Letter: Close loopholes — preserve Little Compton's future

Posted 1/14/25

The Tuesday, January 7 Little Compton Planning Board meeting gave a glimpse into a proposed major subdivision on a 26-acre parcel in Little Compton. The engineer and attorney for the property owner …

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Letter: Close loopholes — preserve Little Compton's future

Posted

The Tuesday, January 7 Little Compton Planning Board meeting gave a glimpse into a proposed major subdivision on a 26-acre parcel in Little Compton. The engineer and attorney for the property owner cleverly divided their plan into four house lots plus a couple of open space lots, apparently to ensure the two landlocked properties have deeded water access. This setup was clearly designed to dodge requirements for affordable or attainable housing, which kick in at five or more lots. The last time I checked, seven lots are indeed more than five. When I asked them to confirm the total count; four house lots plus the open space, five, six ... The attorney replied that they were purposefully staying at four homes to avoid the need to contribute to affordable housing. While it may be legal art, this tactic attempts to create or exploit a loophole in town ordinances and undermines the spirit of our zoning rules intended to help families with modest incomes.

Developments like this bring no benefit to the very people who keep our town vibrant: Teachers, firefighters, police officers, store clerks, and working families. These slated luxurious weekend homes will drive up already high real estate prices and consume more of our limited developable land. Far from preserving our rural heritage, such subdivisions only increase pressure on those who can barely afford to live here now.

 A recent letter published in this paper by Don McNaughton rightly noted that Little Compton must do more than one thing at a time. Conserving farmland and open space is essential for agriculture, clean drinking water, and climate resiliency. At the same time, we must ensure that families who want to put down roots here can do so. Both goals are vital to the town’s long-term health. While we have successfully bolstered land conservation for many years, we have made almost no progress on housing affordability, leaving us in a full-blown crisis.

Our planning board and town council must insist that any new subdivision meant for multimillion dollar homes, even if it is fewer than five, provides tangible support for attainable or affordable housing. That could involve dedicating at least one smaller lot on-site for a modest home or purchasing a buildable lot elsewhere in town for the Little Compton Housing Trust. In the case of 26 acres of valuable waterfront land, it may not make sense to put modest homes on those parcels, but a significant share of the profits from such development should go toward purchasing land for affordable or attainable housing elsewhere in Little Compton. On Tuesday, it was clear from the attorney’s statements that they have no intention of helping with the town’s housing crisis, and their four-lot plan is a deliberate attempt to sidestep the five-lot rule.

The only viable solution is for the planning board to require a clear and reasonable housing plan before granting subdivision approvals. If a developer wants to build four high-end homes, they should also be required to fund or build homes for local families, or at least contribute significantly to a housing trust that can make it happen. Yet the planning board seemed disinterested in addressing housing affordability during the meeting.

By combining farmland preservation with bold action on attainable housing, Little Compton can remain a real, working community, not just an exclusive weekend retreat for the wealthiest. Our elected officials owe it to all residents, present and future, to put an end to the opportunistic legal maneuvering on display at Tuesday’s meeting.

Andrew L. Rhyne, Ph.D.
Little Compton

 

 

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