Attachments

20260922-130754-bce-Warren-ZoningOrdinance.Draft 26_0921.pdf

At a special session called for Monday evening, Sept. 21, the planning board formally began an undertaking of what will be an at times arduous and a rather time-consuming endeavor of revising Warren's zoning ordinance to accommodate the town's updated comprehensive plan as well as meeting the mandates of several amendments to state housing laws in recent years.

The board along with its consultants from the firm of Weston & Sampson, Jason Parker and Susan Mara, as well as local officials led by Bianca Poliscastro, the town's new director of planning and economic development, reviewed an initial draft of changes to Chapter 32 of Warren's ordinance book pertaining to zoning, which includes some 100 subsections and articles.

The group worked off an initial, whopping 179-page submission (see attachment). Just about every component of the ordinance was altered in some fashion, whether minor or meaningful, for the purposes of clarity and cohesion.

Board Chair Blake Costa recapped the process to the current point. He noted upon the hiring of Poliscastro this past spring of 2026 it was determined Warren's "zoning ordinances were extremely out of date," at least 10 years in arrears.

He continued, "In addition, we were not in compliance with a lot of state law that needed to be in our ordinance. So the priorities of work were switched back in our April meeting from implementing the comp plan to clean up the ordinances.

"So the purpose of this ordinance cleanup package is not to make any material changes. It's just to set up a baseline. So when we go into the 2027 year, we can start implementing the phase two of our comp. We can start making material changes."

Costa said those changes will take place over multiple phases, into the ensuing 12 months at least and will require ample amounts of what he termed "public communication, outreach and interaction. It's going to be a long process."

He concluded his opening remarks by saying, "This is our opportunity to get involved over the next year and help us craft our ordinances that reflect our town's vision within the comp plan.

During the over two-hour meeting, Parker and Mara, also provided a broad overview of what the effort will entail and what has transpired to date.

Just prior to the full-throated discussion, Policastro highlighted what she said were a few important items. There is no cost to the town for the hiring of outside assistance. Weston & Sampson is being paid via a municipal technical assistance fund set up through legislation from the General Assembly and dispersed by Rhode Island Housing. Warren received $86,000 in grant monies to perform the necessary work.

Parker — himself a former planner for South Kingstown, Narragansett and Westerly as well as having previously been a municipal zoning officier — called what most cities and towns in the state are facing "is not a light exercise. This is ordinance is for your community. The issue that plagues most municipalities these days start with the legislative changes (made in the Assembly) that have happened in the last seven years or so. 


"The game has changed. Rules have drastically been altered, and the result of those changes don't easily fit in any existing ordinance. They were never built that way...the structure doesn't work for the way planning and zoning is built out today."

As for the language of the ordinance, Parker said as he began the process it was necessary to "reset and restructure" its wording so that "it reads correctly, it reads clearly."

Policastro added it was formatted to read more like "certified federal registry law," which allows it to flow more readily through the three levels of governance: local, state and federal.

Without the restructuring, Costa pegged the number of amendments required for the board and the town council to pass would have been in the neighborhood of 200.

Parker said the first revisions included "building" each article off the previous, using as an example the revised Article III establishes the zoning districts, followed by Article IV establishing the regulations associated then Article V establishing the measure requirements and so on.

Mara added, "When we started to work on this there were basically two options; "shoe-horn the state changes into your existing ordinance or to revise it in a way that it makes sense so that in the future you build upon it."

The wide-ranging conversation last week touched on the numerous elements governed in the ordinance, from mentions of accessory dwelling units to power lines to communication towers to swimming pools to parking to affordable housing. It also delved deeper into other more nuanced matters like what constitutes buildable lots and flood plains.

Encouraging input from his colleagues during the period of review, Costa said about the board, "We're not here just to listen and rubber-stamp this. We're here to discuss it and understand the 'why' behind it."

Costa also reiterated the need for there to be transparency and inclusion throughout the process, saying they were vital components to it being successful.

"As a board, we shouldn't be making those decisions in a silo. We should be making them as a community. So I just want to reinforce we're not here today to develop those standards, to develop those criteria, because we've had the opportunity in the past to develop those standards and criteria, whether we have or we haven't. We've had those opportunities. Now, in phase two, we're going to have that opportunity again, but we really need the public engaged on that."

The step-by-step process begins with the draft, followed by any revisions then acceptance by the board. Its recommendations proceed to the council, which will ultimately accept or reject the submissions prior to them becoming the legal framework of the town.