CHARLESTOWN — A Providence company is working on a study of Route 1 that will help five South County towns preserve the rural look of the highway that hugs Rhode Island’s southern coast and the Bay.

At the moment, the towns have different zoning laws and overlay districts. And few have laws to protect the trees that grow along the 30-mile stretch of road that includes Westerly, Charlestown, South Kingstown, Narragansett and North Kingstown.

Only one town – Charlestown – has won scenic status for its part of the road from the state Scenic Roadways Board. The other towns are trying.

“All of the towns are in different stages of planning,” said David R. Westcott, principal planner for the Maguire Group, which expects to complete the $93,500 study in about a year. The Washington County Regional Planning Council will pay for the report.

Westcott talked about the study yesterday at a meeting with state and town officials at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Kettle Pond Visitor Center in Charlestown.

The basic threat to Route 1 is future commercial and residential development, Westcott said. “If every lot has a driveway, you’re not going to be able to drive on Route 1 anymore.”

The study will list highway parcels that should be preserved for scenic, environmental or historic reasons. The study will also note which properties are threatened by development and how new homes and businesses could affect traffic on the highway.

Although the Maguire Group has only spent a month talking to town officials, “There’s a consensus about preserving the rural character of the area,” Westcott said.

The study won’t emphasize only preservation. Towns need commercial and retail businesses and a broad tax base, Westcott said. But that development should occur in established village and commercial centers, away from rural areas, he said.

The report will help those towns that can’t afford a study on their own.

“Zoning is not valid without a master plan,” Westcott said. “This is a case of getting towns to a position where they can tell developers what they want.”

The Maguire Group doesn’t expect the five towns to adopt all its recommendations.

“We’re going to have a broad tool box that all the towns can use,” said Randall L. Collins Jr., executive vice president of the East Providence landscape architecture firm Gates, Leighton & Associates, which is working with the Maguire Group. “But not every community is going to want to use the same tools.”