As Rhode Island tries to accelerate progress in taming its housing crisis, zoning changes remain a flashpoint for conflict.
Jane Weidman, the town planner in Charlestown and legislative liaison for the Rhode Island chapter of the American Planning Association, said “there’s a lot of resentment” between local planners and state officials.
“It’s been an adversarial position instead of a collaborative position,” Weidman said. “There’s this idea up at the Legislature that things have to come down from the top: ‘We need state mandates.’ There’s the whole issue of overriding local land use control, which is, I think, where a lot of the tension is.”
The measure was a top priority for House Speaker Joe Shekarchi and Gov. Dan McKee signed it into law last week after years of political battle.
This story was reported by The Public’s Radio. You can read the entire story here.
