you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you All right. Good evening, everyone. The time is now 6.02 pm and the day is May 14th, 2025. Please stand for the budget relief. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic of which is standing one nation under God, individual with liberty and justice for all of us. Thank you. And at the last regular scheduled meeting, the town council opened up the public hearing to review 14 proposed amendments, and we are here this evening at night two to continue that hearing. Before getting into addressing some of the proposed agenda items for this evening, I do want to turn the floor over to the members of the town council if they have anything to start us off with. Does anyone want to? Mr. President. I think you should make a motion to reopen the public hearing or keep it open at this point just for. I'm sorry, can't read my own notes. Is there a motion to reopen the public hearing? Second. Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Jim? Yeah. Thank you. Motion passes 5-0. And then continuing on to our discussion, Councillor Collinies. Good evening, everyone. I just wanted to make it clear that when I put these out, I was not in support of 100% of as the way they were written. And I've said it a bunch of times. That said, this is a process that state expects us all, the state expects towns and cities to go through. What I was really hoping for was that the planning board would help move the conversation forward by offering some specific recommendations, something that could meet the state in a way that was working for everybody, right? I know the planning board had a tough task and I appreciate the time and effort they put into reviewing these proposals. That said they ultimately chose not to submit any recommendations, which made me a little unhappy, but I understand that what they had to decide and and I understand the complexity of what was in front of us. That being said, I have been listening just so you know, I've always been using this, I've been using this app up here, it's called I legislate, it's got the agendas on it and you can hit an agenda item and then every word you say I type into this computer just so you understand that. I'm always listening. It's been incredibly helpful in keeping me grounded and with the feedback that you've been giving us. I also think there's been a lot of misinformation out there. At the last meeting I tried to propose a workshop to help clear things up and give people a better understanding of what was that stake, but I was told by our solicitor that I would have to do that during the public hearing itself. That night was a long night. I wasn't ready to make any choices that evening. I was trying to digest everything that happened. Given all of that, I now prepared to direct the process. I'd like to explore holding a series of workshops for these ordinances so that we can slow things down a bit, walk through the details, and make more space for community input. The goal is to make a process more communicative, to bring more clarity, and to ensure everyone inragansett truly understands what's at stake. It is my intention after this council speaks and the public have a chance to come up and speak. I'm going to make a motion to close the hearing. And if that motion passes, I will make a motion to withdraw these amendments as proposed. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So, Dirk can do anything you'd like to start by thanking everyone who has contributed to the conversations over the past few months regarding my motion or our motion to seek recommendations from the planning board proposed ordinance changes. Your input is important and valued and I hear you. You have passionately shared your concerns. You love our community and want to be sure we retain all that is good and foster change with smart policies and community engagement. That's exactly what I want to. My intention is to serve this community by supporting New York Lancet where we are now and helping us get to where we want to be. I made the motion with hopes of opening doors to conversations on how we can use our planning and zoning regulations to support this community's goals of supporting a high quality life for our residents, bringing more families and young professionals into our community, and having respectful and reciprocal relationship with the state. I had time to reflect on all your feedback, and I acknowledge my intent behind the motion did not produce the outcome I envisioned. I see the confusion and the chaos this process has created within near a gantset, especially among those who supported me in this council and for that I apologize. The consequences of that confusion are feelings of anger, fear, and frustration. This is not a space where we can succeed in. Moving forward, I promise to increase clarity in my request as to what do I hope to achieve? Why is the issue, why the issues matter and who it affects? I also committed to exploring ways to make information more community friendly. Some ideas, some ideas, which I heard from you, some of you out there, is to include playing language summaries of complex issues and decisions and defining terms as we use them in public presentations. The town council was elected because we believe in community-centered governance that pivots when necessary to support our collective vision of near-gantza. A vision that was clearly articulated to me and this council through conversations during our campaign, through the passage of the Affordable Housing Bond, through public meetings, and through the outcome of this election, which affirms the community's trust in forward thinking, inclusive, and sensible policies. Revising our approach will allow us to step forward with purpose and take action. I support making space for a clearer, more specific, and intentional processes, the kind that will produce the innovative policies necessary to achieve the balanced, sustainable, and desire change in near a gantset. Many of you have asked me who these proposal changes benefit and while none of these changes were ever a done deal, my answer remains our whole community. I've read your emails, I've listened to your statements and I read all the conversations on social media. You agree we should be open to revising, tweaking, adding and omitting pieces of our ordinance when necessary. You have stated that you want diversity, diversify our housing stocks or young families and professionals to start their lives and near-gance it, grow roots and eventually move into larger homes as their needs involve. You support a streamlined process of homeowners can improve their homes to allow more inter-generational living that helps residents to age in place with dignity and social connection. As an overall community, you want to be part of the solution in combating access to affordable housing and accessible housing. Working collaboratively with the state will open doors to funds, resources, and other opportunities that will improve the quality of life for all of us. We have strong policies and we can have strong policies embedded with safeguards and provisions and incentives that both preserve the character of our community and create for smart space for smart intentional growth. There are people in this room who will never support me or this council and that's okay. I remain committed to serving everyone. I've listened closely and what I've heard is clear. We still agree far more than we disagree. Thank you. Wow. OK. OK. Councillor Dernan. Yep. I agree with Donna and Jason. And I just like to say, unfortunately, the simple changes that we needed to make got exaggerated and blown out of proportion. Our intent was not for that to happen. Please. I understand why some people feel the way they do and I for one would never choose to waste anyone's time. That being said, I will support the consensus of the council to put the brakes on. And since I am free to speak my mind, I never supported heights over 35 feet, or 8,000 square foot houses, or 10,000 square foot lots, or McMansions, or duplexes with five or six bedrooms per side. Thank you. Thank you. Councillor Tarialli. I will not be as eloquent as Jason or Tana, forgive me. But in conversations with town staff, public and others following the prior meeting last Monday, I did not see a way forward without voting this down and starting again. You've made your opinions and wishes known throughout your many, many emails and side conversations. I'm in full support of withdrawing this motion and closing the public hearing. This process was rushed and I support Jason's wish for workshops moving forward. Thank you. Well, for one, you know, at the end of the last meeting, I tipped my hat off. It was a very long lengthy meeting. I shared in the grievance of having to go in open hearing. I believe the time a fish on that was three hours and 20 minutes. I did not know the direction that this council is going to take, but I applaud their response to the very vocal residents, and I applaud the residents for stepping up and sharing your feedback. It's one particular reason why I ran was we wanted to hear and work collaboratively with the residents and hear the good and the bad. And it was very clear to me, and it sounds like it was clear to the council that this process that was in motion was not working. And you've brought up some great points. We are a new town council, but we remain committed to serving all residents in air against it. And it sounds like a general consensus of the council, even though we haven't officially vote on it yet, is that we're all remaining committed, and we recognize that the process needs improvement and are dedicated to making sure that we do better as a whole next time, and that's improving on communication, transparency, and working collaboratively with the residents throughout this process as they should be with us every step of the way. So again, I thank the residents for stepping up. And I hope to see this kind of unity on a lot of other topics moving forward that we try to address in the town because this really is the best place to live. We're all very passionate about it. You know, that's why I ran was so that we could support this community and I hope to continue to work together to find ways in which we can build a better community here in Narragansett for us and for our future generations. So with that being said, is there anyone from the public who wishes to get up and speak with that being said, just I know that there was an initial plan to break it down over a series of continued hearings but based on the feedback from the council this evening, it doesn't sound like there is a intention to review any of the current proposed amendments as written. However, with respect to everyone here, if anyone wishes to come forward to speak on any of the 14 proposed amendments or anything they've heard this evening, we will absolutely recognize the floor. I do want to start with if there's a list that we had signed up. If there is no list, then I'll go to the first hand I saw and that was Mr. Brady. Thank you chair. Thank you council. Mark Brady and the RK. Be our EDY chairman of the Planning Board. Thank you. Do you swim Mr. Brady into? I do. I just want to give some guidance here if I can. If the council is intent on closing this and sending them back, typically the way the process works is it's done one at a time, not 14 at once. And it sent to us for our review. With all due respect to the council, it sounds like the planning board is being blamed for this. And I'm not even going to ask council here because I'm not going to put them on the spot. But somewhere communication between the solicitor and the assistant solicitors got messed up. Or the wording got messed up. Because the two solicitor, assistant solicitors that you hired to cover the planning board. One night they were both there and on separate nights, at least three different times, we had lengthy conversations of what we could and could not do legally with what was sent to us. And Tony Craven said flat out, he said, there's no discussion here. You either give a thumbs up or a thumbs down to the entire thing. You're not being asked for recommendations. You're not being asked for a vote. Now, I'm not saying that was your intent. I'm just saying somewhere along the line, communication dropped out. And I think I hope is a learning for everybody that we can open these doors. You and I have committed to that and I have texted you since and we will keep that door and it is open to anybody else. So procedurally the way this normally takes place is if the council has an idea about changing something, we usually have a workshop. In the book we We did this with a mix use. We had a workshop. Nothing definitive, Lucy Goosey throwing size dares back and forth. Then what typically happens is you write the ordinance that you want or that you're proposing you want. And that that ordinance then goes to the planning board. And we're asked to give recommendations, specifically asked to give and vote on recommendations. Good and bad. We have our hearings. We send our recommendations back to you. You review it. Then you have your hearing. And we give a back and forth with you there. At that point in time, if you wanna make changes or you wanna go forward, you have the full slate of knowledge of everybody professionally who give it to you. This, and I know you're all new, this is actually the end of the process. I know some people were really shocked because Alex and I talked and he was stunned. He's like, this is just the beginning. I said, Alex, this is actually the end. So we were handcuffed, intentionally or not. And I don't think it's intentionally based on what you're saying here. But somewhere along the way, communication between councils fell down or the wordage of what was sent to us fell down. So I'm here to clarify that. I'd also like to help you out on a couple of other things. You have been passionate about the fact that the planning board, specifically, and in generality, have had lawsuits against us. I did an equivalent, and I apologize to the clerk, the equivalent of a freedom of information act. I don't know what it's called in the state level. And ask for lawsuits against the planning board for the last 10 years. There have been no lawsuits against the pying board. And I'm not splitting hairs here. There are two types of legal actions. There's a lawsuit that says we violated state law. We violated procedural law. Or we fundamentally knowingly did something that shouldn't have been done. In 10 years, we've had four appeals. Now you have to understand when somebody comes to us for a variance, they're saying, we know this is against the law, but we want to do it anyway. And they give reasons. And they're hurtled that we have to look at is very legally defined. There's no black and white, there's no give and take. But we do. I've been very proud of the fact that we have operated on a conversational level from the time I've moved into this town and followed the top planning, and I've kept that tradition from Perry. But the applicant has to show hardship legally. And we work with that. Now, the appeals and the impression is the feeling from the board is that all these builders and developers are appealing our decisions. It's only been won by a builder. The rest of them buy a butter as who said, you shouldn't have given that builder what you did. They have the legal right. It's by right to appeal. You can't stop fields. They're going to come. Not everybody is happy. You were looking at efficiency. I did some research through the building department. And I thank them very much. And I thank the staff. I thank all the staff because my intent wasn't to create this kind of work. Modifications, which you want to eliminate, no, excuse me, take that back, which has been discussed to alter. looked at the last year modifications for 15% more. 89% handled by the billing office. Never came to us, 89% are handled in-house under the existing regulations. Far, the last year, 94% handled in-house, never came to us, 94%. So the question is, okay, how come 100% can't be? Because people come and they have a shopping list sometimes of four, five, and six variances. It's not that they want one variance. That's easy to deal with. Usually when you come to us,'s complicated and they need multiple variances. So that's why those come to us. So I don't know how you trim this down anymore with efficiency without going to reckless. And so I just thought I'd deliver those two things. The other thing I'd ask is caution. I have begged my board caution. I have tried to be cautious with my words. Words are dangerous, and I can be lethal with my words, and I know it. So I try to be very, very careful. Intentionally or not, this board, from the day they sat down, went after the planning board about the fact that we don't do things legally. We're not in compliance, we do things against the law. First of all, if that was true, every night before us, there's at least five attorneys who would be suing us to death. But when you do those kind of statements, so the enabling act came in 1991. How to be incompliance by 1994. So since 1994, what your statement is doing is professionally and personally slandering and defaming every solicitor that sat there, every assistant solicitor who is sat for the planning boards and the zoning boards. Every town manager who has come since that, every planning staff, every building is zoning staff. All those who met a woman who have volunteered on the planning board and the zoning boards. Because it's all gone through their reviews. I am very proud of this community. When the onslaught of changes came in 2024, we were the first, as I've been told. And if we weren't first, we were damn close to being the first in this state to have it ratified on time and sent to the town council. Every single change. And we have abided by all of those changes ever since. That's why we were a little confused when the whole wetlands thing came up. We haven't made a decision on wetlands in over a year. It's not our authority. What we do do and what's puzzling from