A plan to re-develop the vacant, historic Liberty Street School into a 20-unit housing development with 5 units listed as affordable — which was subject to its first informal meeting back in February of 2023 — moved one step closer to a final approval during Monday night’s meeting of the Warren Planning Board.

The board voted unanimously in favor of granting preliminary approval to the plan, submitted by developer team Ron Louro and John Lannan, but did so with a long list of conditions that they would need to satisfy in order for Town Planner Herb Durfee to sign off on the final approval — a move that the board voted could be done administratively without the need for an additional meeting, provided Durfee was satisfied their conditions had been met in the final updated plan to be submitted.

The developers decided to move forward with the proceedings even though the planning board’s decision to grant initial, Master Plan approval is currently subject to a legal appeal from one of the project’s abutters, Frank Alde, which is currently making its way through hearings in Rhode Island Superior Court and the outcome of which has yet to be determined.

Opponents of the development reiterate their position
If you’ve sat through any of the proceedings on this development, or read any of our reports from those meetings, the arguments from those opposed to the plan have remained pretty consistent.

Doug McLean — Senior Planner for South Kingstown and the most recent expert called upon by Alde’s legal counsel, Kelly Morris Salvatore, to provide testimony in regards to their opposition to the proposed development — laid out the pillars of criticism regarding the project: that it’s too dense (coming in at 32 units per acre of space); too massive (the three-story building in the rear of the project is larger than anything in the surrounding area, including the existing school building); and the crowded site design opens up safety issues in terms of pedestrian and vehicular flow, and emergency access.

Morris Salvatore, an experienced attorney and the Town Solicitor for Cumberland, made the argument that the applicant had not done enough to satisfy the board’s own concerns about the size of the development.

“During this entire hearing process, members of the board have commented that the building proposed on this plan is too big, that it’s not subordinate,” she said. “They should be presenting you with a plan that you can approve on paper. I am very concerned about that. I don’t know what your decision is going to be tonight, but with all the comments you’ve made throughout the course of these hearings that I’ve attended, this plan does not comport with your concerns.”

Alde would later step up to the microphone to give his own concerns about the development, which stemmed from an angle of fiscal liability for the town should something happen at the development where emergency vehicles are not able to access the property in time due to its narrow access point.

“Please believe my intentions are very earnest about Warren. I am really concerned that with the situation the town is in. I am referring to the financial situation, primarily,” he said. “I am afraid we are moving into territory where the town cannot do the things to secure the wonderful future here for all of our citizens if we become subject to legal exposure based on liabilities that we possibly could incur. I am very much concerned it could break the town’s financial back.”

Conditions satisfied the board’s concerns
Through a lengthy list of conditions to the developers, however, the board clearly found enough reassurance to provide preliminary approval of the project.

Those conditions included everything from ensuring that the fire chief signs off on the final design plan for emergency vehicle access, to a unique request from planning board member Jenny Flanagan that the developers will find a way to recycle the wood from the two mature Linden trees that will need to be removed at the entrance of the property for some yet-to-be-determined use (she mentioned potentially for a commemorative bench).

Additionally, the board required the developers to remove all three-bedroom units from the plan, to move an affordable unit out from the basement of the renovated school building, to shrink the size of the new building to 85% of the size shown in the preliminary plan design, and (perhaps most importantly to Alde’s concerns) to ensure that the agreement signed by condominium owners states “explicitly” that all legal liability for injuries or incidents that occur on the property falls to the condominium association, and not the Town of Warren.

Bruce Cox, the attorney representing the applicant, indicated that all of these conditions would be met. Indeed, an updated design plan for the building — which was submitted by the developer last month to the Planning Board — showed that a majority of the conditions requested had already incorporated by their design team.

Since the development was submitted under the Comprehensive Permit application, the Town has a ticking clock of 90 days to reach a final determination. This means that Town Planner Herb Durfee will need to render a final approval or denial before the August meeting of the Planning Board.