Planning board approves Seaview Inn redevelopment at 240 Aquidneck Avenue with conditions

The Town of Middletown Planning Board voted to grant Seaview Inn LLC a special-use permit and combined master and preliminary plan approval for redevelopment at 240 Aquidneck Avenue, approving a reduced 12,000-square-foot hotel with 67 units and associated parking, utilities and stormwater infrastructure.

Applicant attorney David Martland told the board the room count on the submitted plans is 67 (he corrected an earlier figure of 72), and said the revised proposal reduces the previously approved footprint from roughly 25,000 square feet to about 12,000 square feet. The plan includes pervious parking areas, a sand-filter stormwater treatment feature that runs parallel to Valley Road, retaining walls and guardrails and building materials described as synthetic siding and fiber-cement board with brick veneer on the first floor.

Why it matters: The site currently contains an existing hotel and banquet facility; the project adds new lodging capacity and reconfigures on-site parking and circulation. The board’s decision includes conditions to protect neighboring properties, to require final engineering sign-offs and to address pedestrian safety on the site.

Key technical and regulatory points

- Traffic and access: The project relies on an existing driveway connection to John Clark Road. The project’s traffic study, performed using weekday (Wednesday) peak-hour counts with an 8% seasonal adjustment, projects small changes to level-of-service at the nearby intersection; board members questioned whether Wednesday counts and an 8% seasonal factor adequately capture summer tourist season conditions. The traffic engineer was not present; the board noted the TRC reviewed the study and raised no fatal issues.

- Stormwater and wetlands: The development will use an existing sand filter along Valley Road for water-quality treatment; engineers said the proposed drainage changes do not divert runoff toward the stream at the southern end of the property and that the state RPDES erosion-control review was submitted. The applicant said erosion-control measures and buffer markings will be in place during construction.

- Fire access: The town fire chief requested additional maneuvering and parking area on the north side of the building so ladder apparatus could reach upper elevations. Applicant testimony said the layout addresses that request with vehicle access from John Clark Road and with space for the ladder truck to operate; there is no new curb cut from Valley Road.

- Parking and pedestrian safety: Based on the applicant’s calculations (which drew on a room-count methodology), required parking was listed at 224 spaces and proposed conforming spaces at 281. The applicant agreed to provide two additional parking-lot trees (eliminating one waiver) and to add crosswalk striping between the new building and the existing hotel/banquet area; the board made both landscaping and crosswalks conditions of approval.

Public comment and other testimony

- Engineer Lynn Small (Northeast Engineers) described the drainage changes, the sand-filter installation and the revised building siting after TRC and fire-department input. She said utilities installed during the prior phase (water main, master meter) sized for the earlier project remain available.

- Nathan Godfrey, accepted by the board as an expert in real estate consulting, provided a land-use opinion that the application is consistent with the comprehensive community plan and that the special-use criteria were satisfied given the long-standing hotel/banquet use on the property.

- A nearby resident, Karen Barbera (36 Walcott Avenue), asked about exterior lighting visibility from neighboring areas and about wetland protection during construction. The applicant said submitted fixture cut sheets show downward-facing, dark-sky-compliant lighting on the first floor and that erosion controls and wetland buffers will be protected during construction.

Board deliberations and conditions

Board members and staff discussed tree-commission review, the town engineer’s sign-off on final stormwater/retaining-wall details, crosswalk striping, additional parking-lot trees (to withdraw waiver 4), and the need for final approvals by the town engineer and Technical Review Committee (TRC) as conditions. The solicitor and planning staff recommended specific language; the board agreed to condition final approval on TRC and town-engineer sign-offs and the additional landscaping and pedestrian-crossing measures.

Votes and next steps

The board voted to grant the special-use permit subject to the conditions discussed and then voted to grant the combined master and preliminary plan approval with the remaining waiver requests (waivers 1–3) and the stated conditions. The chair announced the motions carried; the planning staff will prepare the formal decision for distribution to the solicitor.

Timeline and construction

An applicant representative sworn in as “Peter” stated the applicant intends to begin construction in October and estimated construction would take about 18 months to two years to complete, allowing a few additional months as contingency.

What the board did not decide

The board did not revise the project’s height. It did not remove the requirement for final approval of stormwater, retaining-wall details or guardrails by the town engineer. The board recorded its questions and requested follow-up on traffic-seasonality methodology and sight-distance considerations.

Ending: The board closed the public hearing, adopted the findings recommended by staff and the TRC, and approved the special-use permit and master/preliminary plan with conditions; staff was asked to prepare the formal decision and circulate it to counsel.