9.4 ECONOMIC GROWTH OVERLAY DISTRICT 9.4.1 Purpose. The Town of Smithfield has a Planned Corporate District that was established to provide an area for planned employment uses, including planned office, as well as research and development parks, light industrial development, corporate headquarters, hotel/conference facilities, and related accessories. In addition to the uses listed above, a successful growth area should also have diversity that caters to small businesses, ancillary services, and housing targeted to young professionals. In order to provide for an area of this type of development, an Economic Growth Overlay District (EGOD) has been created. The purpose of the EGOD is to provide an area for economic development in the Town of Smithfield that is based on providing a growth center that is in harmony with the Planned Corporate District. The area is generally characterized by:
- Compact development at a density to sustain a variety of uses;
- Mixed use buildings with neighborhood-serving retail, service, and other uses on the ground floor and residential units or office space above nonresidential space;
- Development that exhibits the physical design characteristics of pedestrian-oriented, storefront-style shopping streets; and
- Facilitation of strong community interaction.
The district encompasses those properties located around the intersection of Douglas Pike (Route 7) and George Washington Highway (Route 116) west of Route 295 as shown in Figure 1. The EGOD allows expanded land uses and intensity of land uses that will assist in fostering the development of a mixed use growth center that will service the larger Planned Corporate District. 9.4.2 Intent. The EGOD is intended to provide for a diversity of compatible land uses and development densities. A parcel may include a mixture of residential, office, retail, recreational, open space, and other uses as described below. The ultimate goal to be achieved in establishing the EGOD is fostering an environment that not only realizes development of the Planned Corporate District, but also realistic development of those properties at the intersection of Routes 7 and 116. This will be accomplished according to the following prescribed review and approval procedures, according to design standards particular to the EGOD, and consistent with the Planned Corporate District. The intent of the EGOD is to encourage:
- Compact development.
- Traditional village center scale and context.
- Expanded land usage that fosters an environment for corporate and mixed use development.
- More intensive, self-contained development that includes mixtures of commercial, industrial and residential uses.
- Development is multi-modal- pedestrian, bicycle, and vehicular.
- Diverse housing opportunities and choices: Residential uses within the core of the growth center can include upper-level flats or free-standing apartment buildings.
- Transportation choice: Current RIPTA bus lines traverse the site, and there is room for bike lanes or an off-road bike path along each corridor.
- Design for sense of place: By enhancing the presence of new buildings on both sides of Routes 7 and 116, the development concept (opposite page) creates a sense of arrival.
- Consistency with the Town of Smithfield's Comprehensive Community Plan.
A key part of a more compact, efficient growth pattern is fostering a mix of uses that take advantage of adjacencies and the ability to share structures, parking lots and open space areas. For example, buildings with ground-floor commercial and upper-floor office and residential space provide a higher level of use on a given footprint, increasing revenue and reducing shared costs for construction, heating/cooling and maintenance. This development pattern would be combined with a loose grid of new streets which divides the center into a series of blocks, with buildings along the street edge and parking lots hidden behind them. Streets would be designed to encourage walking, with on-street parking, wide sidewalks, plentiful shade trees, outdoor cafes and paths that cut through the blocks to reveal courtyard parks. 9.4.3 Conformity to Comprehensive Plan. All development within the Economic Growth Overlay shall conform to the policies as set forth in the Comprehensive Community Plan. In order to demonstrate such conformity, the applicant shall be required to submit a description of the proposed development and existing and/or approved developments in the surrounding area to the Planning Board. This description shall be a statement in text, maps, illustrations, or other media of communication that is designed to provide a basis for rational decision making regarding the long-term physical development of the EGOD and its impact on the community. The submittal shall include all items identified in sections 9.4.5 and 9.4.6. 9.4.4 Applicability. Provisions of this section shall apply only to the parcels located within the EGOD as shown on Figure 1. Any permitted use in the underlying zone is permitted in the EGOD. Uses permitted by Special Use Permit are allowed if granted by the Zoning Board of Review as provided herein. All projects proposed within the EGOD are subject to the design standards and provisions of the following sections: 9.4.9 Architectural Standards; 9.4.10 Schematic Building Elevations; 9.4.11 Dimensional and Density Standards; 9.4.13 Circulation Standards; 9.4.14 Parking Requirements, Standards, and Design, 9.4.15 Outdoor Lighting; 9.4.16 Landscaping and Screening Standards, and 9.4.17 Signs. 145 Town of Smithfield Article 9 – Special Districts Zoning Ordinance However, an application submitted for a project based solely on the underlying zoning shall be subject to the review and submission requirements of the Smithfield Land Development and Subdivision Regulations, Section III. Procedure for Submission of Plans and Plats for Land Development Projects and Subdivisions and the normal zoning review procedures of Article 10 herein and shall be exempt from the EGOD Design Standards listed in 9.4.4 above. Applications submitted for industrial, light industrial and other uses based solely on the underlying zoning shall be subject to design standards in 9.4.9 H. However, the EGOD dimensional standards found in 9.4.11 -Table 4, shall be applicable to all such applications, except that the minimum building set back requirements of Section 5.4 Table 1 shall apply where structures abut residential zones. The provisions of the Code of Ordinance Chapter 231, "Landscaping Requirements" shall not apply to projects submitted under 9.4. 9.4.5 Procedure for approval. For new uses on undeveloped land, development proposed within the EGOD shall be reviewed and approved by the Planning Board as a Major Land Development Project (MLDP) and as further provided herein. In order to expedite the review and approval of MLDPs within the District, the Planning Board may combine the stages of review as provided in the Land Development and Subdivision Review Regulations. It is anticipated that developments of certain magnitude (types and intensity of land uses) will be as a matter of right (established pad ready sites) but will also, to the extent possible, receive expedited review. Existing conforming uses seeking approval for expansion of the existing gross floor area, or change to another permitted use code category may be reviewed as new uses. Existing nonconforming uses within the District shall be continued as provided in Article 3 herein.