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Little Compton council adopts attainable-housing ordinance, sets monitoring and five-year sunset
Summary
The council adopted a new chapter to permit deed-restricted “attainable housing” (owner-occupied units affordable up to 140% of AMI), with limits on size, lot coverage, water and septic requirements, and a five-year sunset; the ordinance will return for final edits before implementation.
The Little Compton Town Council voted to adopt a new attainable-housing ordinance that creates a separate land-use pathway for permanently deed-restricted, owner-occupied homes designed to be affordable to households earning up to 140% of area median income.
The ordinance, added as a new section in Chapter 18, allows special-use permits for subdivisions of up to four attainable-housing lots, each with a minimum lot area of 30,600 square feet, road frontage requirements, a maximum dwelling size of 1,800 square feet and a cap on lot coverage set at 10%. Deed restrictions must run at least 99 years and be renewed on each conveyance. The ordinance includes requirements that potable water be demonstrated and that septic systems receive Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (DEM) approval before final subdivision stage. It also includes a five-year termination (sunset) unless the council extends it.
Councilors and planning staff emphasized the measure is not a general change to the town’s two-acre zoning minimum; the council and speakers repeatedly clarified the new rules apply only to the attainable-housing category. "This is only for affordable or attainable housing," a resident said during public comment to underscore the limited scope.
Mike Stiers, who reviewed the ordinance on behalf of the planning board, described the policy’s goals and technical limits: "Affordability... is based on HUD schedules, deed restricted to remain permanently affordable to the extent permitted by applicable law, but in no event less than 99 years," he said, summarizing the draft language and program standards.
Supporters — including Amy Mooney of the Commons Foundation, who told the council a household that could spend 20% on housing would now need a gross income of roughly $400,000 to secure that level locally — argued the town must act to keep essential workers in the community. "I repeat $400,000," Mooney said, citing the gap between local housing costs and typical working-family incomes.
Opponents and questioners pressed staff on technical safeguards: how developers will demonstrate the required minimum potable-water flow (the ordinance requires a tested flow of at least 2 gallons per minute for four hours for subdivision approval), whether deed-restriction monitoring will be adequately enforced, and what happens if an owner defaults. Patrick Bowen, chair of the Little Compton Housing Trust, urged the council to keep household cost-burden at 30% rather than 35% and recommended adding a town right-of-first-refusal for foreclosures on deed-restricted properties so homes do not revert to market rate.
The council voted to adopt the ordinance subject to the minor editorial and drafting edits discussed at the meeting and added an amendment requiring that the final, edited document be returned to council at its next meeting for confirmation. Councilors said substantive operational details — particularly the selection and duties of a monitoring agent and the final deed-restriction template — will be completed in subsequent planning-board and administrative steps after a developer applies for subdivision approval.
Next steps: council staff will incorporate the edits identified in tonight’s hearing, return the final text for confirmation at the next council meeting, and the planning board will review deed-restriction templates during subdivision review before any attainable-housing units may be sold or conveyed.
