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Woonsocket adopts 2025 hazard mitigation and flood management plan; council votes 5-0
Summary
The Woonsocket City Council on June 9 adopted a five-year hazard mitigation and flood-management plan (25 R 78). The plan incorporates FEMA recommendations and adds the River Island Condominium to enable a pending grant application; council members were advised adoption does not by itself obligate city spending.
The Woonsocket City Council adopted the 2025 City Hazard Mitigation and Flood Management Plan by voice vote, 5-0, at a special meeting on June 9.
Director Charlie (name as provided in the administration presentation) told the council the plan is largely the same document members reviewed earlier this year, with the primary substantive change being inclusion of River Island Condominium so that property can pursue a hazard-mitigation grant. "The only substantive change that was made to the document from the last time you saw it a few months ago was the inclusion in several areas of the report for specifically for the River Island condominium grant application," the director said. FEMA-recommended housekeeping edits were also incorporated.
Council members asked whether the plan imposes any immediate cost obligations on the city. The administration said listing projects in the plan does not itself obligate the city to finance them; rather, inclusion makes projects eligible to seek federal funding. "If something's not identified in the plan, we might not be able to seek the grant for that," the director said. The administration noted that only one of 13 strategies from the 2019 plan had advanced to construction, and that adoption restores the city's approved plan (the 2019 plan had expired in 2024).
A councilmember who reviewed the full report told the body the large plan (roughly 700+ pages) included small inaccuracies such as outdated employee names and department references; the solicitor advised that minor nonmaterial edits should not require re-submission to FEMA and recommended against making changes that would require reprocessing. The council then moved to adopt the plan.
The formal action was recorded as 25 R 78. The motion to approve was made by Councilwoman Sierra and seconded by Councilwoman Gonzales. The chair called for the ayes; the motion passed 5-0.
