Recap: Tiverton Planners OK Farm Solar Array, Delay Three-Home Subdivision

A three-lot subdivision off Mary Lane, with a home and an accessory unit on each lot, will return to the Planning Board on Dec. 1. Its access depends on a 40-foot strip that a neighbor says is hers, and a lawsuit over the strip is pending. A farm on Nanaquaket Road won conditional approval for a small solar array, with the fence requirement waived. The board also gave a positive review to a new house in the Stafford Pond watershed.

Tiverton, R.I. — The Tiverton Planning Board on Tuesday night granted conditional approval for a small ground-mounted solar array on a farm on Nanaquaket Road. It also pushed a contested three-lot subdivision off Mary Lane to its Dec. 1 meeting, according to the Tiverton Planning Board's published meeting recording.

The subdivision, Stonegate Estates, stalled over a single question: whether a 40-foot strip at the end of the Mary Lane cul-de-sac gives the new lots legal access to a public road. A neighbor says the strip is part of her property, and a lawsuit over it is pending, according to a statement read on her behalf.

Three applications moved to Dec. 1 The board opened by amending its agenda and voting to continue three items to Dec. 1. They were two development applications and the Stafford Farms application.

The board also voted to extend the "time clock" on one of those items to Dec. 31. A time clock is the deadline under state law for the board to act on an application. Members said the other two items already had clocks running to Dec. 30 and Dec. 31, so no change was needed.

Stonegate Estates: access dispute pushes vote to Dec. 1 The Stonegate Estates application covers about 11 acres on Bulgarmarsh Road, according to land-use expert Peter Friedrichs, who testified for the applicant. A single-family home on the property has been demolished. The plan calls for three lots, each with a single-family home and a detached accessory dwelling unit, a smaller second home on the same lot.

Engineer Jeffrey Hanson said access would come from a roughly 230-foot extension off Mary Lane ending in a new cul-de-sac. He said the cul-de-sac design was reviewed with the fire chief for the turning radius of the largest fire vehicle. Each lot would have its own septic system and public water. A stormwater facility would discharge to a large wetland in the southwest corner of the property, Hanson said.

Friedrichs walked through the five findings state law requires before a subdivision is approved. They are consistency with the comprehensive plan, zoning compliance, environmental impacts, buildable lots and street access. He said the project meets all five at the preliminary plan stage. He also said the applicant was asking for a waiver of the environmental review statement.

Attorney Dylan Conley, representing the applicant, told the board that the legal status of the access strip is not this board's question. He said the law asks only whether there is physical access. Conley said the 1980s-era Mary Lane subdivision plat marks the strip as an "area reserved for future road." He said the Town Council later accepted that plat. He cited a recent Superior Court decision in a Westerly case involving Habitat for Humanity and argued the strip functions as a paper street. A paper street can be abandoned only through a formal process, he argued, and no such step has ever been taken.

Several speakers on the board's side disagreed. One said state law defines access as "adequate and permanent." That speaker said access over land the applicant has not shown it owns or holds recorded rights to cannot be shown to be permanent.

Another speaker, offering what they called a legal opinion to the board, said the board lacks jurisdiction to decide that the strip is legal access. That speaker said there is no recorded easement and no title to the strip in the applicant's name. The speaker said the applicant could buy the strip, obtain an easement or seek a court ruling.

One board member said the tax assessor's map showed the land under the strip as part of the neighboring lot on Mary Lane. Rosemary Eva, a board member, said she sat on the board when the original Mary Lane subdivision came before it. She said she remembered a stormwater easement on the property and "There was no 40 foot on that."

Neighbor's account During public comment, a speaker read a statement on behalf of the owner of the neighboring Mary Lane lot, who was present and said she agreed with it. The statement said the developer approached the owner in December 2022 and offered compensation for use of the land. The offers rose from $3,000 to a proposed total of $35,000, and then to $40,000 to buy the strip outright, the statement said. The owner declined each offer, according to the statement.

The statement said the owner was served with a civil suit over the land in January 2024 and that the case remains pending. It also said workers hired by the developer entered the property with machinery and removed trees, and that the owner filed a report with the Tiverton Police Department.

The owner told the board she pays taxes on the land, bought her property in November 2021 and wants to see a deed showing the strip was given to the town.

What the board did One member said they did not oppose the subdivision and did not want to turn it down. That member suggested holding off on action rather than deciding. The board's time clock on the application runs to Dec. 7, members said.

