Valley Breeze: Council puts train zoning on hold amid call for 10 percent affordable units

04/16/19

By ETHAN SHOREY, Valley Breeze Managing Editor

PAWTUCKET - Creation of a new zoning district around the city's coming train station is too important to approve it in a “half-baked” form, say City Council members.

The council, at its meeting last Wednesday, April 10, heard lengthy testimony from advocates who want to see a 10 percent minimum requirement for affordable housing in the Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) zone in the Conant Thread District around a coming commuter rail station off Main Street and Pine Street.

A majority of council members has been against including such a requirement. In the face of testimony, they voted to postpone a vote.

After those in the audience had testified, the council learned that the proposal to add such an affordable housing requirement within the proposed new Conant Thread Zoning District needed more work to even align with state law, as City Solicitor Frank Milos confirmed that it wouldn't hold up without some corresponding incentive for developers. Council members sent the measure back to the subcommittee level to try to come up with something workable.

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Courtesy of The Valley Breeze