Public hearing on plan erupts in jeers
Planning Board decides to close the hearing on the townwide development plan.

Friday, June 10, 2005

By JOHN HILL
Journal Staff Writer

NORTH SMITHFIELD -- A steady two-hour barrage of criticism of a proposed townwide development plan pushed the Planning Board to postpone a vote on it last night, which pleased a room full of plan opponents.

But they were enraged moments later, when the board voted to close the public hearing on the plan.

The room erupted in cheers and applause when members said they didn't want to vote on an updated version of the town's master plan of development, but that changed to cries of "Shame on you," "dictators"' and "thanks for selling us out" when the board announced it was closing the hearing.

Caroly Shumway, of the Valley Alliance for Smart Growth, a citizens group that has been the most vocal against particular parts of the plan, complained loudly that the board had left open the possibility of changes to the plan but not residents' chance to comment on it.

"How do you have the audacity to do that?" she called out from the audience.

Planning Board Chairman Lucien Benoit left open the possibility of reopening public comment on the plan, but said it would be at the board's discretion.

Benoit and Planning Board member Joseph Cardello III said the board's problem was that to keep the hearing open, by law they would have to set a specific date to reconvene.

Since the board was seeking further information about some groundwater issues raised in the hearing and didn't know when that information was coming, they said it couldn't set a specific date to meet and discuss those new facts. The only other choice, they said, was to close the hearing and meet when the reports were ready.

The master plan sets broad land-use goals for the town, saying what kind of development should be built and where.

The board members said they wanted more information about changes to area off Route 146A, which is the site of the proposed 120-acre Dowling Village shopping complex.

Valley Alliance members said a geologist they hired had suggested that a bedrock aquifer under the site might be able to produce drinkable water. The alliance geologist also said there were signs of cracks in the bedrock under the shopping center site that could allow pollutants from parking lots to seep into the aquifer.

Another concern was a plan to allow office and commercial development around Whortleberry Hill roughly in the crook of Route 146 and Greenville Road. Speakers said they were worried about flooding and traffic problems that developing that 300-acre area might create.

But the real lightning rod was the Dowling Village portion of the plan. Speaker after speaker opposed it -- some on water-protection grounds, others because big chain retailers would put small local stores out of business, or others because it would clash with what they called the town's rural character.

In more than two hours, only one speaker spoke in favor of the plan. That was former Budget Committee Chairman Paul Laprade. Laprade said his house taxes had gone up 118 percent in eight years, and the town needed more development to stop that trend.

"I know I'm in the minority here tonight," he said. "But we need growth."

Shumway and other speakers, including town grant writer Mary McDonald, said they agreed that the town needed growth. But they said large-scale national chain retail stores could wind up costing more in increased services than they contributed in new taxes.

McDonald said that at a meeting she and Town Administrator Robert B. Lowe had with state economic-development officials recently, a state official said they preferred not to lure large-scale retailers to the state.