that meeting was we advise people only when they come in we don't force them to come in But when they come in, we say, hey, you do know you need this from CRMC or DEA. And they said, yes, because they take the last bite out of the apple. They tell you, go to the cities and towns first. So you can't change that route and those dollar figures and those usually affect the biggest developments, the subdivisions. But that's mandated by state. So we were confused by the conversation because it sounds like you don't even want us to advise people, which is fine. I don't have the luxury here to say, I like this or I don't like this. I don't have the luxury here to say, I represent this group or that group. I don't have the luxury here to tell you what to do or what not to do. All I can do is give you advice. Is advice based on 42 plus years of experience in land use both on the private developer side and on the public side, all this country, in various ways. So going forward, I would ask that we all take a deep breath. We're here to advise you. What do you think about us personally? Is it relevant? If you don't take our advice or at least listen to it, then my question is, what are you going on? Hair safe from other people? I just beg you, if we're going to do this, let's do it right, let's do it together. But let's actually do this. Let's not go through a new process just for the sake of process. So it's a good dog and pony show so you can stand up and say, hey, we did it. If that's your intent, leave us out of it. We are so far behind right now, it's ridiculous. I've also had something, and I don't know if it's true or not, but I'm bringing it to you saying I've been told this, that many of the people on the council are making this decision based on the Pew study out of Houston, Texas. There's a study in 2024 on affordable housing. The second it came out, I called. Everybody on my board, everybody in the planning board and the planning department, anybody who's talked to me knows, I deathly passionate about affordable housing. City Houston put in like 50,000 affordable units. And what I heard back is, well, the council's using it because the more houses you build, the more affordable they become. When I called them and I told them where we lived and they Googled, like it here on the phone, they'll click it away. And what he told me was to compare that study to an arrogance that is like comparing apples to giraffes. He said first of all, this was a post into and post post covid we had abandoned commercial industrial buildings all over the place and there was no future that they were going to be used they were going to be under utilized at best they then used $450 million of federal and state and local monies and gave 100% tax relief to create those housings. I have not seen a penny coming from the state. That's not on any of you because I know your passion for affordable is it marked with mine. There is words. The statutes that came down to 24, not a single word says affordable in it. Not a single word. There's no money. There's no programs. There's no infrastructure improvements coming from the state. Now what he did recommend was to look at another study they did, because I called them back again when I heard this. And he said, this one is probably more relevant. We did a study on the migration of baby boomers. Sorry folks. You screwed up a bunch of stuff again. And they said they followed a nationwide study. And what they found was baby boomers were migrating out of urban areas, but even out of suburban areas, and going to areas that they envisioned were village-like on the coast, on the lakes, in the desert, on major rivers. And what they were doing is going in and buying up starter homes, and they had the cash to beat the market. And it has a huge rippling effect across this country. What I would recommend is look at the crane report. That was done on arrogance. And he stayed to flat out. It's the most complicated things he's ever seen. And this is what makes me personally and professionally frustrated. It is brutally. Highest and best use. Highest and best use. And Jim, you know this, because I know you're trying to get economic development here, isn't even industrial. It's not commercial. Unfortunately, right now, it's rental. And we have to find strategies together, not separately. It's not gonna happen separately. So I ask you, if you're going to do this, please do it. So I'd recommend it. And let's go one at a time. And let's go through them properly. Yes, it's going to take a little bit of time. We've already done some work. So that can expedite things. And if we're freed up to give you our recommendations, we have some. We just couldn't give them to you, legally. And if you really have any question about my integrity on this, all you have to do is look at that last meeting. Myself and Nick and Jill, and thank God for them, we spent probably close to 30 minutes trying to figure out how we even send, I can't even say our recommendation to you. How do we legally send our thumbs up and thumbs down? Because I've told you before, content law under the Enabling Act allows cities and towns to look at it and say, okay, it doesn't exactly work for us, here's what we can do. Now two rules of thumb. Now there's a lot of rules, but the two big ones that are ever follows. You cannot weaken the law, so think about this going forward. And you cannot alter the intent of the law, but you can do work on it on content. You cannot do on procedural. And we had a dance, a procedural line, sending that back to you. And I'll be honest with you, I wasn't sure we could send anything back to you. We found a way. So thank you very much. I appreciate your time. Please think about what I said. It's meant it's constructive for all of us going forward. And I appreciate your time. If you have any questions, I'm here. Thank you. APPLAUSE Yes, in the back. In the back? Alex, I do have a list. We do have a list. I'm going to recognize the gentleman with the hat that I saw first, and then we'll go to the list. Sorry about that. Thank you, Jim. I do. My name is Joseph Frenchina. I live at Six Lauderdale Drive. Appreciate the time to give you my two cents, so to speak. I've been here 22 years. My wife and I moved down from a carventry area. Our kids grew up. The home was too big. We bought a small ranch in the Briggs Farm area, fixed it up. And that's where we, God willing, will spend the rest of our time. It's been a little difficult, those early years here, with the issue of dormitories in our homes, around our homes, which is a common problem here, I believe, and also during the summer months, the heavy use of visitors renting homes for the weeks there. I understand that it's a very lucrative business. I mean, where can you find a place where during the winter, you can rent out as many rooms as you have and in the summer for about the same cost per week in the summer you would have to pay for during the month of that school year. I mean it's a superb place to make a lot of money and I believe personally And I believe that's the driving force here. I don't believe it's affordable housing. I just don't see that. I don't see that at all. See, I've seen ads that talk about how lucrative it is to buy a place here. So I have trouble believing that it's for affordable houses. I did go to one of the earlier meetings when the planning board received the information from the town council about the 14 amendments and the timeline to get it done if I correct about this was almost immediate. They had to process it. They spoke to the point that we don't even know how we can get all these 14 amendments done. So from the beginning, I find it difficult that it's because of ignorance. We're not ignorant here. We're very smart. We get elected for different reasons. Some good, some bad. But we do know what we're doing. It may not be further good, but we do know what we're doing. So I do take exception listening to a number of the council members saying, well, you know, we really didn't know it was going to be that bad or so and so. I find that hard to believe because we understand what's happening. To raise the height of a house, I think it's from 35 feet, which is really, really too high already. We already, especially in Briggs Farm. Most of the houses were two story and one story. But to go from 35, I think it was 45 feet or 48 feet, there's only one reason for that, to get more rooms in a house. And if that makes the house affordable, I don't know what money you're using, but that does not make a house more affordable. It makes it more viable to have a lucrative business. So I do take exception to some of the statements made tonight. I am not ignorant as to why these things are being done. And I don't think you could prove me otherwise. So please, let's play card straight as we go along here. But I am very dismayed at what transpired to this point. I thank God that we have enough people here that recognize what's going on. And I pray that the town council recognizes it also, because that's where it stands. It was brought forward from the town council, and there must be reasons behind it. And the reasons I've heard do not make sense. I appreciate the time. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Christina Dacumus. Yes, I do. Christina Decomis, 130, Daytona Avenue. I was at the last meeting and I asked you, Mr. Chairman, and you've had seven days to get an answer to my question that I had. I feel everybody here deserves any answer and for it to be on the record. The planning board is charged with providing sound thorough and well-considered advice to the town council. I have watched the planning board hearings after you sent 14 changes to them, for them to digest under state law in 45 days. You had to have known that that amount of changes to be digested in 45 days by a hard working board is nearly impossible. And for a counselor to sit up there and say that the planning board shows not to send a recommendation. I beg to differ. Council at those meetings were telling them in one breath. You need to you need to send a report in the next breath. It only is a thumbs up or thumbs down. How do you expect the planning board, the town planner, and all of the employees who worked on all of those to do that? They're getting stifled by council and they're told basically you can't do your job, but we're sending it to you because by law it has to be done. I certainly hope in the future, if you're withdrawing all of these changes, that they are sent to the planning board one by one, or maybe two at a time. Because when you talk about streamlining and you talk about due process for residents and businesses and everybody else that has to appear before the planning board, I watched the planning board meeting. They took things out of order so that they could adjudicate the businesses or the residents that came before them. Instead of going through this kangaroo court of trying to answer your questions, it should have never been sent to them like that. You all owe them an apology for the number of hours that they put in. And I don't know if the town's people, the residents, are aware of it. The people in the planning board are not compensated in any form whatsoever. They do it because they're there to serve the town. And they take their jobs very seriously. They review the comprehensive plan. They review the subdivision regulations and the zoning ordinances. I would say to all of you, if you have not read all of those and you don't understand those as Ms. Finale told me on Saturday, she didn't even know what our zoning was before until Mr. Durkin educated her. How could you possibly send 14 14 changes to the planning board under such a strict timeline set by state law and then say that they chose not to send a recommendation. They were told by council, town council not to, just a thumb-separate thumbs down. So I I said I asked a question seven days ago who told and instructed the planning board that to only give a thumbs up and a thumbs down and not a full recommendation who is going to own that. I mean I think in for clarity and for transparency you all all of the residents't answer to that question. Do you have any answer for it? Well, while it is your time, I want to make sure that we have the opportunity to answer that during your time. So if you are, again, I think it was very clearly communicated at the end of last meeting. That's why I put it up on the presentation last time, not this time, just to articulate what that process was as a new council that we came in with the intent, at least from where I'm sitting, that's how I vote. I can't explain how anyone else up here votes with their intent, but from my intent, I voted on the belief that we came in to review our ordinances and that the process recommended to us by the solicitors was to send it to the Planning Board for review and the Planning Board would then be able to provide us with the recommendations. I don't know where the communication separated after that, but again, this was the process that I articulated at the last meeting and that's exactly where my impression was and it still is today. So again, that's a process improvement that yes, communications, transparency across all channels needs to be improved, but again, from where I'm sitting, I can't tell you where it broke up along the way. It's like a system of telephone, things can change, but again, we have to do better and we will do better. But also too, I think that before things like this are sent for review or changes are proposed, As Mr. Brady said, there should be workshops. And I don't think anyone's disagreeing at this point. The five of you have to understand state law. And the restrictions, time restrictions that are put on boards, whether it's zoning, whether it's planning, whether it complies with a comprehensive plan. I mean, you can't just throw it out there and throw 14 at them. I mean, every town resident that I saw that came before the planning board had utmost respect for the planning board. I feel personally that the way that this was done, that you as the town council did it, you zero respect for the planning board and Dumping on this on them because people came before them People came residents were passionate came before them and said Don't let this happen to our town. You can't do this. You can't do that And Mr Mr. Brady had to point out at many, many meetings, we are not the voting board. The town council is. You five are charged with making these changes. But if you're going to do it without sound, advice, enjudgment from the planning board or the zoning board, then you're doing a disservice to all of the residents. Thank you. The next speaker is Mr. John Hanley, but before Mr. Hanley starts to speak, if someone in this room owns Red Island Pass and Chicae registration, B Bravo, 322, a blue Subaru, apparently in someone's driveway at 45th Avenue and they will be telling it. And those in the back who are standing, if you wish to take a seat, we have seats here, and on the side of the table, if you'd like to have a seat. How you do? My name is John Hanley, J.O.H.N., H-A-N, L-E-Y, 10 rule and a strife. So I'll stand here and I applaud your action tonight. And I'm not going to read what I expect many hours preparing because I have done my homework. in the interests of, I think, tonight you've said the right things. But... I spent many hours preparing because I have done my homework. In the interests of, I think, tonight, you have said the right things. But I do have to take a couple of exceptions and just say a couple of things because it has been norming at me since the first time I stood here, which was two weeks before all this started to happen. But I do recall on March 3, when this was on the agenda, and I and several other residents came up here, and outlined what we thought at the time were horrific things for the town based on these amendments. And far of you, Mr. Dirkenden, in common, but the far of you said, well, I don't agree with everything that's in there. And I've been wrestling with that since then as to how do you put something on an agenda that the describing words where I think suggested reformed. Well, whose suggestion was it if it wasn't yours? So it was best to sort of hide to get away from. And I'll sort of leave that there. But the other thing that I request and I recall is on all of the other divisive issues in this town, whether it was the library, anything that you can think of. When the council put something forward is amendment, everybody in town knew where that particular council person stood on that particular issue. So, you've talked about transparency, you have been everything but, and I hope going forward, you don't see as much as me as you have. A couple of years ago, it was a previous council, and there was an issue. It was probably the three student ordinance, or maybe it's the short to remodels, where the friends came up. And the council president called on me and said, I'm sorry, I don't remember your name. And the first thing I said when I get up here was, But, that's a good thing. Because if I'm up here and you remember my name, it means I'm up here too often. And I don't want to be up here too often. I don't want to spend 10 hours a week picking things apart for bad effects on this town. So what I ask is when you start this again, and go through whatever, whatever ordinance wording that you want goes into the agenda so the people can understand what it is, and then take part as they see fit. My guess is I will see you again, but thank you. Thank you. Carolyn Morrison. Carolyn Morrison? I have a satisfy self-pub. Okay, thank you. Christine Maripese. Oh, sorry. I just want to make sure Carolyn, are you all set? Yes. Okay. I'm sorry I just want to make sure Carolin are you all set? Yes. Okay you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you the last two speakers on the list declined to speak based on the previous comments. Thank you. You'd you hadis one blind book drive I do JADOS Z Roger Well, I was prepared to come up today and go through the 14 amendments that you foolishly proposed. And I was very surprised to hear