Dowling Village tax proposal would cap annual increases

The proposal may go to the Town Council next month for review.

Thursday, March 24, 2005

By JOHN HILL
Journal Staff Writer

NORTH SMITHFIELD -- Town Administrator Robert B. Lowe said that in about two weeks he hopes to present the Town Council with a draft tax agreement with the developers of Dowling Village, a massive shopping complex proposed for Route 146A.

While he has not disclosed the specifics of the agreement with Bucci Development that he will present to the council, just the idea of a tax treaty with the Dowling Village developers has already drawn sharp criticism.

Plans for the 120-acre development on the Woonsocket city line call for about a dozen stores, some of them as large as 100,000 square feet. Supporters have said the complex could generate about $1 million annually in property taxes for the town.

The complex is proposed for an area that is already commercially developed, the supporters say, and its tax payments will mean lower taxes for homeowners.

But opponents say a 120-acre shopping complex will draw huge amounts of customer traffic, congesting local roads and destroying what they say is the town's most attractive asset -- its character as a rural residential area.

Others have protested that so-called big-box retailers such as Home Depot or Lowe's will run small businesses in North Smithfield and Woonsocket out of business.

Councilman Paul Zwolenski said he was opposed to any tax agreement for Dowling Village before the project has been voted on by the Planning Board. Zwolenski is opposed to the Dowling Village project itself, saying the site would be better used as an office complex.

The town should wait to see if it's approved, he said, and then negotiate from a position of greater strength because Bucci will have more to lose at that point.

Resident Vincent J. Marcantonio Jr. said the developers were getting a good deal without any special favors from the town.

With a local tax rate at $14.26 -- compared with Woonsocket's and North Providence's rates, which he said are more than double that -- Marcantonio said Bucci would get enough of a break already.

"A tax treaty would be so unfair to the people of North Smithfield," Marcantonio said.

Lowe said the final details of the agreement he has been negotiating with Bucci Development will not be set until the council's April 4 meeting. But he said, generally, the deal, if approved, would set a tax-increase ceiling at about 4 percent per year for 10 years.

Lowe said that would be an incentive for stores to come in quickly, which would in turn build up the local tax base. It would also give businesses considering coming to the shopping center the ability to more accurately predict their operating expenses.

The development is before the town's Planning Board and still has to go through a master plan public hearing and vote before it gets final approval. Lowe said a tax agreement would not prejudice those proceedings, merely mean that if the complex is approved, the plan can take effect immediately.

"This just says if they come here, this is what's here," Lowe said. "This doesn't give them any approvals."

Town Councilwoman Melissa Flaherty said yesterday she was undecided about the tax deal and the project in general.

"I need to know what's up," she said. "What Dowling Village is going to look like.

"There are a lot of unanswered questions," she said.