LETTER: Tiverton Glen developer sets the record straight

Posted 7/16/15

On Monday night the Tiverton Town Council is NOT being asked to take an up or down vote on Carpionato Group’s proposed development, Tiverton Glen. The Council is not being asked to alter the direction of the town, and future development.

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LETTER: Tiverton Glen developer sets the record straight

Posted

On Monday night the Tiverton Town Council is NOT being asked to take an up or down vote on Carpionato Group’s proposed development, Tiverton Glen. The Council is not being asked to alter the direction of the town, and future development.

The Council IS being asked to vote on a very narrow issue – correcting language discrepancies between the town’s Comprehensive Community Plan and the town’s Future Land Use Map.

The Tiverton Comprehensive Community Plan, adopted in 2006 after much discussion and debate, specifically anticipates that a development such as Carpionato has proposed could be built on this land near Route 24. From page 87 of the Comp Plan:

“After numerous public workshops and Planning Board public meetings it was determined that a town center or village concept was the most desirable development approach. The town center concept would include a mixture of uses such as retail, restaurant, office, municipal, public and residential.”

The Comp Plan goes on to say, “While the situation, as of this writing, is evolving, the town expects development to occur in these critically located areas of town, and that development to include a residential component.”

The Future Land Use Map, however, does not reflect that language, for whatever reason.

The Tiverton Planning Board and its own consultants recognized the discrepancy. The planning board’s advisory opinion asks the Town Council to change the Future Land Use Map to indicate that “mixed use” is acceptable on the property where Carpionato Group would like to build Tiverton Glen.

As it stands now, no developer – neither Carpionato nor anyone else – can even begin the process to develop this land in a way that Tiverton residents and leaders anticipated happening when they proposed, wrote and approved the Comprehensive Community Plan nearly a decade ago.

Any development – especially one that could eventually cost in the hundreds of millions of dollars — doesn’t happen over night.  It is a negotiation. The developer doesn’t get to do everything it wants to do, nor does it have to do everything the Town wants it to do, there is always the option of walking away.

The best developments happen when a Town or City and a developer work together with push and pull, give and take to create something that brings benefits to both sides and that all can be proud of.

The Tiverton Comprehensive Community Plan anticipates a mixed-use development on this land. We wouldn’t have proposed Tiverton Glen if it didn’t. What our mixed-use project ultimately will look like is a long way off and would require considerable negotiation with the Town and regulatory approvals. But we can’t even begin that discussion in earnest unless the Comp Plan and the Future Land Use Map are in alignment.

Joe Pierik

Johnston

Mr. Pierik is vice president of the Carpionato Group.

Tiverton Glen

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