Council deadlocks on Shoreline Properties bond reduction after resident complaints

The West Warwick Town Council tied 2–2 Tuesday and therefore did not approve a planning-board recommendation to reduce Shoreline Properties’ performance bond for the Carlton Avenue (Car) subdivision.

The motion before the council asked that the bond be reduced from an original estimate of about $1,030,100 to $438,800 — a figure the town engineer, public works director and Kent County Water Authority identified as the estimated cost to complete outstanding sewer, roadway and water work. Because the vote resulted in a tie, the bond reduction did not pass and the larger bond amount remains in place.

The denial came after more than an hour of discussion in which Councilman Licciardi, who said he lives near the development, described repeated neighborhood complaints about tall grass, dust, debris tracked onto public roads, and what he characterized as intermittent and inadequate dust control measures. “Grass was mowed… approximately 3 foot high,” Licciardi said during remarks to the council, and he described “chunks of dirt” and sand that had been tracked onto adjacent…