that there will be a motion to draw that. Well, that's what I heard, but I want to see it because I hear a lot of things. I like to see the action. I like to see the data. So I was surprised to hear that. I look forward to that later this evening. Because of that, I won't waste anybody's time going through the detail that I've prepared as far as identifying the faulty components of the amendments. We've been through that. And we'll continue to go through that through the workshops, because there's still a lot of problems there. What I might take away here tonight is you really put the cop before the horse this time. But hopefully, I don't know if it's going to happen. Hopefully you've avoided Narragansert's Washington Bridge. See what happens. Thank you. Alana Egan. I didn't realize it was going to move this quickly. I apologize. Yes, ma'am. Yes. Alana, AL, ANA. Last name, Egan, EGAN. Hi, everyone. I'm also going to be speaking to everyone in this room because I have a feeling that what I have to say is going to be unpopular. I live at 26 Connecticut Road. 26 Connecticut is in Bonnet Shores and it's one of the smaller multi-family homes in Narragansett. It's composed of three units, one of which I rent and my family owns the property and I'll get back to that in a moment. I went to Narrag Gensett Elementary School and nearer Gensett Peer Middle School while my mom attended Uriah in the 90s. Her name was Lily Egan for those who were around at that time. You might remember her. She was on the PTA and she co-led Girl Scout Troop, number 431. I've since lived in Hawaii, New Mexico, Texas. I was admitted to URI's clinical psychology doctorate program in 2021, so I came back. I wanted to move back to AirGanset when I got into URI because my husband and I wanted to have kids. I was a kid in this town and I really enjoyed it. We had actually accumulated three dogs as well. So finding a rental in Narragansett was impossible. I think that people here often talk about wanting to attract young professionals. That's us. Young professionals with kids, that would be us. We were not able to find year-round housing in Narragansett. It was not available. So my parents bought a house and let us rent it. And we're really grateful for that. But for all of the people that I went to Narragansett, elementary school with, and Narragansett per middle school with, who I continue to stay in contact with, they can only live here if their families are helping them. They can't live here if they're on their own. they can't afford it. Regarding my professional background, because again, I have a feeling that what I'm going to say is going to be unpopular. them. They can't live here if they're on their own. They can't afford it. Regarding my professional background, because again, I have a feeling that what I'm going to say is going to be unpopular. I have a bachelor's in psychology from the University of Texas San Antonio, a master's in clinical psychology from the University of Houston, Clear Lake. I've worked at NASA. I am an NIH-funded scientist currently. I mentioned all of this to provide context for what I'm about to say. And also because I am a student renter in this town. I am a student. I'm a graduate student, but I am one. I also wanna emphasize, as a student renter, I am highly educated. I have roots in this community. I am a parent. I am a taxpayer. My perspective on this issue is informed not just by my personal experience, but by the fact that I can consume an interpret scientific research. So in that spirit, I want to talk about why I feel the way I do. First, the science. I read a lot in preparation for this. I read a literal textbook on zoning and planning. I'm not an expert, but I can read and I can interpret B6 statistical analyses. So research has shown that when regulations go up, so does the cost of housing. But that doesn't always mean that the opposite is true, right? That like less zoning makes the cost of housing go down. That would be a separate hypothesis. So in 2023, the Journal of Planning Literature published a systematic review of the relationship between zoning and residential construction and housing costs. The systematic review is basically a paper made of papers. So it takes all of the available literature on a topic, puts it together, and makes recommendations based off of that. That paper, which looked at housing research going over the past 30 years, found that across various places were zoning deregulation occurred, an increase in permitting for higher density and ADUs followed. They looked at towns and cities across the United States and internationally, across all of these cities, permits for multi-family homes and ADUs increased. It didn't always meet demand, but it did increase. For those who want to read more on the topic, I highly recommend the book, Arbitrary Lines. It's basically, it's based on this guy's dissertation, his name is Em Nolan Gray. So for the personal, I can tell you that it's impossible to find adequate housing in Narragansett, or I can demonstrate it to you. I'm assuming people here have smartphones. I highly recommend you open up Zillow. But if you don't, I've done it. I did it earlier today. So open up Zillow and select Narragansett. I'm going to use my family's income as an example of why this is difficult. So my family, my husband and I, make between $140,000 a year. In theory, maybe we could afford a $500,000 house. It's a lot of money. I don't think we can actually afford that. But in theory, maybe we could. All right. So if you go to an airganset, if you select a price cap of $500,000, what are you going to find? Nothing. You're going to not even, you're going to find seasonal homes, right? Anything under $500,000, you can only occupy from me through October. I don't know what I'm going to do with my toddler October through May. Okay, so maybe we can't buy for under $500,000. If you go between five and a $100,000 and a million dollars, you find all of these homes that what I've seen on Facebook described as modest single family homes. There's two bedroom homes. There's three bedroom homes. 1800 square feet. Those homes are not modest to us. Those are million dollar homes. We can't afford a million dollar home, not unless we're able to rent out a portion of it so that we can substitute the mortgage payment. If you can't buy, maybe you have the opportunity to rent. So if you go on Zillow again and select $3,000 or under because that would be a third roughly of our income that would be qualified as rent burdened. But if you select $3,000 or less, you get nothing. You get seasonal student rentals that you can only rent for nine months out of the year. There is one year round rental available for under $3,000. It is $2,800. It is one bedroom, one bath, and it is 720 square feet. I can't put my toddler in that. The opponents of these zoning changes talk about the damages of higher density housing, but that's literally what people in my position need. We need higher density housing. My entire adult life I have lived in a higher density housing. I can't afford it any other way. I can't afford to move into those single family homes. Those are million dollar homes. We can't do it. People talk about community character and the damage that larger homes have towards community character. When I was a kid, we lived on Lily Lane. Metatuxet was the best neighborhood. Metatuxet had all of these like bands of kids running around. Children and families make community character not the way that houses look. If we need multifamily homes, if we need apartments to move in, that will be the community character. Not how tall a house is, not how close it is to the street, but who lives in that house. And that's going to be people like me, the young professionals with young families that the people in this town say that they want. We need higher density houses, we need duplexes. I also want to address some of the comments that I've seen on Facebook about students. I understand that people have an issue with students and doing damages in neighborhoods. I lived in one when I was a kid. We lived across the street from a student rental. Yes, they partied. It was not traumatizing. However, I will say that I think it's really, really ugly the way that people have been talking about students. They are not a cancer on our community. They do not take up resources in the way that, like out of proportion of what they contribute. They keep the economy of this town alive through the winter. They house it. They shovel our driveways. They work in the coffee shops and the bagel shops. The shop for groceries at stop and shop. I don't think that it's fair to characterize them the way that they've been characterized. Lastly, I think that it's important to note that developers are not always bad. If you live in a neighborhood that has a cohesive look to it, it was probably built by a developer in the 70s and 80s. I am not in favor of developers running rampant through the streets. That being said, somebody needs to make the housing. If we need more housing, someone has to build it. I don't think that characterizing developers as this evil amorphous villain is productive, particularly when people at my age and stage need housing, we need high density housing and somebody has to build it. If we don't get that level of housing, we will have to move. I can't afford to stay here being subsidized by my family for the rest of my life. We will have to move. I understand that this is unpopular, but when you think about your property values, the houses that were bought in the 90s for $200,000 are now worth $1.2 million. Who's going to buy that? Not me. I can't buy a $1.2 million house. I can maybe buy a $700,000 house where I can rent out half of it. I can maybe live in an apartment and save up money, but I'm not buying those single-family modest three- or four-bedroom houses. I literally cannot afford it, just go and zillow and see how much those houses cost. I'd argue that the people who oppose multi-family housing and high-density housing are doing more damage to the character of a neighborhood than any student could. Because character is people. Please. I know. I know. Please. Absolutely, because character is people. And if people like me have to leave with our children, the neighborhood will look beautiful, but it will be empty. If you are so concerned with how a neighborhood looks and not concerned with the people in it that is not character. Please, please, everyone will have their opportunity. Please be respectful. I will say thank you to this council for proposing legislation that could loosen zoning restrictions and improve multi-family housing. This is what I as a year round resident and voter voted for you for. Thank you. Mr. Taney, anyone else on the list? The next one is Bianca Loro Volis. Hi. I do. Sure. Bianca B-I-A-N-C-A. L-A-L-A-L-A-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-C-A. L-A-U-R-O. Vols, V as in Victor, O-L-L-E-S as in Sam. You have to do that, otherwise it gets almost done. Hi. I wrote an email to you today. I don't know if you've had a chance to read it, but I'm very happy that I'm able to have this opportunity to read it to everyone. This is more of a feeling that I think many of us here feel. I wrote, hello, my name is Bianca Laro-Volves and I am a third generation Narragansett Rhode Island resident. My grandchildren are the fourth generation and I fear the pleasure and enjoyment that I, my parents and grandparents have enjoyed, will be gone for my grandchildren if you all go ahead with the proposed zoning ordinances. It is bad enough that Scarborough South, which was originally Lido Beach, has been closed at the end of the summer for the past four years, due to unsafe bacteria levels in the water, as a result of heavy rains flooding the sewage treatment plant. Not to mention times when the process sewage, it is processed, is brought back with the tide. I voted for you all. I did so because I believed you would do what is in the best interest for the people and town of Narragansett, as well as listen to the town's people. If you put the proposed zoning ordinances in place without considering the detrimental effects on the town of Narragansett, its people, the land and ocean, you will ultimately be responsible one way or another. I also believe, eventually, our beautiful Narraganset will be no longer, and the local town and state beaches will become polluted. Property values will decline, and no one will be able to enjoy what we all have come to know and love in Narragansett. Thank you. Thank you. Colleen and Kevin McKenna. Sorry, Jim, can you just repeat that? Oh. Thank you. I do. My name is Colleen McKenna, and I live at Pleasant Avenue in Narragansett. C-O-L-L-E-E-N-M-C-K-P-O-K-E-N-N-A. My husband and I sent an email to each one of you, but I wanted to make sure that you heard me say this to you in person. This town council ran on the premise that each one of you cares about Narragansett is committed to doing what is best for your constituents and will listen and work to make to ensure that Narragansett will continue to be a special place to live for its residents. I hope that this will be true as these changes are discussed. We too care deeply about Narragansett. Our families have owned property in the town since the 1930s and the 1940s. My husband and I met in Narragansett, got married in Narragansett. We built our house and used to look in 1979. We raised our children here, got involved in our neighborhood, our parish, the schools, sports, community activities, and we made lifetime friends. We saw our neighborhood gradually change from a place where families would gather for Halloween parties and Easter egg hunts for the children to a place where gangs of students would walk to open houses for parties with hundreds drinking, yelling, and screaming and be awoken by the shouts of expeditives. We saw it all in more, and we were told, get out of here, this is our place. It wasn't an easy decision, but we did move out after over 30 years because we wanted a better quality of lives for ourselves. We still live in Nar We still live in Narragansett and we see houses in our present neighborhood in the center town, again being sold to out-of-state investors and being rented to college students or short-term rentals. Since this issue has had a direct impact on our lives, we have followed the town's efforts for many years, or rather choices made by councils and administrators to ignore it. We were greatly encouraged by the passing of the ordinance that restricted the number of college students to three. The reality is, three students are not the norm. With guests coming and going, and they're usually four to six cars in a driveway on any night, particularly on weekend nights. We realized that rental properties have been part of the fabric of Narragansett for years. But we saw the explosion in Eastwood Look in the 1980s when larger homes, with more bedrooms met that more students could be living in each property. We saw first hand the impact that it had on the quality of life for the year-round residents, yet it didn't seem to matter to many of the rental property owners who benefit greatly from their lucrative business investments. We fear that if these ordinance changes take effect, we will see more year-round properties, more year-round residents forced to move out. The changes to the ordinance, the ordinances regarding building square footage requirements, setbacks, and allowing duplexes on presently undersized lots means the probability of more and more rental and more and more investments. We can envision residents surrounded by rentals just as we were in Eastwood Look. We have read that Narragansett is in compliance with state guidelines, so why are these changes being considered? Moreover, we are deeply concerned about how this will affect our roads, our sewer capacity, our water, but most importantly our families and our schools. Students and rentals are one part of the community. We recognize that. But Narragansett is a dynamic of families, older adults, visitors, business owners, a fishing community, and many others. What is key is that each component be respectful of each other and at the same time recognizes recognizing that choices are not made to diminish the quality of life for its people. It is vitally important that the town council recognize the importance of making the best decisions for the present and future of our beloved town. It is our belief that if Narragansett adopt the changes that you had put forth, that Narragansett of our families, the town that we love will no longer exist. And this council will be responsible for allowing that to happen. Thank you. Thank you. Laura Meacum. Laura Meacum. Okay. Kevin, did you want to go up? I thought you were speaking for both, yes, sorry. Yes, I do. McKenna K-E-V-I-N MC-K-E-V-I-N, M-C-K-E-N-N-A. Hello. My name is Kevin McKenna. I live at 31 Pleasant Avenue. I've been a full-time resident and property owner and there against it for 46 years. I've been following the town council for many years. As a 30-year resident of Eastwood Look, I felt I was forced to move because of the impact of rentals around my home. As such, I have closely followed ordinances that would safeguard the quality of life in our reganse. I oppose these 14 amendments that will gut our current zoning code. These changes were introduced with little or no public input and they will devastate our current zoning codes. This town council had promised to be open and transparent with all Narragansett residents. They promised to be active listeners and would responsibly respond to the needs of all residents. After this point in time, transparency and active listening have been empty promises. However, it may have changed tonight with your decision earlier. It may have changed. I believe that you have been listening for what you've said and promised earlier tonight. Now this is important. I do not object to adjusting individual ordinances that need to be changed. However, there is a process that should be followed. The process is to clearly define what needs to be changed and why and then submit the proposal to the planning board. Now the initial process of changing four ordinances, the 14 ordinances that was started in March has inundated and flooded the residents with information and misinformation that has created confusion, uncertainty, fear, and havoc. I implore you tonight to actively respond to the residents who have overwhelmingly asked you to end this process and then address individual problematic ordinances in a clear and logical manner. A few years ago at a town council meeting, a statement was made by a sitting town council member. And it was that Eastwood look was too far gone. Please reconsider these ordinances so that in the future we will not be hearing the few residents left that the Narrow Lancet that we love is completely gone. