Density limits in zoning districts and “renovations to properties and compliance” are among the topics to be discussed during a Feb. 25 joint meeting of Smithfield’s Town Council and Planning Commission.

The meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. at The Smithfield Center.

The Planning Commission has recently seen requests to allow more flexibility in the maximum density allowed in specific zoning districts, though this particular meeting, according to Community Development and Planning Director Tammie Clary, will focus on a generalized discussion of the issues rather than specific applications. No votes are expected to be taken at the meeting, Town Manager Michael Stallings said.

In January, the Planning Commission voted 6-1 to recommend a change to the town’s zoning ordinance that, if approved by the Town Council, would allow developer Vincent Carollo to move forward with his plans for just over an acre at Washington, James and Clay streets. Carollo has requested verbiage that would allow him to separately seek a special use permit waiving the 5-unit-per-acre maximum density in the applicable downtown neighborhood residential zoning to allow for four attached single-family homes under condominium-style ownership and three duplex buildings, each with two units, for a total of 10 homes. 

Suffolk-based Quality Homes also has a pending request for six special use permits for the 130-home Cottages at Battery development proposed for 14 acres behind Royal Farms gas station on South Church Street, one of which requests a waiver to allow 10 units per developable acre for homes with adjoining garages. In that specific case, the existing multifamily zoning allows 12 units per acre but stipulates that any attached housing comply with the lower 8-unit-per-acre density required in the town’s attached residential zoning ordinance. Brian Mullins of Quality Homes said at a Feb. 24 Town Council committee meeting he’d developed an eight-unit-per-acre version totaling 104 units that could potentially avoid needing two of the six requested special use permits.

The topic of renovations to properties and compliance includes the threshold at which an extensive renovation would require a previously grandfathered structure to come into compliance with the current zoning ordinance. That issue too has been a point of controversy recently.

On Feb. 11, the Planning Commission voted 5-2 to recommend denying a special use permit requested by Red Point Taphouse that would waive a requirement that the brewery connect to town water. The circa-1929 former gas station, which has housed many businesses over the decades and is currently connected to a communal well, was extensively renovated to become Red Point Taphouse. Town officials say that renovation is what triggered the town to require, and Red Point to proffer as a condition of the brewery’s 2020 rezoning, that it would connect to town water within two years. 

Red Point’s former co-owner, Tim Ryan, told the Planning Commission last year that he and his business partners reluctantly agreed to the water requirement not knowing at the time it would cost over $30,000 to have town contractors extend the required 2-inch water connection from the opposite side of the road to where the business is located.

Editor’s note: This story was updated on Feb. 25 at 9:51 a.m. with additional comments from Community Development and Planning Director Tammie Clary and Town Manager Michael Stallings.