The board was also weighing a memo from its consulting engineer, Weston & Sampson, that one member said raises engineering issues still to be resolved. A speaker for the applicant offered to accept a condition requiring every Weston & Sampson concern to be addressed by final plan. The applicant's side said it wanted a full chance to rebut those concerns if any were used as grounds for denial.

Board members raised moving the matter to a Dec. 15 special meeting. That would require the applicant to extend the time clock, and the applicant's side said it had no authority to do so.

The board then voted by voice to continue the hearing to Dec. 1 to discuss the engineering and make a final decision. A speaker suggested the applicant's engineers meet with Weston & Sampson beforehand to narrow the issues.

Farm solar array approved with conditions The Nanaquaket Road property owner is proposing a 936-square-foot ground-mounted solar array on a 29-acre farm to power farm operations and the house. Ground-mounted arrays are mostly prohibited in town but allowed on properties in the state farm program, a speaker reviewing the application explained. The array would cover about 0.7% of the lot, sit roughly 500 feet from the road and stand just over 10 feet tall, the speaker said.

Board member Stuart Hardy said he supports the project. He listed requirements unique to farm solar arrays. Generation is capped at 125% of the farm's electricity needs, and Hardy said he had read this one would produce about 101%. The other requirements are a USDA-approved farm conservation plan, proof of farm tax status, a recorded operating and maintenance plan, and decommissioning information. The owner said she has a conservation plan, though members noted it was not in their packets.

Town Planner Christopher Spencer said the rules call for a 10-foot chain-link fence but that the board can waive it. He said he would rather not see one. The owner said she plans a low fence to keep her horses away from the array.

Tim Rich of Newport Solar testified that the wiring would run through buried conduit and that the equipment would be sealed. He said installation might not happen before the end of the year but could come within a month of approval.

On a motion by Eva, the board approved the preliminary plan by voice vote. The approval is conditioned on submission of the missing documents, a waiver of the fence requirement and proper titling of all plans. A speaker said the final plan will be handled administratively, so the owner does not need to return to the board.

New house near Stafford Pond gets positive review The board voted 4-0 to accept an environmental review statement for a new house on a roughly five-acre Bulgarmarsh Road property in the Stafford Pond watershed. The vote amounts to a positive recommendation to the building official.

An engineer from Civil Engineering Concepts said the owners want to keep the existing house as an accessory unit, which still requires a zoning variance. He said impervious building coverage would rise from 2.3% to 4%. Roof runoff would go to an infiltration trench, he said, and former paddock areas would be seeded.

One board member called Stafford Pond the town's only drinking-water source apart from Fall River. That member said increases like this one, repeated around the pond, would add pollution, and urged the use of the state's low impact development manual. The member also pressed the applicant to seek a letter of applicability under the town's soil erosion ordinance. The engineer agreed to contact the building official about it ahead of time.

Spencer said the proposal "complies completely" with watershed rules, which cap impervious cover at 10%. Two residents asked about contamination testing in the area. One suggested new construction anywhere in town be tested for possible contamination spread.

Comprehensive plan update The comprehensive plan is the town's long-range guide for land use. A speaker said a draft request for proposals to hire a consultant for the plan update is expected to go to the Town Council when the new council is sworn in in December.

One member, who said they were active in the 2018 plan, said the town is supposed to have a new plan by 2028. That member said they were "very disappointed" the work has not been a higher priority. Susan Anderson, speaking during public comment, read the 2018 plan's history: work began in late 2013, and the council adopted the plan on April 30, 2018. A member asked that the item stay on future agendas, and the chair agreed.

Other business Town staff said the Technical Review Committee meets next Tuesday at noon at Town Hall. On its agenda are a proposed ice rink and driving range project and a convenience and package store on Main Road. Staff also mentioned a planned People's Credit Union branch and a drive-thru bank on Main Road. The board voted to move approval of its Sept. 1 and Sept. 15 minutes to Dec. 1 after a member said they had not received hard copies. Members discussed holding a Saturday, Dec. 5 workshop on zoning amendments covering prohibited uses, the use table and definitions, and several said the date worked for them. The board meets next on Dec. 1, when Stonegate Estates, Stafford Farms and the other continued items are expected to return. Members referred to a special meeting already planned for Dec. 15 for the Friendship Farms application.

Recap: Tiverton Planners OK Farm Solar Array, Delay Three-Home Subdivision

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