'It kind of oversteps': In an unusual move, Shekarchi's own team stalls his housing bill

PROVIDENCE - House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi's plan to legalize more housing construction ran into unexpected roadblocks this week from members of his own leadership team – a rare setback for arguably the state's most powerful politician.

When it was unveiled as part of Shekarchi's priority housing legislative package in January, H7981 would have allowed people to build homes in commercial zones where now only businesses are allowed.

But after opposition from municipal leaders and the American Planning Association Rhode Island chapter, the bill was almost entirely rewritten before it was slated for a committee vote Tuesday.

'It kind of oversteps'

The new version of the bill, however, drew more objections than the original. It would mandate that every community in the state allow at least two housing units per lot on at least 30% of its land.

According to the Rhode Island Zoning Atlas, most communities in the state don't have multi-family districts that take up even close to 30% of their land area.

"What bothers me a little bit with this bill is it came out very quickly, and it says municipalities shall allow two units ... I would like it say may allow," Rep. Kathleen Fogarty, a South Kingstown Democrat and the speaker-appointed chair of the House Rules Committee. "It kind of oversteps the zoning and land-use decisions in the town. Really you are taking it completely out of their hands, so that could be a bit of an issue for some of our towns."

Rep. June Speakman, a Warren Democrat and chair of the House's Affordable Housing Study Commission, asked for more time to understand the new bill after planners in her town called her with concerns.

"I don't want to kill it," she said. "I just want to spend another week to hear from planners and people in my town."

Behind the scenes: Unease sends bill back to the drawing board

The request for more time – and to not send the bill to the floor of the House for a vote – triggered uncertainty among other Democrats on the Housing and Municipal Government Committee.

Rep. Katherine Kazarian, Shekarchi's majority whip, moved to pass the bill to the floor over Speakman's concerns.

"I think we can work on something before it gets to the floor," she said. "It is being considered right now."

But after unease with the bill did not go away, committee Chairman Stephen Casey, D-Woonsocket, asked for a motion to hold the bill for further study, which passed, sending it back to the drawing board.

Shekarchi says it was a 'miscommunication'

On Thursday, Shekarchi blamed the disagreement over the bill on a "miscommunication" within the planning profession about what changes to the law they will accept. He said a new version should come back to the committee next week.

"We have been in constant contact with the planners to try to come together and they have not been able to give us any consensus," Shekarchi said. "So the ideas, some of the ideas, came from some of the planners. The planners do not have a consensus position and we are doing our best to get to as much of a consensus as possible."

Shekarchi declined to say whether the old version of the bill, which would allow apartments to be built in places such as suburban shopping strips, could make a return in the next version now being worked on. But he still backs the idea.

"They think it replaces commercial, but in my mind, it supplements commercial," he said. "Many commercial properties can support some residential units. A lot of these commercial properties have sewers, parking and a lot of excess buffer land."

He disagreed with the argument made in the Housing Committee on Thursday that allowing duplexes on 30% of a town's land would be a dramatic change.

Joelle Rocha, the lawyer with Duffy & Sweeney who has written most of the legislation in Shekarchi's housing package, said the bill would have required towns to allow multi-family homes on 30% of the land area now zoned residential or commercial. Industrial land would be excluded from the calculation.

Rep. Brian Newberry, R-North Smithfield, called the idea "terrible" and suggested towns would redraw their zoning maps in strange ways to get around it.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Shekarchi's housing bill faces unusual opposition from his own leadership