Planning board approves master plan for 30 Valley Road office building, grants parking waiver

The Town of Middletown Planning Board approved master-plan approval for a proposed 10,000-square-foot office building at 30 Valley Road and granted one waiver to allow a double-loaded row of parking in front of the building.

David Martin, representing trustee James H. Clawson, presented the conceptual master plan and said the filing included requests for waivers from sections of the town’s subdivision and development regulations. The board heard technical testimony from Lynn Small of Northeast Engineers and from project architect Daniel Herkinrother of Herk Works.

At the hearing, Lynn Small described the site as undeveloped with two wetland areas and a 200-foot watershed protection district, said there is no municipal sewer or water along this section of Valley Road and that the project will seek sewer and water connections from nearby development. She said the project will require a Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (DEM) freshwater-wetlands permit, a DOT access permit, and soil-disturbance/permits tied to more-than-one-acre disturbance before the applicant returns for preliminary review. "We will have those state permits in hand before you will see us for preliminary review," Small said.

Small also described stormwater and drainage plans: runoff will be directed to treatment devices and conveyed toward Bailey Brook; three culverts were shown to carry existing flows through the site. The applicant reported providing 45 parking spaces against a 30-space requirement for a 10,000-square-foot office and requested a parking-layout waiver to allow a more compact, double-loaded parking design that the applicant said reduces impervious surface.

Board members pressed the applicant on landscaping, neighbor outreach and outstanding property issues. The board was told Pam Rogers has been retained as the landscape architect and that detailed landscape screening will be provided at the preliminary plan stage where buffering adjacent to residential properties will be shown. A pending adverse-possession claim over a small corner of the lot was disclosed; applicant counsel said they are negotiating a lot-line conveyance with the neighbor and do not expect the dispute to prevent moving forward with planning approvals.

Committee member Matt urged the applicant and property owner to avoid installing fossil-fuel infrastructure, saying, "I would highly suggest that you guys go with heat pumps given our state's climate mandate of 2021." The town solicitor responded that no state law or local ordinance prohibits connecting new development to natural gas infrastructure.

A resident, Alicia Reyes (30-plus Mine Road), asked whether runoff to Bailey Brook could increase overflow; Small replied that required stormwater calculations and a stormwater report will be prepared for DEM, DOT and the town, and that design must meet state-design storm peak-rate requirements and wetlands-program review.

After closing public comment, the board voted to approve the master plan and to grant the single requested parking waiver. The approval is a concept-level (master-plan) determination; detailed engineering, landscaping, stormwater calculations, and required state permits must be completed and reviewed at the preliminary and permitting stages before construction can proceed.

Next steps: the applicant will prepare preliminary-engineering materials, submit required DEM and DOT permits, and return to the planning board for preliminary-plan review.