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you. Laura Meacum. Richard Santa Petro. I do. Richard. I do. Richard Santo Pietro, capital S-A-N-T-O-P-I-E-T-R-O. I live it. one Wincliffe Drive. I won't bother to repeat most of what was said tonight. I thought it was well-prepared, well-delivered, and I commend everybody for the time and effort that they've put into it. I have been enjoying Narragansett since the 40s and 50s with my parents. I have owned property in the town for 85 to 25, comes out to 40 years. I have rented property in Narragansett, responsibly, and I, at my age, have seen so much. I've seen other places in the world in this country that were seaside communities. And houses built on postage stamp sized lots that were three and four feet away from each other. And I know that those houses did not exist by magic. It was an integrative process that happened over a period of time. And the short time that I have been here, something like 80 years, I've seen things change radically. I cannot imagine what is going to happen in the years to come. What I understand of what's happened so far, and I have to apologize, I've been taken by some family tragedies, and I haven't been able to give what's happened, the kind of attention that it deserves. But I come tonight with something I've learned over my 85 years. And it's a simple process. I've used it myself at times when I thought I had to. And it's a simple rule. It's easier to beg for forgiveness than to ask for permission. And when I see what has been presented, it's really difficult for me to believe that that was some kind of mistake, ignorance, or misjudgment. It really does. To me, it's mites of an intentional methodology to get something done that if it's done properly in the right way would never get done. And I hope I'm wrong. I've been wrong more times than I've been right. I commend everybody, even I understand it's not a cheap place to live. This is a fact of life. See sure properties are valuable. And it wasn't until I was in my 40s that I could afford to buy any piece of property. So I understand the angst that young people are going through. I also understand what happens when things are done in a disorderly, and we can see in our own country as our democracy is headed for oblivion. So at this point, I really don't know enough, I've heard things like, well, it's a state requirement, you have only 40 days, it's already in the hopper. I know I've put things into work, but I'm not sure if I can do it, I'm not sure if I can do it, I'm not sure if I can do it, It's already in the hopper. I know I've put things like, well, it's a state requirement. You have only 40 days. It's already in the hopper. I know I've put things into papers into a shredder that I didn't mean to do. But once it's in the shredder, that paper is gone. And I hope that what's happened is not similar to that. I'll wait to see before I believe what I've heard, because I've heard words tonight. I also heard words during the campaign when all five of you came to my house. And we spoke, person to person, and I let myself be clear with one exception on the committee that I did not have the kind of eye contact that I've learned to trust. That person had no eye contact with me for the whole time that we met. And I'm led to believe that that person was instrumental in setting up a lot of what went on. Again, I hope I'm wrong, but it'll be more than words that are going to convince me from this point on. And thank you so much for allowing me to speak. Thank you. Maria Ayonati. Mary Jean Miniatty. Mary Jane Miniatty. Cynthia Sequerra-Monten. I'll do. I'll do. Cynthia Zerkerra Martin, that's C-Y-N-T-H-I-A, capital Z as in zebra, ER, Q-U-E-phen, martin, M-A-R-K-I-N. Winterberry Road, Narrow Gansett, Rhode Island. All done? Great. Good evening. Good evening. I know some of you know that I have a profound visual disability, so permit me a little bit of grace if I need to catch up on my notes here. Despite your opening statements, I feel compelled to testify to my position anyway, to give you additional information on which to ponder as you go forward. I'd like to introduce myself. I am the chairman of the Coastal Access Improvement Committee. I have worked with the General Assembly to enact 2023's Shoreline Access Act and 2024's real estate disclosures on rights of white act. I was appointed to the statewide community leaders action group and we are currently working to write the states first public shoreline access management plan. I was personally invited to testify to NOAA about Rhode Island's coastal access issues. As of right now, my resume is on the governor's desk. just by CRMC director Jeff Welles himself to be appointed to the CRMC council. Tonight I'd like to speak to you about your proposed zoning changes from a slightly different perspective. Let's start off with a brief history lesson. On January 19th, 2021, the town council established the Coastal Access Improvement Committee for the town of Narragansett. And I quote from the town website, Narragansett continues to evolve as a town and is undergoing a period of residential redevelopment with larger structures replacing smaller seasonal homes. Council, Council, further went on to state. It is imperative that the town of Narragansett take on the responsibility of protecting, enhancing, and formalizing public access points to the water. You see the issues we see today, they go back years, but in January of 2021, the town council in its wisdom decided to do something about it, our committee was charged with that responsibility. We worked tirelessly to reopen all the coastal access points that had been closed down during COVID and in our work we noted the massive amount of encroachment surrounding state designated CRMC rights of way with very little to no parking offered. offered. One solid fact to keep in mind, CRMC creates statewide policy, but it is up to each individual municipality to enact said policy. As a coastal town, Narragansett has an obligation to recognize this responsibility. The proposed changes to the FAR, to the level of expansion offered, will have a huge detrimental effect on our coastal ecosystem. Any evidence of a natural environment will be paved over, threatening already stressed wildlife on both land and sea. The proposed far changes could very well embolden further encroachment into both town and state designated public rights of way. Let's talk about something else. The amount of additional sewage created with this type of expansion will further threaten the environment. As our old pipes fail and raw sewage is strewn directly into the ocean. Our streets are narrow and the increase of the far invites parking on what little green space we still have left. We will lose the very identity onto which we base our tourist revenue dollars A relaxing seaside town. Okay. So that's all about me and the committee I'd share. Now let's talk about you. The motivation we residents have been given for your proposals is to align with the state. The state isn't even aligned with itself yet. The General Assembly is still in session until July 1st. Then, any past legislation still needs to go to the governor for his signature before anything can be enacted. This Ready Fire Aim approach of yours lacks the very legislation on which you claim to base your proposals. Here's a better way to align with the state. Let's start with CRMC and DM. Need I say more? My closing thoughts are directed to your proposal to go back and change the existing and fully vetted comprehensive plan of 2017. The only thing I have to say about this proposal is, have you read the book 1984? Thank you. Thank you. Mr. President, that exhausts the signatures on the list. Thank you. With that being said, Ms. Lawyer? Yes, we'll open up the floor to anyone who did not get their signature in. Thank you. So help me, God. Jill Lawler, L-A-W, L-E-R, Sarasota Avenue. Before I address the council, I just want to make sure that everyone behind me knows that Mr. Brady is up for reappointment on the planning board come this November. He has a five-year term that he very much would like. So I'm hoping everybody behind me will join me in applauding and hope the council will reappoint. Applause. So council president, I have something to give you. May. That's fine. Bad, yeah, that's fine. Thank you. So, at the last meeting I did ask a question and I understand was quite lengthy. We didn't leave here until about almost 12.30 AM. I didn't get their answer. So I'm providing you with the answer. The question I asked was, aren't we already in compliance with the state rules? I know that's something that Donna and your closing arguments last week, you mentioned that the reason that we're doing this is so we can align with the state law. So what I just handed to the town clerk is a motion from December 18th, 2023, from then planning board director Michael Deluca that reads this following, a motion to read past and adopt as a second reading and to everybody who is not frequent flyers to town council meetings after our town council has a second reading and votes affirmally on it, it becomes town law. So a motion to read and pass as a second reading, an ordinance in the amendment of chapter 731, Code of Ordinances for the Town of Narragansett entitled Zoning, as it relates to several discretionary text revisions to various sections of the town ordinance and zoning ordinance for the purpose of adapting and to accommodate the general assembly mandates enacted in 2023 legislation. So that was the agenda item. I also handed to the town clerk the notes from the meeting itself. These notes are taken by the town clerk and signed off by the town clerk attesting to its accuracy. And under the motion it reads motion by Councillor Lawler, seconded by Councillor to read past and adopt as a second reading, an ordinance and a amendment to the chapter seven. and under the motion it reads motion by Councillor Lawler, seconded by Councillor Copeck, to read pass and adopt as a second reading an ordinance amendment to the chapter 731 code of ordinances related to zoning as it relates to several text revisions to various sections of zoning ordinances for the purpose of complying with a general assembly mandates enacted in the 2023 led to the session. Demanded and undone. Council President Duosinski made a statement to correct the record that near against provoked zoning adopts all the mandated changes to the General Assembly with the exception of inclusionary zoning. The inclusionary zoning was not mandatory and therefore was not in the bills. There was none of vote taken, and I handed this to the town clerk. And the vote taken by the town council was a four to one vote, put forward by myself. I see Councillor Coupac in the back. It was a four to one vote with councilor Susan Sistlinny, Bonanno being the only one opposed. And I'd neglect to mention councilor Ferrandi, who's also sitting here, also voted in the affirmative. So this is already in a line with state law. I'm not quite sure why you're trying to tell us it's not. It's not misunderstanding. It's you're trying to give us false information for the purpose of making some zoning changes. So what we heard tonight is you're gonna take back, dial it back, but be honest with us next. If you want to make tweaks to zoning, that's your prerogative. You can do so. But don't tell us, it's because we're not in line with the state because we are, because we are. Thank you. Yes. Mr. I can't even see right now. Mr. Scofield, sorry. I I apologize, Mr. Scofield. So long, mate. Yes. Harold Scofield, nine Atlantic Avenue. There, Gansett. Good evening. Those of you who have seen it know that I sent you a three-page email letter tonight on behalf of the Narragansettown Residence Association, hoping and requesting with all of the detail listed that you would do what you have apparently had the courage to do tonight. So I commend you. That letter put forth a supposition based on conversations with some of you and others involved in this as to how this mysterious red line may have occurred because it has never been a good explanation for it and many other people here tonight have expressed similar concerns as to how that happened. So it puts that forth. It was my intention before the decision tonight to stand here and read the letter. It also goes on to list the types of discrepancies between truth and fact that former counsel at your law are just alluded to. And put forth supporting evidence that in fact some of the claims were not fact and in In fact, we were wrong, as has been shown on May 5th by comments by Jill Sabel and planning board, she had Mark Brady. So I do commend you. The letter, they think the final sentence and the letter said that please have the courage to vote this down on behalf of the residents who elected you and Thankfully you are showing the courage and the commitment to residents to do that So on behalf of the Narrow Gansettown residents association. I do want to thank you for that It's a rare thing that we see a change in direction and such things take courage. And however it happened, it will mean little in the future, but will matter in the future. And what will matter to the people in this audience and the people watching this, are that you did the right thing in the end. That's all that ever matters. But I do want to make a couple of other comments. Mr. Brady spoke of the good data that's in the crane report and the young lady who spoke here about her inability to afford the housing here. Has a lot of good points. And I for one, and I don't think anyone wants to see rows of beautiful houses that are empty. That is another problem here. But one of the things I recall about the Korean report is that I think one of the points, the most important points it made was I think that it said the single most important thing that can be done to approve housing affordability in their cancer is the building of what you are dormitories not just for undergraduate students but graduate students visiting faculty and so forth that is the single most important thing that can be done you don't control that the state state of Rhode Island and the University control land. And as someone who's been involved and been at this microphone many times and you know been over and talked with your eye officials and worked at the state level as well. You know I frankly have to to think back and say, you know, some of my thinking there and my efforts on that behalf were sort of pie in the sky because thinking on it, again, having met with a recent leadership at URI, I want to go and having seen what's going on in recent years. I think I've come to a more pragmatic realization that if you are I wanted more dormitories they'd have built them years ago. That in fact in the state, you know, most universities don't pay to build dorms. Private developers build them and the the universities agree to fill them up. One of my daughters went to a school, a very well-known school where that was the case. And so pragmatically, I'm sorry to say, after all these years of pushing, that, you know, I think your eye is happy to dump its problems on Narrowcansett. And I think we're faced with that. And I'm sorry to say that. I'm an optimistic person. I built a successful business from scratch. Do that by not being optimistic. But you have to look at reality, too. And there's no reason why the state of Rhode Island and URI can't do things that other states and universities have done, stores Connecticut is a good example. So I think we're faced with what we're faced with. And recently a good friend of mine made an observation to me. He said, you know, Nareg answered is unique. He said, well, wedged in between the ocean and URI. And that's true. That's true. There's only so much of it. And we do need to build more affordable housing. And there are still opportunities for that. And I suggested some points in the letter I sent you that it's possible to look at more progressive taxation plans such as the one Newport's using. It gives the biggest homestead breaks to the least expensive properties, not the most expensive properties. Find ways to help with down payments and tax off cents for the first time buyers. Focus more as I've said at this microphone before and trying to bring higher tech businesses in that can bring families in and pay salaries to afford the houses. But can't do anything about the fact that we're 95% built out. We can't do anything about the fact that it isn't, it always will be a rental town. And I can say that despite claims to the opposite there against the town residents association, has never looked to eliminate that. It looks for balance. And it looks just for achieving whatever harmony we can working together to make sure neighborhoods are protected, to make sure we accommodate students to the extent we can without being overburdened by them, to make sure as we're attempting to do we pass this support, this short-term rental ordinance, to put some controls on short-term rentals. I've lived in other places. Seasonally, where short-term rentals take over. So we need to do these things. We do need to do them together. And it's just a fact of life that where we are, there's this gentleman settled in a while ago, seaside communities are expensive, not just Narragansett. Look at Jamestown, look at Newport, look at South Kingston, property along the shore is expensive, and everybody can't live