GLOCESTER -- Less than a month after the Town Council called for the repeal of new state affordable housing rules, the town has received its first application for low-to-moderate income housing.
Charda Properties, LLC, is proposing to build 120 condominium units along Route 44, west of Chepachet village, called the Five Points Condominiums. About 24 units -- 20 percent -- would be considered affordable housing.
The company purchased a 117-acre parcel for $380,000 last June. Zoned residentially, the land consists of about 23 buildable acres; the rest is wetlands.
The proposal comes amid controversy over a recent amendment to state law that allows private developers to skip zoning restrictions, as long as they designate 20 percent of units as low-to-moderate income housing.
Less-developed towns like Glocester are left vulnerable because they do not meet the state requirement that 10 percent of housing be subsidized. In 2003, about 3.7 percent of housing units in Glocester qualified as affordable.
Many communities have been suspicious of applications coming in before the legislature could reconsider the law, said Town Council President Charles Poirier.
"There is quite a movement to change the legislation," Poirier said. Developers seemed to be thinking, "let's get something in before the state changes its mind," he said.
The Town Council passed a resolution Dec. 18 that called for support of a moratorium on affordable housing construction and the outright repeal of the amended law.
In a letter to Sen. Paul W. Fogarty, Poirier said the new rules "present problems for the town's local environment and rural way of life." They could also make local zoning laws irrelevant.
Because the application has come so soon after changes to the law, Glocester has not had enough time to formalize a local process through which an application would be accepted, said Town Planner Raymond Goff.
"There is a state process, but it leaves out a lot of details," he said. "It leaves a lot of room for interpretation."
Glocester is not against affordable housing, Poirier said, but has different forms than the state mandates, including tax breaks for senior citizens and a mobile home park.
"Don't we as towns have the right to determine how we progress?" he asked.
A public hearing will be held at today's Town Council meeting on an ordinance that would set up a local permit process.
The zoning board will set a public hearing for Charda Properties' application within 30 days, as required by law.
