Lifetime Citizen Portal Access — AI Briefings, Alerts & Unlimited Follows
ASG Builders’ 86-unit Rocky Hill proposal reintroduced; public hearing moved to Oct. 16 after notice error
Loading...
Summary
ASG Builders presented a reintroduction of an 86-unit mixed-use project on Rocky Hill Road; the planning board moved the public hearing to Oct. 16 because the legal notice in the Valley Breeze contained an error and requested design clarifications and a site visit.
The Smithfield Planning Board heard a reintroduction of an 86-unit mixed-use project by ASG Builders (assessor’s Plat 48, Lot 534 on Rocky Hill Road) on Sept. 18, but the board postponed the public hearing to Oct. 16 after a notice in the Valley Breeze was found to be blurred and defective.
Attorney Julissa Anderson presented the project on behalf of ASG Builders and said the applicant will seek a comprehensive permit under state law. “The project is a comprehensive permit providing a mixed-use development with 86 residential units, and eight flex-based units,” Anderson told the board.
Engineer and project presenter Joseph Casale described the site as roughly 3.5 acres in the Planned Corporate District and inside Smithfield’s Economic Growth Overlay (EGO) district. The applicant is seeking two adjustments under the EGO rules: a density lift (the team requested 29 additional units above the base allowance) and a change in the required ratio of mixed-use (commercial) to residential area. Casale said the proposed building would be a four-story structure with 72 one-bedroom units and 14 two-bedroom units; the applicant proposes 115 parking spaces overall (91 resident spaces plus 24 additional spaces).
Casale said the site has a freshwater-wetlands area that triggers a 100-foot jurisdictional area and that the team will need Division of Freshwater Wetlands (DEM) approvals. “We’ll be going to the Division of Freshwater Wetlands and seeking a permit from them,” Casale said. He also said the project has ready access to water and sewer mains and that the design team will provide stormwater information, lighting, landscaping, and pedestrian circulation in the master-plan submission.
Board members asked for design detail consistent with the EGO district standards — materials, elevations and streetscape treatments — and asked the applicant to show pedestrian and passive recreation amenities for residents. The board suggested the team consider designated green space or a small community garden and directed the applicant to provide more detailed building elevations and a landscape plan for the Oct. 16 filing.
Because the Valley Breeze notice contained a typographical/printing defect, the board kept the public hearing open and formally re-noticed the project for Oct. 16 so abutters receive corrected public notice. Casale and Anderson said they will return with a master-plan submission that addresses the civic-design and landscape questions, and they asked for a board site visit in the interim.
No substantive approvals were granted; the project remains at master-plan stage. The board listed wetlands permitting, Smithfield Water and sewer approvals, and town technical reviews as outstanding prerequisites to any future approvals.