there. You know, most people can't afford Fifth Avenue, Penn House is either, but there's no suggestion to building duplexes on top of them. So I think that you have to be commended for the courage that you're expressed tonight. I presume that you're going to follow through through that. And I do hope you take the advice that everyone here tonight is suggested, and that in the future you move forth. And one of the things I'll leave you with in the Crane Report is it is rich in data. Narrow cancer is not rich in data. It's not rich in data for reasons that many towns are not rich in data. A lack of staff, people who rent and don't say they're renting and who cheat. There are a lot of reasons. So, hopefully the town can do a better job of collecting its data when the ordinances we have are supported and people who abuse them are fine you know, fined appropriately. But the crane report is rich in data. And so I would just encourage that, let's go forth, please do shoot this down, let's end this. And let's go forth and make sure that anything further we discuss in terms of regulations that affect people and businesses is based on data, gathered at data, and make decisions and make proposals to this audience and the town based on factual data that you can stand behind. There would be an open fashion, and we'll all get along fine. Thank you all, and thank you again for your courage tonight. Thank you. Yes. Please, I do. Just quiet down our stenographer. I'm trying to get information. Patrick. D-O-U-G-H-E-R-T-Y. You know, there's half of me inside of me. It's the devil on the shoulder saying, you know, give a three hour dissertation on the law just to piss these people off, but I'm not going to do that. That's okay, thank you. I'm here before you, again, after being before you, what, nine, ten days ago, at the public hearing. And I am deeply saddened as well as deeply disgusted by what is transpired by the rabid, cowardly keyboard warriors out there on social media. Instead of addressing any of the substantive comments that were factual, legal, and based upon the law, I have been personally attacked, not with regard to anything but other than cases and clients that I've represented in the past, and things that have nothing to do with the issues that are here before you tonight. I want to apologize on behalf of the community that aren't here, the non-vocal majority rather than the vocal minority that's seated behind us here tonight. And I want to apologize that there hasn't been more public support out in this type of a forum for you because I know in fact that there is. People have attacked me for representing developers. They misrepresented the facts on some of these things. At the public hearing before you, the last time, they misrepresented material facts. They misrepresented a lot of what I said. And again, it's because of the nature of what's been going on here. I feel sorry for you that the narrative has gotten so out of control in this community and that it's been based on misrepresentation, hyperbole, and out and out lies. So again, I wish that the personal attacks would halt. I wish that the people in charge of these Facebook pages would take a little time and educate themselves and really look at the substantive issues instead of buying into the buzzwords that have been going on. I want to tell you that there's a lot of people out in this community that support you. And there's a lot of people that I've represented over the years that have had to go, the homeowners, the neighbors of a lot of the people that are out here that aren't speaking up tonight, because they don't want to be subjected to the vitriol and the personal attacks that are coming forth from these people. I want to apologize on behalf of our town to the woman who was up here talking from a perspective of being a renter, who's making a good buck but can't afford to live in this town. I want to apologize to her for the cat calls and the vitriol that was spewed behind her back when she was up here because there's a lot of good people in this town that don't countenance that. And again, it's just indicative. They can't keep their mouths shut. They have to, you know, murmur behind the back. They have to attack people personally. I can't wait to see what's going to be out there on social media with my name attached to it tomorrow, just for giggles. Not one person is addressed here, however, the substance and the facts of what you were trying to do here. There have been a lot of conclusive statements that just plainly aren't true. Our ordinance is not in compliance with state law. When Ms. Lawyer came up and addressed that, and I like Ms. Lawyer, I get along with her, she says I'm wrong on this issue, but I'm a nice guy. I think she's a nice woman, and I think she's wrong on the issue. But people, I mean with Jill Lawyer, we agree to disagree, you know, and we can say what we want, you know, she called my comments before the council at the last time, a filibuster. I laughed at that. I can appreciate a good joke. But what we've got to understand here is I've represented many people over the years that are mom and pops, family members, single family homeowners who are just trying to get some relief to be able to live in their house and make them more adaptable. There's nothing wrong with wanting a den or a study or an extra room when you're in a growing family or even when you're on your own. There's nothing wrong with wanting to have a nice house and space around you. But a lot of people that weren't trying to build duplexes or multi-family homes or six bedroom or four bedroom homes homes have had to hire people like myself and others to go before boards to seek relief that was ordinarily given to them by right before the disastrous zoning amendments took place in 2024. And I have to tell you, there's been a lot of statements out there such as you're going to eviscerate 40 years of zoning that's been established in the town. That's a lie. The most of what you're attempting to do here is to address some of the horrific ramifications that have come out of recently passed in ordinances within the last four years, and in particular within the last two years. So these blanket statements have riled up this massive crowd, this rabid crowd that is going for your heads. They have filed. Please. They have gone so far before you have even taken any action whatsoever, and they've filed a recall petition for you. Now I know for a fact, from speaking with members of you up there and other people who have related your positions to me as well, that you're not in favor of all of these things. And again, the planning board and the planning department had an opportunity to weigh in on report and recommendations. And in fact, had they followed the law, they would have given their recommendations review with regard to each and every one of these amendments, but they chose not to. That's set forth in the law, and the process for amending zoning ordinances is exactly what is going on here before you. There are multiple ways in which an ordinance amendment can come before the council. They can be promulgated by the council, which is what you did in that instance. They can be promulgated by any member of the public who files a petition for that course of action to be taken, or they can be recommended by the planning department as well. There's a number of provisions under Rhode Island State law that allow for this process that is going on before you now to take place in the manner in which it has. And as far as doing things in the dark, I don't know what people are talking about. This is a public hearing. This is how the sausage gets made on ordinances. There are open hearings. And not one of these people has been shut down from speaking their mind no matter how vicious some of them have been in doing so. But not one person has been stopped from putting in public input on what is proposed before you. And I know that you're not all in favor of this. I don't think that there's one person up there that's in favor of raising a height above 35 feet. I don't think there's one member of you up there that is looking to put an 8,000 square foot home on a 10,000 square foot lot. And I don't think that that's possible anyway under these, even if you were to just blank it we adopt all these amendments. Please. So they've taken over the narrative, but they haven't taken over the truth and they haven't taken over the law. I've seen Facebook posts, quote, home rule charter will allow a town to enact city ordinances that are in their best interest. That's false. If they in the instances, if they don't comply with the zoning enabling act, every single thing that this council does and it's legislative capacity, in passing ordinances has to comply with the Zoning and Abling Act. You have to do that, that's state law. So there's another false narrative out there. You know, it's disgusting that we have to be ridiculed and we cannot listen to competing viewpoints in a public forum. I'm a citizen of this town, I pay taxes in this town, my businesses in this town, and I've helped both developers and I've helped poor single family homeowners approach boards and commissions for relief. Sometimes I've had to take an appeal, and I can tell you this, you know, the information about the planning board getting sued is kind of misleading. And that is because of the fact that the planning board, when they make a decision, they don't get sued. They get appealed to the zoning board sitting as the plating board of review. And then after that, it goes to the superior court, and in this instance instance now it'll go to the land court. So you're not going to see any wasuits over there against the planning board. You're going to see more of them against the zoning board. And there's a boatload of decisions out there with cases against the zoning board. But one of the things that I would just hope that we can do, all All right, and again, I wouldn't want to sit up on those chairs for all the tea in China, for all the ridicule and the criticism and the vitriol that's being spewed against you. I can handle it. I don't care what half of these people say because of the fact that they're just engaging in personal attack and not one substantive comment has been made to address any of the assertions that I made under oath before you in the public hearing. I don't why I don't misrepresent and I don't I don't engage in hyperbole and vitriol when I'm up here. But I think the people behind you have a lot to weigh with their own consciences, and it's not everyone behind me. I apologize to those persons in the audience who haven't been engaged in these type of disgusting tactics and personal ad homin and attacks. But I think a lot of people here should really be ashamed of themselves for the level that they've stooped to in attacking you, public servants, and the other people in this community that have a voice and want to be heard as well. I thank you for listening to me. I think it's a good idea that you're stopping this because all of this has been on a juggernaut based on misrepresentation lies hyperbole and just an out-and-out vitriolic campaign by rabid keyboard warriors who have riled up the crowd with misrepresentation and things that just plainly are not true. Thank you very much. Thank you. Yes, and then I'll go to Dr. Alba next over here. I'd call that in her first. Sorry, Mrs. Santrala. Yes. It's Vicki Crowning Shield, VICKI, and it's CROWNIN, GSH, IELD. Thanks. So I just wanted to thank you guys for your decision tonight. I wanted to give you props for it. I believe that what you're doing is the right thing to do. Most of what I wanted to say was to talk about the process. So I'm just going to throw that out the door. I think that what you guys are putting forth is good. I think that you guys are well intended. And I think that there's a lot of stuff we can do going forward. and I'm looking forward to those workshops and being a part of it. What I did still kind of want to talk about was kind of in reference to the higher density housing. And I've looked at some of these studies before and I just wanted to say we have to be careful about relating them to Narragansett and I'll explain why for a little bit. So there's one thing that gets overlooked a lot around Narragansett and that's because we're uniquely different than in many communities. So we're not just dealing with one kind of rental market, we have three. We have student rentals during the school year, we have vacation rentals in the summer and full time year round rentals that now have to compete with the profitability of the other two. So we have this demand doesn't slow down, it just shifts with the season and together these overlapping markets put constant pressure on our already limited housing. So now that we've already had and I know we've always had student rentals that's nothing new and yes we've always had homes that were rented out for short term in the summer, but it was completely different world before Airbnb and VRBO came out. So suddenly renting by the week became easy and automated, so these platforms handled everything. So bookings, payments, guest communication, even insurance and reviews. So you didn't need a property manager, you didn't need to live nearby. You didn't need to know your neighbors. So this changed Naragansett drastically. And it didn't just change who's living here. It really, like, supercharged the demand on our already limited housing supply. So investors saw a gold mine. They realized they can make money all year. They drove up prices, spark bidding wars, and made it even harder for local families to buy a home. So especially when they're competing with all cash offers. So if you try to buy a house today, it's gonna be a cash offer against you almost always. So I did a little research on this with the help of somebody, but looking at the past five years of sales in Narragansett, only 32.9% of the homes sold in Narragansett are owner-occupied. So that means nearly 70% most likely became income properties. So compare that to 2010 when 63% of homes were owner occupied. So that's according to our town comprehensive plan. Even now the overall rate, so if you look at the overall rate, not just the past five years, it's 44%. So it went down from 63 to 44% since 2010. And that's from the Korean Affordable Housing report from 2024. So, when a home goes up on the market today, there's almost a 70% chance it'll become an investment property. So, not a home for a full-time resident and certainly not for a family. So, people who live here are permanently are finding it harder and harder to get in in. So when we're talking about building like bigger houses and more dense houses, I think it's a good idea. I think that we need to make sure that in the end, like if you make a duplex, the short-term rental market needs to be excluded from that. Or, but I'm looking forward to having these workshops and we can talk about it, but I really want to make sure that everyone understands that our community has a very different view than, like, say, Houston or other people who put in these different things to get rid of zoning to increase housing. So, that's all I want to say. I wanted to thank you guys for your time for your time and appreciate what you've done. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Zonfrillo and then Dr. I don't think I'm going to be able to get the right answer. I don't think I'm going to be able to get the right answer. I don't think I'm going to be able to get the right answer. I don't think I'm going to be able to get the right answer. I don't think I'm going to be able to get the right answer. I don't think I'm going to be for anybody are abhorrent. And yes, there are keyboard warriors for sure. But I really object to people coming up here and telling us that we're too dumb to understand what's going on. And it's so condescending to have this explained to us like we're forest gump, you know. We know that it feels rushed. We know it does not feel right and we can smell and something's wrong. So I mean, having somebody come up and insult our intelligence like that, probably the best spokesman you could have for us. Especially also if that person had represented the council member in matters before about real estate. And I think people, I don't think it's doing you any favors. I don't know who that's speaking to, but it's really insulting and win baggy, quite frankly. People know, and you know what, there are a lot of smart people in this town too. There are engineers, there are scientists, there are lawyers. People who are here are very successful, a lot of them, and the reason they're successful is they can understand very complicated things. So, and they're the ones that vote you in. So the smart voters vote you in, and the not-so-smart voters vote you in. And you need to listen to the will of the people. So it appears this is a step in the right direction. But the other thing I think that you need to realize is, and maybe you have, this is an extraordinary coalition of people. If you look around at who's supporting this, there are sworn enemies in this town in the same room, pulling for the same thing. There are people that are on opposite ends of the political spectrum, the philosophical spectrum. If you could told me that all these people would be in a room together, I would say you were crazy. But here we are. As uneducated as we are, here we are. And we vote, we hold the vote, and you work for us. So please acknowledge that and please listen to the people. Thank you. Thank you. Dr. Alba. I do. Dr. Albert Alba, ALB-E-R-T, ALBA. Thank you. So I was your number one cheerleader when you guys were all running. Never in my wildest dreams, that I think we're going to be hit with Mr. Bernado being taken off of the planning board and replaced with Mr. D. Simone. Never in my wildest dreams did I feel that you are going to have instill in all of us in anxiety, a level of anxiety which would not bring us together. We're not of us would have voted for you. You all knew about the library situation and what happened with the friction. You all knew about the last town