City, town water talks put on hold

Agreement on Dowling Village has become a sticking point, they say.

Friday, January 14, 2005

By JOHN HILL
Journal Staff Writer

NORTH SMITHFIELD -- Negotiations on connecting the town to Woonsocket's water system are "at loggerheads" over a Woonsocket demand that the town complete a tax treaty with the developers of Dowling Village as part of the deal, Town Administrator Robert B. Lowe said yesterday.

"They said they wanted there to be an agreement on Dowling Village and I said I didn't want to do that," Lowe said of a meeting he had around Christmas with Woonsocket development director Joel D. Mathews.

The talks with Dowling are proceeding, Lowe said, adding he saw no serious difficulties in completing the deal, though he declined to set a specific date.

Woonsocket is interested in the fate of Dowling Village because about 19 acres of the proposed 120-acre commercial-business complex will be in the city, the anchor of a special economic district that the city hopes will generate up to $30 million in tax revenue over 10 years.

Mathews was not available for comment yesterday. Last month, Woonsocket Director of Administration Michael Annarummo said the city might reconsider its willingness to allow a North Smithfield connection if officials there were to oppose the project. But he said yesterday he knows of no glitch in the connection negotiations.

Lowe said he didn't like the tenor of the December conversation he had with Mathews and decided to have a cooling-off period in the discussions.

The timeout in the water talks is possible because the town has gotten approval from the state Department of Health to drill a new town well on Tifft Road. The well, Lowe said, will provide enough water for the town's projected new developments.

With advance work already done by the town's Water Authority, that well should be on line by summer, he said. Once it's pumping, he said the town should have enough water for the Laurelwoods and Silver Pines condominium projects, as well as a planned Slatersville mill apartment development and a Super Stop & Shop on Route 102.

North Smithfield still needs a Woonsocket water connection for its long-term economic future, Lowe said, but with the well coming on line, it's no longer an immediate necessity.

He said he understood Woonsocket's desire to see the Dowling Village project go forward, but at the same time he said he didn't feel it was right for Woonsocket to dictate policy to his town.

"We're both trying to get the best for our communities," he said.

"I'm not going to run away from them," he said. "But I'm not going to bow down to them either."

Dowling Village is a 120-acre, multimillion-dollar retail-commercial complex planned off Route 146a on the North Smithfield-Woonsocket line. The complex is expected to include between seven to 10 national-chain retail stores ranging in size from 10,000 square feet to 100,000 square feet as well as three restaurants and office buildings.

Lowe said Dowling officials want a 10-year agreement that will detail in advance how much their tax rate will go up each year so they can market locations in the complex to tenants.

The agreement won't be a discount, Lowe said, but set specific tax annual payments. That will give both parties specific numbers that the developers can use to predict costs for tenants and the town can use to project how to pay for big-ticket items such as bond issues.