Shekarchi's derailed housing bill back on track. Here's what changed.

Patrick Anderson, Providence Journal
Updated ·3 min read

House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi's quest to get reluctant local officials to allow more housing in their communities got back on track this week with a new approach to legislation meant to reinvigorate depressed commercial areas.

A week ago, members of Shekarchi's leadership team delayed one of the key pieces of his 15-bill legislative package over concerns about forcing cities and towns to legalize duplexes on at least 30% of their land area.

The duplex proposal was itself a rewrite of bill H7981, introduced by Rep. Joshua Giraldo, D-Central Falls, which would have allowed homes in all commercial zoning districts but faced opposition by local planners.

The compromise

The third and latest version of the bill replaces the 30% duplex rule with a requirement for towns to have "at least one mixed residential commercial use zoning district" within their borders and "provisions" for building new duplexes without special permission.

But as acknowledged by Joelle Rocha, the lawyer working on this and the rest of Shekarchi's housing package, the mixed-use district could be as big as a whole town or as small as a single lot. It relies on local leaders' good-faith efforts to encourage homes in more places.

"This gives them an opportunity to do it, and hopefully we see residences in more than one area," Rocha said.

New addition: Explain why people can't live in some places

Another part of the bill may turn out to be just as important.

While it no longer requires municipalities to allow residences in commercial areas, the legislation requires them to delineate the areas where people cannot live and say why, based on health and safety grounds.

If "residential use is to be prohibited for public health and safety reasons in any part of a commercial or industrial zoning use district, the city or town shall enact a specific zoning ordinance and zoning map amendment that creates a mapped overlay zoning district delineating where residential use is so prohibited," the bill says.

The new zoning maps need to be enacted by April 2025 and may be a bid to get housing-shy municipal leaders to put their cards on the table.

If an area is not declared unfit for living due to health and safety reasons, it could make it harder for planners to block residences there in the future.

Behind the scenes: Narragansett fights proposals

The passage of more than a dozen pro-development bills in Shekarchi's housing package last year set off a game of cat-and-mouse with some local leaders who didn't like the state imposing changes on their land-use rules.

The Narragansett Town Council has been the most public about its objections.

When one of the House housing bills gave prospective developments 15% leeway from local setback requirements, the town increased its setbacks by 15%.

More recently, Narragansett proposed banning duplexes entirely and limiting the number of unrelated people who can live together in an effort to drive out some college students and visitors who use short-term rental apps.

The rewritten bill was passed by the Housing and Municipal Government Committee on Thursday, sending it to the full House for a vote as early as next week.

Shekarchi last week attributed opposition to the previous version of the bill to differing opinions about housing within the local planning community.

The Rhode Island League of Cities and Towns, which opposed the initial residential-commercial bill, is on the fence about the latest version.

“We are reviewing the revised legislation and seeking input from members,” League Executive Director Ernie Almonte wrote in an email.

Where the rest of Shekarchi's housing package stands

Meanwhile, a dozen other pieces of Shekarchi's housing package have passed the House and moved to the Senate, including legislation to:

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: New bill would open up more zoning for houses in RI cities and towns