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South Kingstown
Town of South Kingstown Zoning Ordinance
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§ 609

Coastal Resiliency Overlay District

  • 609.1. Establishment of district.

There is hereby established a Coastal Resiliency (CR) Overlay District, the boundaries of which are shown on the official zoning map. The CR Overlay District contains the land area depicted on the Coastal Resources Management Council (CRMC) Design Elevation Maps as being vulnerable to storm surge during a one hundred-year storm event with the presence of five-feet of sea level rise (SLR) that lies outside of the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) Special Flood Hazard Areas (SFHA).

  • 609.2. Purpose.

The purpose of the CR Overlay District is to protect the public health, safety, and general welfare by promoting awareness of future projections of sea level rise and the associated impacts from flooding and storm surge to current and future property owners. CRMC's design elevation maps allow municipalities and property owners to plan for the effects of storm surge, coastal erosion and wave conditions given future projected amounts of sea level rise. Each CRMC design elevation map depicts a specific level of anticipated sea level rise and provides recommended design flood elevations for structures, or in other words, the elevation at which a building should be constructed to withstand a once in hundred-year storm event given the amount of sea level rise depicted on the specific map. Utilization of CRMC's design elevation maps is intended to increase the ability of the structure to withstand future storm surge conditions, therefore increasing coastal resiliency and further protecting public health and safety.

  • 609.3. Recording of resiliency information prior to building permit application.

For all new construction, prior to application for a building permit, the applicant shall request information from the planning department relative to future projected sea level rise scenarios. The information to be furnished by the planning department shall be determined by the director of planning. Upon provision of the information to the applicant, the planning department shall record the information in the town's land evidence records, so that future property owners may benefit from the knowledge. The town intends this informational exercise to ensure that current and future property owners are aware of the risks from future sea level rise, flooding and storm surge. Elevating structures to a design elevation depicted on a CRMC design elevation map, however, is optional.

  • 609.4. Development standards and dimensional requirements.

When considered as part of a development project (as defined in section 601.3.C), the following height standards shall apply to the Coastal Resiliency Overlay District, except as provided in B below.

    • A. Maximum Building Height.

      • 1. No structure shall exceed the following height measurements:

        • (a) Structures that are elevated to a distance above grade of less than or equal to five (5) feet shall be limited to thirty-five (35) feet of building height;

        • (b) Structures that are elevated to a distance above grade of greater than five (5) feet but less than or equal to ten (10) feet shall be limited to thirty (30) feet of building height;

        • (c) Structures that are elevated to a distance above grade of greater than ten (10) feet but less than or equal to fifteen (15) feet shall be limited to twenty-five (25) feet of building height.

        • (d) Structures that are elevated to a distance above grade of greater than fifteen (15) feet shall be limited to twenty (20) feet of building height.

      • 2. No part of any structure shall exceed the maximum height listed above except for those exclusions listed in the definition of "building height" in article 12.

    • B. Inapplicability to Certain Development Projects. Notwithstanding A above, the standards in this section shall not apply:

      • 1. Inapplicability to Development Projects within Nonresidential Zoning Districts. The standards established in this section shall not be applied to development projects wholly within a Commercial (CD, CW), Industrial (I-1, I-2, I-3), Government and Institutional (GI, and Public Marina Special Management District (PMSMD) zoning districts.

      • 2. Inapplicability to Development Projects within Coastal Community Overlay District. The standards established in this section shall not apply to development projects located wholly within a Coastal Community Overlay District (section 608).

      • 3. For the purposes of this section, development projects that have received a completed CRMC Preliminary Determination and/or an approval of an Onsite Wastewater Treatment System application from the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (RIDEM) on or before February 28, 2019 shall be exempt from the development standards outlined in A above.

    • C. Other than described in A above, nothing in this section shall be construed as to modify any dimensional requirements established elsewhere in this ordinance.

(Ord. of 2-25-19(1); Ord. of 7-22-19(1))