RICHMOND -- The town last week became the 27th Rhode Island community to win state approval for a local affordable housing plan.
State officials signed off last Tuesday, giving Richmond the go-ahead to pursue a plan that would create 348 affordable housing units by 2010.
At the current rate of growth, that would make 13.2 percent of Richmond's housing units affordable, which would more than meet the state goal of 10 percent.
Only 2.5 percent (65 units) of Richmond's housing stock meets the state definition of affordable -- subsidized and income-restricted -- but Town Planner Melanie Jewett said town and state officials believe the plan is realistic.
"The state wouldn't have approved it if they didn't feel it was workable," she said.
The state nod means all of Rhode Island's South County towns have state-approved plans. Statewide, only one of 29 targeted towns -- Foster -- has yet to win state approval, according to the Statewide Planning Office. Barrington became the 28th town to win state approval on Monday. The official deadline, met by most towns, was Sept. 30.
The state-approved plans put towns in a stronger position to negotiate with developers who propose fast-track affordable-housing projects, because the plans must identify suitable locations and outline local strategies for creating affordable housing.
Richmond's plan identifies the Wyoming area west of Route 95 as most suitable for affordable-housing development. Other options would be Hope Valley Road, the area near Town Hall and parts of Kingston Road (Route 138), Wyoming and Arcadia.
The plan suggests a mix of strategies, including rehabilitation and reuse of existing buildings, mixed-use zoning, accessory apartments, denser zoning for developments with affordable units and subsidies for mobile homes that would let them to be counted as affordable.
Richmond was one of two South County towns that didn't make the Sept. 30 deadline. Charlestown, the other, won approval for its plan on Nov. 3, according to the Statewide Planning Office.
Charlestown Planner James Lamphere said he will be going to the Town Council with an ordinance that would require developers to include affordable units when building new housing. The Charlestown council has already expanded a mixed-use ordinance that allows property owners in the Cross' Mills Historic District to add more dwelling units to commercial properties as long as 59 percent of the units are affordable.
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