Visioning Group to Study Route 2/102 Intersection

The North Kingstown Town Council approved a $54,135 “visioning process” to study a controversial area of town – the intersection of.

The study will be conducted by a stakeholder group made up of a mixture of neighboring residents, business owners in the area and conservationists. The council cut the number of voting stakeholders from 16 to 11.  (See below for the current roster for this stakeholders group.) The group will study the area and find a consensus for what should happen to the area in the future. Aside from the 11 members, there will be several ad hoc members – two from the Exeter Planning Department, two from the North Kingstown Planning Department and Commission and Martha Pughe of the North Kingstown Chamber of Commerce.

The council spent more than an hour discussing on the make-up of the group. One area of contention was allowing those running for elected office to be included in the stakeholder group. Michael Bestwick suggested that political candidates be excluded from the group while Council President Elizabeth Dolan stated the visioning group should “not be a political platform.” Three stakeholders are currently running for spots on the council – (owner of Rolling Greens Golf Course and developer of the proposed residential/retail project at the intersection). In the end, the council decided to allow all three into the group.

Also present during the council’s discussion were members of North Kingstown Planning Commission, which has spent nearly the past two years working to find a solution for the Route 2/102 intersection. Planning Commission Member Jeff Michaelson aired his concern over whether the stakeholder group would even be able to come to a consensus on the intersection.  Many members of the stakeholder group, however, took to the microphone during public comment to showcase their belief that a stalemate between members would not occur.

“There probably will not be a 100 percent consensus, but you will find where the areas of agreement are and work from there,” said O’Sullivan.

The Route 2/102 intersection has been in headlines in recent years as a proposed village center at . Hawkins initially was looking to build a village-like development similar to South County Commons (but on a smaller scale) – mixing townhomes, residential units and smaller commercial businesses. Discussions regarding the project within the North Kingstown Planning Commission led to the c which mixes commercial and residential buildings and offers a channel through which to enhance existing village centers on property as small as two acres.  

Planning Planning Director Jon Reiner expects to receive a master plan application from Hawkins for the Preserve at Rollings Greens under the new CVD zone within the next month. According to Reiner, he believe that both the stakeholder group and the Preserve project can work on parallel tracks.

The area was also the first location to test out transfer development rights in town with Rit Schartner’s parcel (the former location of Bald Hill Nursery land). Since the TDR program began in 2008, there have been no buyers for Schartner’s development rights on the 140-acre lot. . Schartner is also slated to be part of the stakeholder group.

, and the area is likely to grow in a “fragmented fashion, and North Kingstown will miss the opportunity to establish an identity here” if action is not taken. The study also found that the proximity to  would provide “significant market competition for retail operations.”