Lincoln staff to move zoning applications to OpenGov portal ahead of October 2025 mandate

Russell, a staff member, briefed the board on the town’s transition to an OpenGov e-permitting portal that will require zoning applications to be submitted and processed electronically under a recent state mandate. “The state passed another law recently in this past session that all zoning and planning applications in the state of Rhode Island are gonna be required to come in electronically by October of 2025,” he said.

Why it matters: the new portal centralizes applications, plans and staff reviews in a cloud system and changes how board members receive materials and interact with files. Staff presented a read‑only workflow for board members to prevent pre‑hearing communications that could create open‑meeting issues.

Russell said zoning applications must be filed electronically and staff will certify completeness in the system before routing files to departments for technical review. “When we certify an application as complete, all that that means is there's enough information for the board to deliberate it. It doesn't mean the information is good,” he said, explaining the certificate-of-completeness step that precedes technical review.

Board members will receive a PDF package by email ahead of meetings containing summary information and a link to the OpenGov file. Russell showed the portal’s navigation, noting a separate employee login provides read‑only access so board members can open attachments, view drawings and read staff recommendations but cannot post comments or correspond via the portal: “You won't be able to do any of that through this system,” he said, explaining that the restriction is intended to avoid open‑meeting violations.

Staff described how attachments (detailed plans and drawings) will be accessible in the online file and that planning‑board recommendations can be printed separately and included in the board packet on request. For the near term, staff said they will still provide paper summaries and continue some hybrid practices during the transition, but the goal is a fully electronic workflow: “Everything is coming in electronically and the record will all be electronic. So we don't have paper files,” Russell said.

Operational details discussed included: how applications will be numbered (e.g., ZDR25-####), how board members can search by that identifier, and how the town will send an initial email with the applications about 10 days before a meeting. Staff also demonstrated how the portal shows a record trail for each application and how permissions and inbox notifications will be managed to limit unwanted emails.

On board access and email logistics, staff created LincolnRI.org email addresses for members and asked each member to tell staff whether notices should go to the LincolnRI address or a personal email; members were asked to confirm preferences by the end of the week. Russell and other staff said they will issue OpenGov invites to board members, who must set passwords and may bookmark the portal for future access.

Staff warned that some operational issues remain to be worked out — including how minutes and full-meeting transcripts might be linked to individual application files — and that the town will continue to refine the workflow and address notification volume during the rollout.