Provides that comprehensive permit projects in Tiverton, involving property not connected to either public water or sewer or both, and for which the property is considered hydric said land be excluded from the building land calculation.
Summary
S1107 amends Rhode Island’s low- and moderate-income housing comprehensive permit law to create a Tiverton-specific rule for calculating buildable land in certain housing projects. For comprehensive permit applications in Tiverton, if the property is not connected to public water or sewer and the land is hydric, predominately hydric, or has a seasonal high-water table, that land must be excluded from the buildable land density calculation. The bill also restates and reorganizes a broader set of comprehensive permit procedures, including density bonus standards, review timelines, approval criteria, and vesting rules for low- and moderate-income housing projects.
The practical effect is to make it harder to count environmentally constrained land toward density calculations for qualifying projects in Tiverton, which could reduce the amount of buildable acreage used to justify project density on certain parcels. The bill leaves the existing statewide comprehensive permit framework in place but adds a local carve-out that applies only to Tiverton and only to properties lacking public water and sewer connections where the land conditions indicate wet or seasonally saturated soils. It would take effect immediately upon passage.
Impact
The bill amends § 45-53-4 of the General Laws governing comprehensive permits for low- and moderate-income housing. Its main legal change is a Tiverton-specific exclusion from buildable land density calculations for hydric, predominately hydric, or seasonally high-water-table land on properties without public water or sewer connections. This affects how developers, local review boards, and municipal planners evaluate density and feasibility for comprehensive permit applications in Tiverton, while leaving the broader statewide low- and moderate-income housing statute intact.
Sentiment
No committee transcript or recorded vote information was provided, so there is no direct evidence of debate, support, or opposition from the legislative record included here. Based on the bill text and caption, the measure appears narrowly tailored and technical, aimed at addressing local land and infrastructure conditions in Tiverton rather than revising the statewide housing program broadly.
Contention
The likely point of contention is the Tiverton-specific treatment of hydric and seasonally wet land in density calculations. Supporters would likely view the change as a way to ensure environmentally constrained land is not overstated as developable, while opponents could see it as a local restriction that makes comprehensive permit housing projects more difficult to site and may reduce affordable housing production. More generally, the bill sits within the broader tension between municipal land-use control, environmental constraints, and the state’s affordable housing goals.