Developer fees proposal tabled by council
By Dotti Farrington

After a 55-minute public hearing that Town Council President David Long and others described as emotional, Town Councilors Monday continued until April 9 their consideration of a zoning ordinance.

The ordinance would enable the town to charge fees to developers so the town could hire consultants to review the developers' data prior to the start of a project.

Opponents to the proposed ordinance were from the local Chamber of Commerce, primarily downtown village businessmen, as well as some developers and others. They said the ordinance language was too open-ended and left too much room for the town to require overly expensive studies. Some opponents talked of their fears about untrustworthy government, disgruntled neighbors, spiteful officials and others in a "den of lions" looking to pounce unfairly on developers.

Town Planner Lisa Bryer presented the data and reasons for the proposal. She said town officials have seen the need for it for many years and were able to obtain some reviews as needed in the past, but increasingly have need for a formal regulation with the option of hiring consultants, and billing the costs for the reviews to the applicants for various town approvals.

Bryer said such situations led to the town's hiring an engineer to help with some aspects. She cited cases in which town guidance led to improvements in building projects. She said officials need guidance also from architects, traffic experts and hydrologists. She suggested hiring such experts at taxpayer expense was seen as inefficient in such a small town.

Councilor Michael Schnack suggested the opposition "loses clarity by comments about government run amuck by vindictive, nasty people on town boards…it's an overblown issue."

Councilor Barbara Szepatowski said the talk of unscrupulous officials upset her. She said if any officials were less than fair, it was up to their critics to act, possibly by running for office themselves to get the job done properly, but she saw no rush to do the work. She said that lack of expertise in a small community about some aspects of proposed construction could lead to decisions "with severe consequences."

Long emphasized that he supports the concept of the proposed regulation. He said "It makes sense that the town needs to assess the impact of a plan on the island, but that the cost (of the assessment) is not for the taxpayer to pay."

Long continued, "It's way too emotional tonight. It's not a matter of being anti-business. I am pro-everybody on the island." He said the audience was packed with Chamber members but "There is no shortage on the island of views from all sides of the fence."

Long supported the call of other councilors for a review of the ordinance by new town solicitor Peter Ruggiero, who also has planning expertise. Ruggiero noted that many communities in the state require payment by developers for specialty reviews.

The proposed regulation for Jamestown was written by former associate town solicitor A. Lauriston Parks and the proposal was described as being based on a regulation Parks wrote for the town of North Kingstown.

Long said he saw possibilities for clearer language, and some sort of maximum on how much the town would spend and bill to developers.