To the editor:

When the chair of the Tiverton Planning Board asked the other members of the Board if there were any other conditions for the Tiverton Glen development at the April 28 meeting, no one brought up the one I had sent to them April 24.

Specifically, I asked them to leave the Brito parcel asis for use as public open space. For clarification, this property surrounds both sides of the historic house at 1148 Main Road, extending eastward adjacent to Route 24 to a point next to Viti.

By not developing these 18-plus acres,

1. The developer saves money from excessive blasting of the ledge and paying homeowners damages to their properties that result from it.

2. The Osborn-Bennett Historic District remains on the National Register.

3. Wildlife threatened by the loss of their habitat under development will move to this acreage, joining the deer, turkeys, coyotes, and eagles already 4. The source of Sin and Flesh Brook will remain relatively untouched (assuming any development adjacent to it will not mar it), thus the trout pond on Fish Road and the five endangered species in the National Heritage site that this brook goes through will remain unharmed.

5. There will be public woodlands, meadows, and trails in the north end of town per the June 2014 Comprehensive Plan meetings.

6. The public will be able to “Discover Beautiful Rhode Island” as they drive past on Route 24, seeing woodlands, stone walls, and greenspace, rather than big, boxy, cement block buildings next to Viti’s big boxes.

7. Our Preserve America Community will look like it cares about preservation of historic properties with the stone walls, agricultural fields, and historic homes as travelers exit onto Main Road.

8.  Farmers could rent the agricultural fields and farm them, as was done historically here, or the agricultural land could be made into community gardens for those who live in the denser parts of town and have no space for a garden.

Every major development we have in town had a condition/provision for public open space. Sandywoods and The Villages at Mt. Hope Bay both comply. Tiverton Glen should also. Carpionato’s other developments prove they don’t need 64 acres to do what they want. They can make do with 44 acres or less if they really wanted to “work with the town”.

I had asked the board to either deny the application because it doesn’t meet the needs/wants of the Tivertonians per those Comprehensive Plan meetings, or to make another condition of preserving the Brito parcel for public open space and historic insight as to the way Tiverton was over two centuries ago.

I am now requesting the Town Council to do what the Planning Board did not. There are other taxpayers and voters who feel the same way I do — and will remember come election time.

Susan Anderson

Tiverton