Public comments press council on Homestead exemption, short‑term rentals and manufactured housing; solicitor to draft rental ordinance

Several members of the public used the meeting’s first public comment period to press the council on housing‑related issues: the timing and design of a Homestead tax exemption, enforcement and zoning options for short‑term rentals, and why manufactured housing remains disallowed in most zoning districts.

Resident Jim O’Neil pressed the council to consider the wider state legislative context for a Homestead exemption and warned that other pending state proposals could affect local implementation. Roberta Mulholland urged the council to use its zoning authority to address short‑term rentals, saying rentals were driving up housing costs, and called out the town’s zoning code for barring manufactured housing in most districts.

Councilors and the town solicitor responded in public. Council President McEntee and others said the council had sought enabling legislation at the General Assembly and that the enabling bill had passed at the state level; councilors characterized the 10% homestead figure as a town choice (and described Narragansett’s 10% exemption as a model). The solicitor told the council an ordinance covering short‑term rentals had already been drafted and would appear on the agenda at the next meeting, and council members asked for a written memo on manufactured housing options.

Separately, the council voted to place discussion of the enabling legislation on a future agenda so the council can consider detailed parameters and public feedback. No final changes to tax policy or zoning were made at the meeting; council members said further work sessions and data from the short‑term rental ordinance will inform any tax or zoning decisions.