Developer seeks big changes to Tiverton Glen

Posted 7/7/15

Town Council hearings on proposed changes set for 7 p.m. Monday, July 7 in Tiverton High School Auditorium  

TIVERTON — Carpionato Group, the developer that wants to build a 63.4 acre Tiverton Glen project between Souza Road and Route 24, is …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

Log in

Register to post events


If you'd like to post an event to our calendar, you can create a free account by clicking here.

Note that free accounts do not have access to our subscriber-only content.

Day pass subscribers

Are you a day pass subscriber who needs to log in? Click here to continue.


Developer seeks big changes to Tiverton Glen

Posted

Town Council hearings on proposed changes set for 7 p.m. Monday, July 7 in Tiverton High School Auditorium  

TIVERTON — Carpionato Group, the developer that wants to build a 63.4 acre Tiverton Glen project between Souza Road and Route 24, is seeking far-reaching last-minute amendments to zoning requirements the planning board has recommended to govern the project. The amendments, filed at the end of last week with the Town Council, came to light the day before the start of the holiday weekend, and just days before the Town Council is set to initiate back-to-back public hearings, on Tuesday night, July 7, at 7 p.m. (after the print version of this paper went to press), in the Tiverton High School Auditorium, about the town's largest-ever project. The separate hearings concern Comprehensive Plan (the Comp Plan) and zoning ordinance amendments recommended by the Tiverton Planning Board that would apply to the development project. The notice for the two council hearings also says that the Carpionato-recommended amendments will be part of the public hearing. The notice does not include the possibility that the council will be voting at the hearing on the proposed amendments. "They're making several different amendments, including asking for a building 130,000 square feet in size. With their amendments, it's an entirely different development than the one we recommended," said Planning Board Chairman Steve Hughes. The planning board had recommended the maximum size for the one large retail building be 100,000 square feet. Another Carpionato-proposed amendment would increase the number and size of Souza and Main Road signs for the project. The planning board had recommended that there be no entrance at all to the project from Main Road, and had approved a Master Plan for the project conditioned on there being no entrance to the project off Main Road. A proposed entrance at that location would adversely impact, if not eliminate, the Osborn-Bennett Historic District in the area of the proposed Main Road entrance, opponents say. The planning board had also limited the size and number of signs for the project. "I don't feel good about them at all," said Mr. Hughes Monday, about the changes. "Their proposals just arrived. I'll be writing to the council to remind them all that we went through to get to the decision we made." For over two years, the Tiverton Planning Board has held public information sessions and hearings, beginning in April 2013. Except at the beginning of the process, when it made its initial presentations, Carpionato, though present, has remained largely silent, not commenting or responding to testimony by witnesses, nor participating in the dialogue between the public and the planning board about language changes to the Comp Plan or zoning ordinances. No development standards Another last-minute change in the zoning ordinance that Carpionato is asking the council to approve is the deletion of any requirement that it adhere to "Development Standards and Guidelines for Mixed Use Development Districts" in its "site design" for the entire project. "What Carpionato is proposing is the elimination of all standards and guidelines. I think it's crazy — ridiculous I guess I should say — to say to the council that there shouldn't be standards and guidelines, and that they can do whatever they want," said Mr. Hughes. Besides dealing with "site design," the "development standards and guidelines" Carpionato wants to eliminate would deal with signs, loading and service areas, external roadways and buffers, fences, walls, or other architectural barriers, building design and architecture, and lighting. Other changes Carpionato is asking the council to make a number of other changes in the zoning ordinance that the planning board has recommended. One includes getting rid of the planning board requirement — that would apply to the entire land area to be covered by the development — that "Landscape plans shall utilize existing site features including existing stone walls, mature trees, site topography, and vegetated buffers to the greatest extent practicable." Carpionato also seeks an increase (from 130,000 square feet to 200,000 square feet) in the number of multifamily housing units in the project from what the planning board had recommended, a change with implications for school population, fiscal, and traffic projections not yet analyzed. Planning board limitations on the "density of uses" also are sought to be changed in the Carpionato proposal. Retail and service businesses are allowed greater density (up from 343,000 square feet to 450,000 square feet), as are the size and coverage of exterior tents allowed. In a letter to the editor, former Council President Louise Durfee writes that Carpionato "has now shown its true colors and lived up to its reputation for broken promises and bait-and-switch tactics." Kelly M. Coates, senior vice president for development and commercial leasing at Carpioato, was present at nearly all planning board meetings and hearings concerning the project. This paper has asked Mr. Coates to comment on the timing of and reasons for seeking the changes. As of the time this paper went to press, he had not responded.
Carpionato Development Group, Tiverton Glen, Tiverton Planning Board, Tiverton Town Council

2024 by East Bay Media Group

Barrington · Bristol · East Providence · Little Compton · Portsmouth · Tiverton · Warren · Westport
Meet our staff
MIKE REGO

Mike Rego has worked at East Bay Newspapers since 2001, helping the company launch The Westport Shorelines. He soon after became a Sports Editor, spending the next 10-plus years in that role before taking over as editor of The East Providence Post in February of 2012. To contact Mike about The Post or to submit information, suggest story ideas or photo opportunities, etc. in East Providence, email mrego@eastbaymediagroup.com.