Narragansett planning staff to reapply for EPA watershed grant for Flowering Farm causeway; requests $150,000 for comprehensive-plan update

Jill Sabo, director of planning for the Town of Narragansett, told the council the department will seek money to study and implement a water-quality component for the ongoing Flowering Farm causeway project and requested funding to update the town’s comprehensive plan.

Sabo described the Flowering Farm causeway project as ongoing since about 2017. The causeway separates Long Cove and Champlin Cove; Long Cove has known water-quality issues and the town has been looking at options "to dovetail" road-raising work with measures that could improve the coves, including the potential addition of a culvert. "We have the opportunity right now to apply for a grant from SNEP," Sabo said, identifying SNEP as the Southeast New England program administered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. She said the SNEP grant this year is a SWIG (watershed implementation) grant and that the grant requires a 33 percent local match.

Sabo said the town applied for the same grant last year and did not receive it. The town provided $57,500 in matching funds in 2024. She said FEMA-funded work currently under way supports road raising for life, safety and property purposes, but FEMA funding "won't support the environmental component." Sabo said she spoke with EPA staff after the previous application to clarify that FEMA money would not cover the water-quality work.

On the comprehensive plan, Sabo asked the council to fund $75,000 per year for two years (a total request of $150,000) to update the town’s plan. She said state law has changed to make timely updates more urgent and warned that municipalities that fail to update within the required interval risk losing the ability to use their plan in municipal decision-making. The last plan started in 2012 and did not finish until 2017; Sabo said she expects the update work will be faster this time and proposed a three-and-a-half-year schedule as an upper bound to meet deadlines.

Council members asked about the security of FEMA funding for the road-raising work. Sabo said, "We have a grant right now. We're operating under a FEMA grant right now ... It's not being taken away or anything like that." She also described the proposed comprehensive-plan work as consultant-led: the town would bid and hire a consultant to do the bulk of the work.

No formal council action or vote on the grant application or the comprehensive-plan appropriation occurred in the session; both items were presented for council review and will be considered further in the work-session and budget process.

Ending: Sabo said staff will proceed with grant planning and comprehensive-plan procurement steps as the budget process continues and will report back to the council during upcoming workshops.