council in the friction. This is far greater, I would say, than any of those others. I hope and pray that you bring peace in our town. I hope and pray that not one more person is removed from our planning board. And I would like to have that commitment brought out now rather than later. Because you can say anything you want, and then Mr. Brady's trimics buyers, or anyone else's trims, and any of the other planning board members' expires, you can say we had a differences opinion. But when I saw those planning board meetings, I heard Mr. D. Simone, who was the only one saying, He was the only one not complying compliance, not an agreement with the other planning board members who have dedicated their lives for the benefit of this town. I have a colleague. He has a 12-year-old daughter. He's going to be retiring next year. He goes, Dr. Alba, I'm going to be leaving nearer against it, so I'll retire. Look at this, come down, look at this huge house which was built, a rental property, huge rental property was built next to my property. This was our family building. We can't, we're going to go to New Hampshire, we can't deal with the politics anymore. How is this ever allowed? And on that note, going forward, each of you have to hold a zoning board accountable. Before any building gets picked up or built, you should have a moratorium on these houses that can be raised and then grow to our monstrosities. This is going to be, we have bulk zoning for reason, but we've had zoning before, but it's not enforced. How do these other monstrosities get built? You have to hold a zoning boat accountable. And if they so much is bring forth an idea of building one of these monstrosities, one to the next to the two and three bedroom properties, they should be taken off immediately for incompetence, failing to introduce your responsibilities. As we mentioned by the CRMC, this here affects a lot of issues from sewage backup to finding affordability. Because this person now who had this beautiful house, his property went down considerably as a result of this rental property, this monstrosity of a rental property. Then I had another hardworking family man, because I have two of my kids. Two of my kids, they want to come back and live and they're against it. They're both married, they're both successful. But they're not going to be able to afford to, if these developers come in with cash offers, to raise these properties and make them investment properties. They're not going to be able to afford it. Not only that, we're going to lose We can lose where you have three one or two bedroom properties or three two or three bedroom properties. They could be wiped out We have to preserve every single neighborhood where we have these two and three bedroom properties and keep that zoning in place for the integrity for future families to come into the air against it. This is so so important because he says if these developers come in how can we compete? These people are going to be turning these here properties into rentals. So if you are a single family, husband, wife working, even if you go to four, they make a $200,000 in the air they can afford a modest-sized property in their against it. They're not going to be able to buy it when the competing against these developers from Connecticut and elsewhere. And Mr. Dowdy, I take Umbridge with everything you said, and this is a fact. When my cousin, David Gervino, was building, Iggy's doughboys, you spoke out and you spoke out, nonstop, nonstop, Mr. Durkin was paying you handsomely to bring up, to hold him to the, that is I, of course, his T's. Please, direct attention up here. This is the point. Thank you. He wanted to make sure that he made it life as difficult as possible for my cousin, because I was there. My father was there. Why Mr. Durkin had this angst against my cousin? I have no idea. He was previously renting to him. He gave him good rent. Because my cousin wanted to go on his own. So someone said, why don't you let this know be ahead of time? I said, well, I hope Mr. Durkin would be having a piphany, a change of heart. It's very frustrating when this gentleman also represented the Johnson Pond case. As the people in Johnson Pond, if he was really concerned about their town, as the people in Coventry, he was up there, filibustering over there, but he lost that case, outright. So if he's so concerned about the environment, then why don't you even take on Mr. Susia as a client? Why don't you even take on Mr. Durkin to make life miserable for my cousin where David had to spend thousands upon thousands of dollars to fight? And my cousin had to call me and my dad in to testify saying, this is incredible. How can you do this? So think about that when you listen to his testimony, when he wants to come up here and talk about the benefits that how he cares about his beloved, beloved near against how he cares about businesses in their against it. So I want to thank you all for taking this back, but we have to work collectively without planning board and I would like you all on record, you're not going to remove any planning board members. We need to have this on record because talk could be cheap sometimes. Okay, I was never informed ahead of time before I voted for you. This would be coming down the road. 14 ordinances were Mr. Brady could not even. It was I saw I saw the meetings. I saw Mr. Deesamone, the person you appointed. He's a builder for PSAs. And because he's a builder, of course he's gonna approve all the change ordinances, but it's not for the benefit of our town. It's not the benefit for your kids when you have kids. It's not for the benefit of our schools because the more and more monstrosities we have that are rentals. We're going to have fewer and fewer students. And there will be a time where we might not be able to afford to have our schools open. As Mrs. Katherine Selberto brought out before, excuse me, when we have transfer students over here, we actually lose money. We don't have a bottomless pit for our school system. I care about our schools. I don't want nearer against have to merge. But the writing is on the wall. The writing is on the wall that if we do not put a halt to these monstrosities, but people not applying with bulk zoning. If we do not hold a zoning board to the table, so they're not going to be more off these two and three bedroom or four bedroom houses and to 10 15 bedrooms Then that'd be a sad state of affairs and and Donna you have a background in education you have a love for education And I would also add this To believe that these Investors are going to build and they're going to make them affordable All you got to do is look at proxy acting in pay Leno on properties. They bought an ocean road out. Oh, you are going to build and they're going to make them affordable. All you got to do is look at proxy acting in Palino on properties they bought in Ocean Road. All you got to do is look at Galilei and how they treated us in Galilei. They don't even have a special youth permit in Galilei. They're breaking the law, they're breaking out of zoning. We should be going after them. We have every right and we do have home rules. So I can also take Ambridge where this gentleman says we don't have home rules. Look it up, sir. Harm rule states that if a city or town furnaces for the best interest of the city or town, then you have a right to go against the state. And we can go to court. When I had a fight against signage along those two roads, I went three times to testify against that former town of St. Lucida. Did I like to do that? No. But believe me, if we fight for what's right, you're gonna have all these people show up at the Capitol. And we'll tell whoever's in charge of the General Assembly get off of our back and you'll see how fast he'll get off of our back because he'll be the embarrassment. We're not going to back down. Thank you. Thank you. Yes, gentlemen, the back. I do. Joseph Wolpe, JOSEPH, last name, Volpe, V like Victor, O-L-P-E, 21, Hobber Island Road. Hobber Island Road. Thank you for letting me speak. I know it's been a long night. I come from a job where you have to take several variables, many variables very quickly in seconds, whether it's a fire, water rescue, and try to come up with a plan. And in fact, someone I learned a lot from is in the back taught me a lot. And this isn't a flex. A lot of times I was nervous, many times I was nervous. If it was a discipline issue, I'd be mad. But nervous were mad as I go, they go. they go. And I think some of the leadership or some of the people speaking are in creating a common environment where we can hear all sides. All I want to do is hear all the sides to this. I feel it's very difficult when it's one thing, if an attorney gets up here and he's Been around the block, but when that young lady came up here. I thought the I thought the behavior of the people she was obviously nervous. I thought the behavior behind me was was disgusting actually I want to hear her side There's other sides to this than the fear of this 40-foot house and it's spilling out with college students. I mean, they might as well have the helmets with the two beers on it, right? It's a picture that is designed to incite and I take exception to it because there's other things to think about. Let's take this house. Are there other variables involved? Is there the person that is trying to do a modest renovation on their house? Are they having issues? Is there issues with the state? Is it affecting litigation? Is it affecting funding? We're talking about duplexes as if they're tenements or projects. I'm from Queens in New York. We're talking about these these duplexes as if they're projects. And all it is is $0.50 on the dollar for the house. I just got approved for building a 2,000 square foot house, and I'll give you an example. 2,000 square feet with four bedrooms, and it's in a sewed area. Why can't we discuss 2,000 square foot properties that can help lower income people come in at a lower price point at $0.50 on the dollar, say the houses were at the million, cut of the half, it's $500,000 each. I'm not saying I want to do a duplex. I'm just saying that per the crane report duplexes ADUs, they're all part of the picture. Adopt a housing infall plan with appropriate changes to the town's zoning policy that allows development on 99 undersized parcels in the R10 zone. To me, the fear factor is, I don't want to see the fear factor block the potential and the opportunity for families. I don't want to see the fear of this 40-foot house with college students block the potential that we can bring. I think it was brought up. I attended all the planning board meetings. I have a tremendous respect for Mr. Brady and what they do. But it wasn't totally vanilla. I take exception to the fact that all the onus is on you. There was fear brought up at those meetings. There was fear brought up at a separate meeting in a different location where video was shown with this giant house and a little cottage next to it and this could be you. It's blocking the sun, it's filled with college kids, I get it. I take exception to the worst case scenario. When I come up here, I try to be thoughtful and I try to look at all sides. I want to hear everybody's thoughts and I don't think that the booing and hissing of a young lady that comes up here with their her perspective is appropriate. I take exception to that meeting. I spoke to the person that ran it. At the time it was just Mr. Dirty that was booed. But when I saw But what I saw tonight, I actually left. I had to come back in. I couldn't let it go. Again, I'm a, I support the planning board. In fact, I am in support and in favor of many of these ordinances as written. Okay, I just want to hear all the sides and we don't have 30 seconds no one's drowning, no one's on fire. I appreciate you taking a step back and doing this slowly, but hopefully going forward, this sense of community that everyone talks about, how the community and these rallying together, I hope you remember that. We do something in a fire service that's called a hot wash. You go back and you look at what you did at that call, how you acted, where you come. You just review in your heart what you could do better. I don't think everybody's being completely honest with you. I think some people stare at the pot. They want that worst case scenario to come forward, and I think they should do a bit of a wash themselves. I haven't brought up our former planner, Mr. Deluca. He knows more about this stuff than anybody in this room. I have tremendous respect for him and I've come to know him recently. 30 years, I don't think I've had a lot of conversations with him, but recently I have and I respect him thoroughly, everybody should. I respect the work he's done over the years. No one's looking to eliminate all these, going forward if we can tweak things and somehow find a way to create opportunity for these families yet also keep the nostalgia of Narragansett alive, then we should do that. That's what we're trying to do. But everyone should look in the mirror and say, did I was I trying to incite fear? Was I trying to make this worse? Or was I trying to just bring information? That's all I have to say. I hope going forward, everybody can get up here and the many people at home that don't want to deal with this. Like Mr. Dardy mentioned, maybe they'll come more. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you. In the back. Oh, sorry, and then I'll get you in the front. Sorry about that. Oh, no, I was pointing to her first and then I'll come to you. Sorry about that. Thank you. All right. I do. I, EL, IZ, ABTH, Franca, V is in Victor, R-A, N-K-A. So thank you all for having this hearing tonight. And I'm glad to hear that it seems like we're slowing down the process on this. I know from the last meeting it ain't over till it's over. The last meeting you had resident after resident after resident come up here and tell you that they did not like the changes. You had the planning board had come up and tell them, give you many reasons why they thought the changes were wrong and they weren't involved. In the process, the process was flawed, which I'm so glad that many of you now agree that. So that's great. But like I said, at the last meeting, we heard a lot of people making good reasoned arguments for why it should be slowed down and then all of a sudden there was a push to move it forward. So I know it ain't over till it's over. So I'm just, again, I'm pouring you to please slow this down and not move ahead with it. And I would also like to just address something people said, like the gentleman who was just up here talking about some imagined, you know, 40-foot house with college students pouring out of it. I don't imagine that. I live in the pier. I can walk around my neighborhood and I can see those big houses, and they're lovely. I'm just saying, it's not an unfounded fear. It's not like these things are not already happening. There are some very lovely houses that have been put up. So I think that it's just not a figment of people's imagination and people fear of mind-garing. And I also do not appreciate the inflammatory language that was used to describe, I think, the residents coming up and trying to make their feelings know about the zoning changes and I don't agree with what was said by the lawyer who got up and spoke about that. So thank you for your time. Thank you. Now you may come up. Sorry about that. Yeah. Well, now that I'm not limited to three minutes, I can really explain. Oh, hold on one second. Oh, sorry. Michelle. All right, left right, I'm a little sorry. That's right. Yes, I do. Michelle Katronio Michelle Katronio and my C.H.E. L. L.E. Katronio COT R.O. N. E.O. Okay Now that I'm not limited to three minutes to do that. I'm not going to be able to do that. I'm not going to be able to do that. I'm not going to be able to do that. I'm not going to be able to do that. I'm not going to be able to do that. I'm not going to be able to do that. I'm not going to be able to do that. I'm not going to be able to do that. the Old Town Council and how many people, and if you even got to time and how many times you were told that your time's up, your time's up. The thing is, you can look at the history. I, we built a house, raised my kids here. They went to school, a rated schools. There were families, as you know, there were college kids or summer rentals. The whole thing adds, it was a booming community. In 2000, all right, we are plus 9.2. There was 16,361 residents, okay, Population. Dropped in 2016 to 15,868. A dropped, 493. What happened in 2016? 