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Warwick tax‑title transfer ordinance advances amid Land Trust push to protect wetlands
Summary
The Land Trust presented GIS data arguing that hundreds of tax‑title parcels have conservation value; the council and administration agreed to work together but moved to put a corrected, lawful transfer process in place, holding broader conservation protections for further drafting and review.
The Warwick Land Trust urged the City Council to pause broad changes to the tax‑title transfer process until the city adopts a clear inventory of environmentally sensitive parcels that should be excluded from routine transfers.
Jane Austin, speaking for the Land Trust, said its mapping work identifies roughly 1,000 tax‑title parcels and that a large share sit in conservation opportunity areas, adjacent to city property, or in flood‑prone locations. "We find that we've got about just under 1,000 parcels, about 80% of them or 70% of them are in areas that have been identified as conservation opportunity areas," Austin said, urging the council to preserve key clusters rather than letting them be transferred by a first‑come, first‑served process.
Administration officials and several council members acknowledged the conservation concerns but also said the city's existing transfer ordinance is inconsistent with state law and exposes the city to legal risk. Council leaders said they will docket a separate item to create a formal inventory and protections for conservation‑valuable parcels; at the same time, they advanced a corrected process to bring the city's transfer procedure into compliance with state requirements so the city can lawfully process tax titles.
Council members alternated between urging patience and due diligence and pressing for urgency to remove an unlawful process from the code. The administration said it has already met with the Land Trust and will work to integrate the group's mapping (shape files) into the city's GIS so planners and the Land Trust can identify the small subset of parcels that merit exclusion or special handling.
Next steps: staff and the Land Trust will refine a proposed list or mechanism for 'ineligible' parcels and return language for a follow‑up ordinance or resolution to be considered in committee before any transfers occur.
