Pound Hill Realty seeks new industrial overlay for 89.44-acre quarry parcel in North Smithfield

Pound Hill Realty LLC asked the North Smithfield Town Council at a Feb. 10 workshop to amend the town zoning ordinance and the zoning map to create an Industrial Special Management District 1 overlay for an 89.44-acre parcel off Old Oxford/Pound Hill/Pine Hill roads that currently is used for quarrying and related stone-processing activities.

The applicant, through attorney William (Bill) Landry of Blish and Kavanaugh, said the overlay would recognize longstanding mining activity on the site, bring the operation under town-regulated site-plan review and add conditions — including a 50-foot planted buffer, perimeter fencing, berming, stepped/benched excavations, limits on hours of noisy activity, and annual reporting of environmental permits and inspections — intended to increase transparency and give the town information it currently lacks. "We want to be clear that it's our interest to try to cooperate with the town in a reasonable solution for this property," Landry said during the presentation.

Why it matters: The parcel is surrounded by two Superfund sites and by industrial uses and some residences; councilors and residents said the proposal could shape the quarry's future operations for decades. The applicant said conventional zoning has not accommodated the site's history and that decades of litigation left the town with limited oversight. The amendment would make quarrying-related uses a permitted, but conditional, use on this parcel subject to planning-board development plan review.

Key facts and proposal details: Pound Hill Realty described the property as Assessor's Plat 7 Lot 308 (89.44 acres) and proposed rezoning it from Residential Estate Agriculture (REA) to an Industrial Special Management District 1 overlay. The text Landry presented would: require planning-board approval of a site plan substantially similar to the exhibit provided; require a 50-foot planted buffer and a 10-foot berm in certain locations; require annual stormwater and sediment control reporting by Dec. 31 each year; require, within 30 days of enactment and on request thereafter, copies of all permits, inspection reports, violations, amendments and fines from state and federal regulators (EPA, Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management, Mine Safety Bureau) covering the previous 12 months; require maintenance of town road-use permits and bonding; and limit noisy operations to daytime hours (the applicant proposed 7 a.m.-6 p.m. weekdays and limited Saturday hours, and said it would confirm and align those hours with existing road-use permits).

Applicant rationale and context: Landry said the operation has a long history of mining that predates zoning, that the property has limited potential for residential development because of lack of utilities and proximity to Superfund sites, and that litigation over the site's zoning status has prevented clear local oversight. He proposed the overlay and conditions as a planning-based path to give the town more transparency and regulatory information, rather than leaving future activity solely to litigation or unregulated grandfathered expansion.

Applicant statements on environmental monitoring and operations: Attorney Ryan Hurley, also representing the applicant, said retention ponds on the site are tested by EPA and that pond water is used for dust control at the operation. "It's regularly tested," Hurley said. He also said product testing and certain employee monitoring for silica are performed and regulated by state and federal agencies.

Public concerns raised at the workshop: Several residents and nearby property owners told the council they remain concerned about drilling, blasting, fugitive dust and possible groundwater contamination. Jason Rich (45 Douglas) told the council he believes the site never had a valid certificate of compliance for later additions such as a scale house and a crushing plant and said those changes would have required new permits; he said, "This property has never had a certificate of compliance." Resident Rebecca De Cristoforo, who lives on Pound Hill Road, said increased tree clearing had reduced buffering and that "the amount of fugitive dust that leaves that area ... is unbelievable." Other residents recounted long-standing local concerns about contamination and changing water quality in ponds near the site.

Council process and next steps: The presentation was delivered as a workshop; councilors and staff confirmed the matter will go to the Planning Board for advisory review of comprehensive-plan consistency and that a formal public hearing is scheduled for Feb. 18. Landry and Hurley told the council they are prepared to provide additional reports (hydrology, blasting logs, permit histories and other materials) and said they were open to extending statutory deadlines to allow more time for review and for the planning board to offer detailed conditions.

Procedural notes: Before the applicant presentation a councilor said they had been advised by the Rhode Island Ethics Commission to recuse themselves from discussion and decision because they are an abutter to the quarry (the speaker stated they would recuse; the transcript does not include the councilor's name at that line). At the workshop the council voted to open and later to close the floor to public comment; those procedural motions were recorded by roll call.

What remains unresolved: The council has not taken a final zoning action. The planning board's development-plan review, any requested class-1 survey or additional technical conditions, the precise hours in any approved road-use permit, and the applicant's annual reporting format all remain subject to further review and possible modification during the formal hearing and planning-board process.

Ending: The council will hold the advertised public hearing on Tuesday, Feb. 18; the applicant said it will present technical reports and work with the town on timing if the council needs more time to review the submission.