2014 and 15, I want to know all the college kids that had acted in. what happened in 2015 and 16 this day decided to mandate and start controlling the students, not just here, everywhere. Then nearer against it was trying to control things and put things in motion and trying to, and a lot of it, you know, maybe things weren't done right and maybe things could have been treated better. But eventually, I got to the point where a lot of it started working. You can look at the new sensory points over the years. The only time that nuisance started going up is when they wanted to put more restrictions. And then the numbers would go up also. The false claims go up. So now, 2019 comes along in 2020. Oh God, what happened then? 2009, he was a library issue, wasn't it? 2009, he'd gone into 20, right? Did that town council listen to the people? No. Who was that in that town council, by the way? What happened to be Jill, was it? Please direct your attention up here. All right, well, so there was a TC3 member then, okay? 2000, then 2020 came along. All right, and 21. When all the restrictions started, all the restrictions started, okay? Guess what happened? Another 123 people moved out of town, okay? Then, this is now, why the town councils here now? The town council three, they lost 123 people, and then up to now before you guys walked in, there was another 170 residents that moved. A total of 293 residents that moved out of the town since all these wonderful, heavy-duty restrictions. And I guess, isn't that lining up if your residents are leaving and the prices are going up and the affordability is going up and everything's going up but we're losing we're losing people. Are these restrictions every time you put restrictions on we lose residents. Don't we? If no one believes me, they can do the research. Look it up. Look at the sense that it's for blood. Now, the girl that mentioned the owner occupied. Well, from 2019 to 2023, there was 71% of owner occupied that lived at home and rented their homes. I know people that had to leave because they couldn't afford it with all these heavy-duty restrictions. I told them, don't let them control. Don't make them push you out of town. I've watched it for years. We've all watched it. Guess what? 2024, that number from 71% in 23% to 2024, dropped to 44%. With all these restrictions, keep putting restrictions. And everyone's saying, oh, it's about the residents. You're running the residents out. Look at that poor girl. And she makes up. They make good money. And they still can't afford it. Now, let's talk about a four. Oh, I have many things to talk about. It says I can talk. All right, let's see. Let's talk about the TC3. Is it weird? Can we just please just keep it on the topic of the 14 proposed zoning amendments? No, this does a lot to do with it. I just want to make sure. What happens is they came in, they put their people where they wanted, all right. And they also work with people with a special interest group, town group, that claim they change their name to Narragansettown Residence Association. I want to know how many members are around that association because I don't believe it's all the town residents. Now back in 2012, look it up. I'll give you the day, 23, 2012. There was an ethics complaint. By one of the town council, three, I'll give you an initial. J. Guess who else but guess who else was mentioned in that? Gail and Harold from a special interest group. Does those names sound familiar? This is 2012. Now, 2019, the Economic Development Committee, the J was on there, and so was it Paul Z. One of my buddies, that lives in my neighborhood. Now, these people are the ones that want to do a recount. You know what's funny? Is they talk about this Facebook? I was on it, and you know what, and maybe things I didn't agree with everybody. But you know what's nice is you can learn like the man that left me warming. You should to hear everybody's point of view. All right. But you know what, when I didn't agree, I was blocked. I am all Facebook. All right. It's very misleading. That's another thing. Just like these town, town, narragansett town, resident association. Yeah, just like the Facebook that Al runs. So if you don't agree with them, you save something wrong, you get blocked. Or you turn yourself into a con thing. So nobody can see me. That's fine. I'm on the neighborhood thing. Whatever that is now. But I know you made a big thing about, and I don't really know this guy. Um, Michael? Is there a person? What's going on? Michael? Um, Mike Dolucro. And honestly, I don't really know him. I don't really know how happy you guys. But all I can say is something that they come up that was very concerning to me I mean he's complaining that you let him go but he was a property on clock road that was donated to elderly you guys need to look at it it's on Facebook I know it's not on Facebook. It's on one of the social media. Okay, but it was dilded. It was written. All right, that it was to be used for affordable or whatever. elderly housing. It was sold for two. I was 135,000. I think it was. Look it up. You know what I did? I asked, who was the town council, or who was on, whatever. I started researching. Who was on the affordable housing? Was this me and dad he's talking about. Michael, Zaluka. To me, we have issues with affordable housing. I don't know. You guys, you know what? You guys hear things. You guys have to decide. But anytime somebody gets them to knock out so they're going to put their people they trust. So now my question is, maybe he's totally intimate, but you're on affordable housing. How is this property sold that was supposed to be for elderly? And the other thing is, if you look at the percentage, which I know people get mad at me because they said about the truth is the truth, you're going to look it up. 44% of our residents are 55 and older. That includes me up at 5. I'm not making fun of people that are older. 22% are students. And they're not all students, the student age. Because I don't think every, just because of that percentage doesn't mean all those kids go to school. So, you know, that's another thing that's, and we're missing families. And the rate we're going if we keep losing families and we keep trying to block out rentals and it's only going to get worse. And the other thing is, do you want to know why the short term rental went up and up? Maybe you guys need to look at the state laws because they're trying to pass laws to protect They want to pass laws that hide if somebody got thrown out. They want to pass laws that hide if somebody got thrown out, they want to pass laws. So you'll get people to move in. So the landlord, they maybe has a mortgage and puts a family in it and say they lose their house. It could be totally innocent. right? As soon as you give them to us, they have 13 days of fun. Most people. It could be totally innocent. All right. As soon as you give them a notice, they have 13 days to respond. Most people know how to do this and they play the system. Some people are innocent about it. I personally would try to work on it, but realistically I have a mortgage. I can't let someone stay at my house for free. I can't. You know. And then people are tied up and it's six months through. And on top of it, the state and taxpayers are going to be paying for these people's lawyers to go after me. You know, and then people like tied up and it's six months through. Yeah. And then on top of it, the state and taxpayers are going to be paying for these people's lawyers to go after me. And what am I supposed to do? Let them live there for free and lose my house. My house is going to go in for closure. This stuff is so many different layers to it. But all I know is we lost our young people. And we're going to continue. You can't close the school, people like close the schools, get rid of the police. We should be higher in more police. We should be welcome. Oh, we close the schools. What's happening to school teachers? We don't need police. Well, we need them for the summer. We're going to hire them part-time. I mean, come out. We should be building our community. We should be encouraging the police so they can come here, hopefully, how their families here. There's so many different levels. And you know, people need to look at everything. So, you know what? When it comes to all the Facebook stuff, you gotta really do the your own research. And you gotta look up everything, you know, and make the decision. But I applaud you guys for all what you're going through. And at times, I didn't agree with you on many things you guys know that. But you know what? If I have someone concerned, you know I'll address it. But I really think you're being fair. And I think it's horrible that these bullies behind it. And then people are trying to say like we're dumb. Like dumb. Nobody said dumb. People are busy. They love. I work like two jobs. You think I have time to follow everything? You're only busy when I'm following this because it's been hurting. This is everything I worked for. I'm trying to keep one property, one property. And you know what? It gets straight and But I am, what can I? I'm not letting anybody decide my future. And you know what, and I watch many families while people walk away and it's sad and you all have. So please, don't let the loud noise and all the false claims that they're staying on Facebook or wherever the people should know enough and do the research. And everything I quoted, you do the research. I'll put on that neighborhood thing. So if anybody had any questions, they can whatever I yell at me, whatever I don't care. All right, you guys have a great night, and I'm sorry. Thank you. We used a lot of your time. Thank you. Before continuing any further, I just want to ask, does any other council have to use the restroom and therefore we take a brief recess? So we'll take a brief recess. Do we need a vote to go to a recess? Okay, we're just going to take a brief recess. Thank you. you you you you you you you you you I'm going to go to the next one. I'm going to go to the next one. I'm going to go to the next one. I'm going to go to the next one. I'm going to go to the next one. I'm going to go to the next one. I'm going to go to the next one. I'm going to go to the next one. I'm going to go to the next one. I'm going to go to the next one. Test. There you go. All right. And as the council has already shared their initial feedback this evening, there will be a lot of opportunity for workshops in the future and for all of these concerns to be addressed. With that being said, I will still take final comment. I, Catherine Celebrato first, and then the gentleman to the left. Thank you. I do. Catherine Celebrato, C-A-T-H-E-R-I-N-E. Celebrato, C-E-L-E-B-E-R-T-O-48-O's court. Unlike the previous speakers, I don't believe for one minute that you have all come to your senses and you're going to re-valuate these proposals. proposals, I believe that your decision to step back has nothing to do with public outcry. I believe it is directly related to the recall petitions that have been filed against three of you, Ms. and Allie, Mr. Durkin and Mr. Colonies. And I think it would be naive of anybody to withdraw those petitions. I think it's best that they go forward. That said, let's see. I just want to address some of the things people always say. The students and the tourists are the driving economic force in this town. Common sense, families in those same houses will spend more money in town across all the businesses than students ever could. There's a huge percentage of URI students who get financial aid. I was shocked when I went on a website. I couldn't believe it. But if you've been a college student, you know you don't have unlimited resources. You're not going to go eat it spain or all these other places, but families will. They'll do that and they'll support the schools, they'll support. They'll support all these businesses that sell sports equipment, all of that. And students don't do that. I think families would be the economic driver in this town. If we allow them to come back in, and there's only one way to do that, and that's the past strict ordinances. We have a place in a sterile flower that's right near FGCU. There's student housing. I can't even tell you how many thousands of units. Some were built on campus, some were built on the outside of the campus, public private partnerships. And you know why that is? Because they don't allow students in any of the developments in a sterile. We have a two unrelated rule in our condor development, believe it or not. But they're not allowed in the townhouses, the condos, the homeowner associations. And so the school was forced to build housing because they want to keep expanding. I've seen it over the past 20 years. How FGCU has expanded. But you know, URI, we are just the jumping round. And that's what comes down to. But if we pass ordinances limiting the number of students who can occupy the house, actually, we really need to pass ordinances. We need a rental registration moratorium immediately. No more rental registrations except annual rentals. And then we have to start cutting back on the number of student rentals that we have in this town. And that's just the fact of the matter. If we enforce the three student ordinance, the house prices will go down. And the real to hate this, they're on these social media sites and they say, do you want your house price to go down? I don't give a rat's behind, which I think is true, because I'm not selling my house. My house is not an investment. I'm not generating revenue with it, but people who do, yeah, they don't want the house prices to go down. And frankly, these other people that become, I think, house rich, that's what's happened here. And they will put up with anything as long as they can maintain that huge assessment. And I think that they're selling themselves short and selling their neighbors short. But people starting to cash out. The short-term rental commission, the state short-term rental commission, this company that we hired spoke there. 62% the historical average in this town is 62% owner occupied. We're down to 32% now, okay, 32%. And why is that? Certainly isn't because of strict ordinances, because every ordinance we've passed has been, you know, complained about to the superior court. They've been overturned. We had to pass them again. It's just been an ongoing cycle. And right now you're not enforcing anything. So, you're not enforcing anything. I guess residents should be moving back in, but they're not. They're not. We have to put breaks on all of it. And I know Mr. Jerkincilly doesn't want that, but hey, what are you going to do? Cash out. Boo-hoo-hoo. You appoint him, Mr. Jerk, into the Affordable Housing Trust. I have to wonder why. He owns 134 student rentals. He owns a block of little shacks, like call them, I shouldn't say that. It's called tiny hoses. Behind the old Iggy's, those used to be occupied by fishermen and the workers in the stores and stuff. They're occupied. He rents them now in the summer week to week, okay? All those people are displaced, just like the people at 151 Ocean Road. They were displaced. People are getting displaced all the time in this town, okay? And Mr. Jerkins, Pott and Possil of that, and you appoint Angela Ford at Pauhausen Trust. I have to wonder what the heck you were thinking about, okay? I don't believe that there are people in this town who counts that really care about affordable housing. You know, you'll talk, the talk, and walk, the walk, but the only way to create affordable housing in this town is not to allow developers to come in, get a possible Bill 20 units, and put five aside for affordable. We need whole blocks of affordable housing, like fields, stone apartments, orders, orders, edge apartments, south winds, beachwood. We need units. We need buildings like that with a lot of units in them. And that's not what's happening. This, this, you know, these these, these amendments and all that. They're not, they're not going to force that. And that's what we have to do. I, I, I could say more, but again, I believe it's the families that will be the economic driver in this town in the future, just as they were in the past. You know, even 30 years ago, we didn't have as many students in this town. And the ones that were here, they rented two bedroom shacks, and you know, San El Cole and Scott Barrow. And then the families came down in the summer, and they would occupy them then. But since I've been in this town, I could list a number of restaurants and businesses that are closed. And that's because the families aren't here to support them. We first moved here in 1991. I went to see that shopping plaza over there, but my husband a riding motor, motor, motor, which he would not use. But anyway, you know, and they saw the appliances and everything else, basil's restaurant closed. I mean, I could give you a list. And that's because they're on family. Students on buying, riding, mow is they're not going to basil's or spain or whatever. Families would, though. And then there's the school. Five years ago, I stood up here and I said to the town council, please, you really need to do something. The school is bleeding students. It's bleeding. And the solution is not to import students that cost us like probably 10,000 each. That's not the solution. The solution is to put a curve on the rentals because if I come into town and I know I can't rent I buy a house and I know I can't rent, I buy a house and I know I can't rent a student's in the summer, I can't generate 50 grand a year, just on a three bedroom house. I mean, it's more than that of your Belidra house. If I know I can't do that, I'm not going to come in, I'm not going to come in and the house prices will go down. And it's just we've got to face the fact, the house prices will go down. what?? They were 400 grand. Like, 15 years ago, did narrogans fall off the face of the earth? No. So we really need to put curbs on all of these rentals. It's just too bad. But if you can't serve two masters, and that's what you are trying to do, you think you can keep boosting up the school population by rubber stamping $37 million budgets sooner or later. It's going to bite you in the butt because people are going to say, I am spending too much on the school system and they're going to end up suing you, that's going to be the bottom line. Because you have to be physically responsible and what you're what you're doing is not fiscally responsible. You're just, like I say, you're just like rubber stamping, the school budget, and you're not doing anything to get families in. And that's what you have to do. And the last time council did try to do that, and they were sued and complained about and criticized, and yada, yada. Who cares? Who cares? This is your job. Your job is to make this town resident friendly, livable. Your job is to increase the number of residents. Your job is to increase the number of residents. And that's exactly what will happen with every one of these ordinances because there's no mandates in any of them. You know, you build, you have a 5,000 square foot life and build a duplex on it, but there's no mandate that you have to rent it annually. This is the problem with all of these proposals, no mandates. I have no doubt in my mind that if this recall, these recall petitions go away, that all these ordinances, they'll be resurrected sooner or later because certain people on this town council control by outside forces. There's things going on, you know, there's things going on that I really don't really like and I have to wonder but that I believe that these ordinances will be resurrected and I hope people out there