Westerly planning board flags Route 1 work, urges relocation review for bus depot over wellhead

Planning Board Chair Matt O'Neal told the Westerly Town Council on Sept. 22 that the planning board's 2024–25 year was unusually busy and produced a revised public-facing reporting matrix, progress on a Route 1 corridor overlay and a slate of zoning-ordinance amendments the board expects to finish by June 2026.

The board said it has coordinated closely with the Architectural Review Board and the Economic Development Committee to craft an overlay that would allow future redevelopment while retaining corridor character. O'Neal said the board is also translating state legislative changes into local zoning amendments and plans to present monthly items to the council beginning in November.

The presentation shifted to a town-wide infrastructure concern when O'Neal and councilors highlighted that the school bus maintenance and storage facility is located within the town's wellhead protection/recharge area. O'Neal said recent work by planning staff and the board's municipal planning fellow, Diego Martin, identified the depot site as a municipal property that could be an "opportunity site" for other uses if relocation were feasible. He said the planning board recommended the council look at relocation options to protect drinking water.

Firefighters and environmental experts at the meeting warned of new risks tied to electric buses: lithium-ion battery fires can be more difficult to extinguish, and the chemicals and heavy metals produced or mobilized by firefighting methods have the potential to contaminate groundwater when incidents occur in a wellhead protection zone. The council was told the risk is not hypothetical: one speaker described cases in which EV fires produced pollutants that are slow to attenuate in groundwater.

Councilors and the planning board agreed the timing of the school committee's capital planning matters makes the current budget season an appropriate time to explore options. A councilor noted the School Committee had voted against acquiring electric buses in a recent vote, which reduces immediate pressure to relocate but leaves infrastructure questions open.

Council members praised the planning board for its work on affordable housing accounting and comprehensive-permit reviews. O'Neal said changes in state accounting boosted Westerly's credited low- and moderate-income housing share from roughly 5% to 6.45% because units the town had already implemented are now eligible to be counted.

What happens next: the council will review the planning board's matrix and the draft zoning amendments as they are transmitted. Councilors asked staff to involve the School Committee on any bus-depot relocation study and to assess costs and timing before making any formal commitments.