Provides that comprehensive permit projects in Tiverton, involving property not connected to either public water or sewer or both, and for which the property is considered hydric said land be excluded from the building land calculation.

Plain-English Summary

This bill applies specifically to the town of Tiverton, Rhode Island, and deals with how land is counted when developers apply for a "comprehensive permit" to build affordable housing. A comprehensive permit is a special type of application that allows developers to bypass some local zoning rules in order to build low- and moderate-income housing. Under current state law, a key factor in these applications is how much buildable land exists on a property.

This bill would require that certain types of land be excluded from that "buildable land" calculation. Specifically, land that is "hydric" — meaning it has water-saturated soil conditions typical of wetlands — and that is also not connected to public water or sewer systems would no longer count toward the total amount of buildable land on a property. In plain terms, if a piece of land is essentially wetland and lacks basic utility infrastructure, it couldn't be used to make a development project appear larger or more viable on paper.

The bill primarily affects housing developers who seek to use the comprehensive permit process in Tiverton, as well as town officials who review those applications. By removing environmentally sensitive, unserviced land from the calculation, the bill could make it harder for some affordable housing projects to qualify or move forward under the comprehensive permit process in Tiverton. It does not appear to affect other towns in Rhode Island, as it is written specifically for Tiverton.