North Smithfield committee to seek DEM and fire-marshal guidance on former school site plan

A North Smithfield project committee reviewed two schematic site-plan options for the former school site and agreed to seek guidance from the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management and the town fire marshal before submitting a formal application.

Committee members said they want a preliminary, pre-application meeting with DEM to confirm wetland delineation and the department’s expectations for stormwater treatment. The consultant firm PAR will begin a stormwater analysis and a site investigation, including a topographic plan, to support that meeting.

“We had gone into that in sort of depth because there was some discussion about sprinkling the building,” Joel said, describing trade-offs between fire-safety measures and cost. “We priced it out, and it turned out not to be that expensive to sprinkle the building.”

The committee also raised whether the town will need a second means of egress to satisfy the fire department. Members said an initial conversation with the fire chief suggested a second access might be desirable; the committee directed staff to schedule a meeting with the fire marshal to determine whether code or local practice will require two means of egress.

“We’re going to set up a meeting with fire to determine first if they’re going to require two means of egress,” a committee member said. “If it does, I think that’s what you were just addressing, Joel.”

Members debated whether to locate the proposed addition and parking on the higher ground or to move part of the footprint into the jurisdictional wetland buffer to preserve tree cover and increase usable upland. Several members urged showing DEM multiple options—one that maximizes upland development and one that minimizes wetland impact—so the town can learn the agency’s “rules of the game” before committing to a final layout.

PAR told the committee the stormwater runoff quantity would be similar across the plan options because the proposed building and paved area totals are similar; the firm will finalize calculations as it advances the design. The committee emphasized that an initial DEM pre-application meeting is intended to surface permitting concerns without triggering a formal review that could add months to the schedule.

Committee members said they expect to ask the Town Council on Monday to accept a preliminary site plan or to authorize the scheduling of the DEM pre-application meeting and follow-up work, but no formal vote on a final plan was taken at the committee meeting.

The committee requested that PAR and project staff return with refined schematic plans (elevations, floor plans and site plan options) after the DEM and fire-marshal consultations, so the council will have more information before authorizing design-development work.