Tiverton Planning Board continues review of 256-unit Bridal at Tiverton Commons to Dec. 2

The Tiverton Planning Board on Thursday continued its preliminary-plan review of a comprehensive-permit housing proposal known as Bridal at Tiverton Commons, after the applicant presented revised surveys and a condensed site layout.

Attorney John Mancini told the board the application proposes 256 units, including 64 affordable units required under the comprehensive-permit statute, and asked to spread testimony across three meetings so experts can present engineering, building design and a hydraulic model in stages. "It is 256 units of which 64 will be affordable units," Mancini said.

Engineer Molly Titus of Dupreid Engineering described a new Class 1 boundary survey completed this year that removed a triangular area previously shown inside the project parcel; the team has removed that area from project calculations and the proposed work. Titus said the revised layout consolidates residential buildings into six primary structures (plus clubhouse, daycare and garages), reducing the bedroom count from 512 under the master-plan configuration to about 402 bedrooms and shrinking site disturbance by more than five acres. The new layout keeps all work outside the 75-foot wetland no-cut buffer and off the historic Osborne parcel, she said.

Board members pressed the applicant on school busing and sidewalks along Souza Road, both conditions stemming from the master-plan approval. Titus said the Tiverton school department and bus committee told the applicant regular buses would not enter the private site except for special-education pickups; the department requested students be picked up on Souza Road and the applicant has provided sidewalks from building fronts to the road. Board members said sidewalks on Souza Road remain an important health-and-safety issue and asked the applicant to bring school department and bus-company representatives to a future hearing to discuss routing and a possible shelter or pull-off design.

Members of the public raised related concerns including energy efficiency and stormwater controls, child counts for estimating school impacts, and wildlife impacts from regional development. A neighbor, Jason Osborne, told the board that the resurvey aligns with his records.

The board voted unanimously to continue the Bridal at Tiverton Commons preliminary-plan presentation and related testimony to the board's next scheduled meeting on Dec. 2, 2025, at the Tiverton Library so the applicant can provide the additional expert reports and required follow-up documentation.