community meets or plans to meet housing needs, as defined in an affordable housing plan….” R.I. Gen. Laws § 45-53-6 (c)(2).

The best way to protect local control of our own community’s destiny and to potentially save money, is to make this investment now, when we can best afford it. Please come to the FTM and support the motion to add the funding back to the budget.

Michael Carroll

Barrington

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