realize this and aren't taking you, aren't believing that their protests are changing your mind because I don't think they are. Thank you. Thank you. Gentlemen right here. And then I'll go to you next. Thank you. And I will. I do. Tom Callahan, C-A-L-L-A-H-N. All right. Members of the council, I'm Tom Callahan. I am Carly, a planning board member. Before serving on the planning board, I was on the zoning board for two years. I'm speaking to you tonight. I guess in a split way, one is I simply want to take a minute as a planning board member and say the following that with respect to both the comments and Mr. Brady made tonight, the comments that Mr. Dordy made tonight. I sat through all of the hearings. I'm sure many of you have taken the opportunity to review those hearings. Both solicitors were asked several times over the course of our deliberations. Is there anything here that is not compliant with state law? The answer came back. No. Is there anything here in terms of what are our obligations with respect to getting back to the council? With respect to what can we do? Is it up or down? Can we only go up or down? Can we provide a recommendation? What could it be? The answer came back. You can only go up and down. So I mean, if there's any question about that, I encourage you to take the time, not that you haven't used it. Review the tape. Please do because it's important to get that issue off the table. Now what I'm here, not as a planning board member, I talk to you about, but on this subject, it's been raised tangentially tonight, but it really goes to the heart of the matter of the issues that you're considering is the University of Rhode Island. I worked at the University of Connecticut in stores for 22 years. For 15 of those years, I was the person, the university's point person, on managing town on-own relationships with the town of Mansfield. Town of Mansfield's not unlike Narrow Gansett in terms of the impact of off-campus student rentals with respect to destabilizing neighborhoods, the impact on lifestyle differences with the residents. And I spent a good deal of time working with the mayor, the council, the town manager, state legislator, state legislators from that district who at a couple of points in time one was the president of the senate and one was the house majority leader. So these are issues I know a little something I have a little experience about with and how it relates there's an affordability issue in Narragansett, a housing affordability issue and there is the affordable housing issue and you can solve I think both by making some progress with the University of Rhode Island. If I told you that Narragansett has a meeting house value right now is $665,000, that the annual median household income here was just under $100,000 and $95,000. And yet the poverty rate in Narragansett is 18.2%. Okay, it's 18.2. Now why is that? You know why it is? Because the census is taken in April every year, let me explain every 10 years, and there are, if you read the Crane Report somewhere between 6,000, 8,000 University of Rhode Island students living in Narragansett. There's no other explanation for why that could be. And so when people talk about Narragans' efforts to deal with affordable housing, one of the arguments going back to the state is we can do affordable housing for families in Narraganson, or we can do affordable housing for students because that's what we've been doing. But we may not be able to do both without some help from you. So what I would suggest is that as part of your thought process, it may or may not be related to these ordinances as you think, but as a council, as you move forward, you ought to be thinking about a 10-year plan. You may not be here for that full year. You may not be here for full 10 years. But with the town of Narragansi needs, whether it's you or somebody else sitting in your chairs, is a 10-year plan. And that 10-year plan should be to get two to 3,000 additional beds of undergraduate student housing built on the campus of the University of Rhode Island. Now Harry was up here a little early at the night. He said, I've come to the conclusion that if the university wanted to build those beds, they'd already be built. I come at this from a little different point of view, having had the experience that I've had. Nobody does something hard unless they're pressed and unless there's friction associated with it. So I would remind you that you are have the following leverage points with the University of Rhode Island and I have no idea what you all may be doing in the background. I did have the opportunity to see President Polonge's presentation to you in January. I have to say that it was feel good, but not substantive. I don't know what substantive conversations you may be having in the background, but assuming there are not any going on or that they're fairly light, I would suggest the following. You are, as representing the town of Narragansett, the host community for the University of Rhode Island's Bay Campus. I repeat again, you are the host community for the University of Rhode Island's Bay Campus. That is not an insignificant leverage point. University of Rhode Island touts the Bay Campus as basically being the key stone for its so-called blue economy efforts. And there is leverage in terms of saying, OK boys and girls, with respect to this thing, this is what we need to do with respect to the Bay campus. There is a sewage treatment plant that you know of on West Moreland Street Street. That's sewage from the main campus in Kingston and the Bay campus in North America, and it all ends up in West Moryland. Talk to the town engineers about how it works. Now, the irony here is you are in the position of having maxed out your allocation of sewage treatment at that plant. And you have to go to the University of Rhode Island, at least some of their unused capacity for an amount of money. I have no idea, Jim, but I'm sure if there is money involved, you can tell them what it is. So here's the irony. We are hosting six to 8,000 university Rhode Island students in Narragansett. Some number of those, I'll just for grants, I haven't done the analysis. We'll just say half of them live in the catchment area for the West Marlon plant. We're going to have to go back to the University of Rhode Island to lease their space in order to meet their needs because we're tapped out right now. It doesn't make any sense. If you look at the issue of, the University of Rhode Island right now is engaged in a physical master planning effort at the Kingston campus and at the Bay campus. If you're not plugged into that, you should be and you should be plugged in in a meaningful way. That is something we did as a routine basis at the University of Connecticut in Mansfield. And that's something that you should be because because while you, to Harry's point, while you may not have control of the situation, the question is, you have influence, and are you exercising your ability at the influence of the outcome here? So, the master plan, if you look at the work that's been done on the master plan today, you will see that they have an interest in not only trying to build a couple of thousand beds on campus, half for graduate students, half for undergraduate students. That's not a net number because they're going to have to take a number of the older facilities offline, either permanently or for some period of time when they get renovated. So it's not a net number. But if you look at what the universe, based on what they're printing in their own PowerPoint presentations on the master plan, what they're hearing from the students at the University of Rhode Island about the things that they'd like to see on campus. They'd like to see more housing on campus because A, the commute is too long. All right, that's A, the commute is too long. And B, one of the problems at the University of Rhode Island is there's nothing to do, right? So the University of Rhode Island is part of their master planning process is looking to take an area up on what would be the south, no, north eastern quadrant of the campus beyond the area that's physically developed right now as a little shopping center there and do some combination of a hotel, commercial student student-related housing project up there. Those types of efforts should be encouraged, we should figure out how it is that we could do something to encourage that as it goes along. The state and the University of Rhode Island both have greenhouse-gracity missions reduction splans. Anything that will take care of, if there are, let's just take the, let's take the middle number. 7,000 students, there are 7,000 cars making some numbers, making the 14-mile round trip from Narrow Gansett to Kingston on a daily basis. Some number, well, have to handicap that because you have the Monday Thursday, Monday with Wednesday Friday, Tuesday, Thursday schedule for academic schedule. You have an opportunity to press the state and the university on that issue as well with respect to the greenhouse gas emissions. They said, your entry points are, Board of Trustees, your entry points are, the legislatures, your entry points are senior administrators at the university. You need to break the cycle. You need to have a plan. You need to understand how those places work and what pressure they respond to. I have some thoughts about that. What happy you know as we workshop issues going forward it looks like that's going to happen. I have some thoughts about how you further thoughts about how you might do that. But if you leave here remembering anything that I said and it's late and I'm hoping taking advantage of the fact that the best hopefully the best is the best is last, that you can't solve this issue without addressing the University of Rhode Island and having them take you seriously as the host community for the Bay campus. And, you host more students in Narragansett than they do on campus right now. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Diluka. Good evening. I do. My name is Michael Deluca, and my C-A-E-L, capital D, capital L, U-C-A. Good evening. I know it's late. I will... I will preface my comments by saying I had a 25-minute presentation ready for you folks with tonight. But I'm not going to do that. Mostly because of the commentary made early on by Mr. Collinies and the remainder of you all, that seems to be that you're moving in the direction of withdrawing the 14 submittals and restarting the process, which I applaud you for acknowledging the necessity of that and also for acknowledging the need to get more public input, which I would be happy to contribute to when the time comes. So I have just a few things I want to mention and it starts with the public process. This was my opening commentary for tonight and some of it may be moved because we actually have had a very good public process this evening. I become keenly aware in my four decades of work in planning on how different the public process is from that of private industry. In the private sector it is common to completely overhaul a business when new leadership comes in. Eliminating policies in the prior regime is commonplace. But that's not how it should be in the public sector. Since we have no profit motive here, each new leadership group should be building upon the successes of their predecessors. Why? Because every new policy from the comprehensive plan on down is given public forum before it is adopted and implemented. The public component is vital to decision making to ensure that it reflects the needs and desires of the electorate. I believe you all have heard that loud and clear tonight. And again, I'm very happy to hear that you're ready to move on. But I do want to make a couple of points. It's interesting. My name came up from a couple other speakers earlier. Thanks, Joe Volpy. I didn't know I had a fan. He's not here, okay. I have my fan of Joe Volpy too. And what Mr. Cotrono said, I could inform you all of the background on that comment at another time. But what I want to say is I want to emphasize something that may have been mentioned once or twice already tonight. We are in compliance, as we sit here right now, with the State of Rhode Island Zoning and Abling Act. We are in compliance with the 30 of 40 bills that were passed between 2021 and last year. And to prove it, I'd like to make a note that no one who's come here, no one who's spoken tonight, particularly those who were in favor of approving the 14 amendments, identified a single specific passage or provision of the Zoning and Abling Act that we are in violation of. We did not hear any detail. So if you're saying that we're not in compliance, not you, but anyone, where? Moving on, what I want to say is the proposals that were drafted and submitted. I found to be unnerving in the sense that they were red line versions of previous chapters and then crossouts of language, specific language, but not the entirety of anything, of any of them, was completely crossed out. And so what really bothered me about all of that was that there was no replacement language. So for example, one of them was, and I promised you I won't go through them all. That Section 18.1A, this was in on the 1099, chapter 1099, they were going to strike the reference that would, that identifies the planning staff as being the responsible staff to assist the planning board in zoning board with site plan review But there was no replacement Site plan review is a huge process and it doesn't only go to the zoning ordinance The subdivisions are submitted for site plan review by the planning board so site plan review has to stay in the ordinance. You just can't eliminate it. And there needs to be an identified staff that's responsible to do that. Additionally, there was reference to, I'm not gonna go through them all, but one of the chapters was going to be amended to take out the planning board out of the process. Well, first of all, the planning board has to be in the process for subdivisions. There's a section on the code 4.8.1, which is the Galilee special district, and in that the planning board has sole authority to review site plans. But also, the planning board is the agency that certifies completeness of every site plan submitted. So to take them away from the process, but make them responsible for certifying is not good thinking. So I submitted a four page outline of the comments that I'm just alluding to now. Ms. Masson has numerous copies of it that I handed to her earlier this evening. And I would ask that she distribute that to all. You've got them. And then you look at those. That outline identifies areas of inconsistency that could happen if we passed one or most, I think, 12 of the 14. Two of them didn't have any inconsistency created. And in the end result is over 20 areas of inconsistency or outright violation of state law that would come out of that. So I employ you not to pass those. And I ask that since I hope you'll do this now so that I'll get away from as you take action, if you do vote to reject all 14 and restart the process, I suggest strongly that you either a arrange for workshops, first arrange for some sort of an organizational group to take the lead. You could give it to the planning board. You could establish a subcommittee of members of the planning board, members of the council, members of the public, and I start working meetings. If it were me in your position, I would want to sit down with a group of people who are interested, who have varying opinions, as Mr. Volpe said, we want to hear all sides. And take a look at each one of these things. Look at the issues that you are most concerned with. Site plan review, bulk zoning, two family dwellings. And try to scope out where the problem areas are. Without going to the point of jumping ahead to write the correction, just scope out where you need to do that. Do that in a working meeting. Have more than one. Have numerous working meetings. And then bring that up the ladder to your committee or your subcommittee. And then through to the planning board and let the planning board vet those things out. As others have said, one or two at a time so it's manageable. I would be happy to help in any stage of this. As you know, I have 18 years experience here, and I do know the zoning ordinance fairly well. So I'd be happy to be part of anything that you might set up for volunteers. I thank you for your time. Thank you. Is there anyone else here who's patiently waited this long to speak? All right, seeing none, I will turn the floor back over. I didn't miss anyone, right? Okay. Turn the floor back over to the Council for final comments. I'll start with Mr. Colonies first. Thank you everybody for coming out again. I stick by what I said from the beginning. I listen to you all today. So unless other council people want to say anything I would love to make a motion. Does anyone have any final thoughts or comments While the public hearing is in session Okay, I would like to go on as you may proceed. I'd like to make a motion to close the public hearing So moved I'll second it Oh, second. I'm sorry. I thought that was Ryan. He was making a motion. Ryan's second. He moved while I thought he... All right. It works. It's fine. Oh, sorry. Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes 5-0. And now, is there any additional comments? I'd like to make a motion to withdraw these amendments as proposed. Second. I just want to check with our solicitors at work. Yes, since you as the body proposed, the amendments, Mr. Colonies and Mr. Nally, they can make a motion with drawouts in your jurisdiction. At that point, if you do have a second and a vote and that's approved, then the process would end here and then if you want to propose something new in the future, that would be a whole new beginning. All those. Okay. Okay. Thank you. So Mr. Colonies has made that motion. And Councillor McNally has seconded any discussion? Any final thoughts from the public? All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes 5-0. Is there a motion to adjourn at 9-18-PM? Motion to adjourn. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes 5-0. Have a great night.