2025 Legislative Priorities

Many cities and towns have underused commercial land served by public infrastructure. Aging strip malls and vacant commercial lots provide an opportunity to build new homes and mixed-use neighborhoods while preserving the state’s farmlands and forests. 

We propose to create new, mixed-use overlays in commercial zones that cities and towns identify as appropriate, ensuring new homes are not built near heavy industry or other environmental nuisances.

Building new homes is an overly slow and costly process. Rhode Island has made significant progress in reducing delays by creating a new online permitting system, but many state and local permits remain to be added to the platform.

We propose empowering the Department of Business Regulation to continue expanding e-permitting, speeding up new home construction and creating cost-savings that can be passed on to residents.

Oversized lots are common in many communities, but the extra land often cannot be used for homebuilding because inflated lot size requirements were put in place after the parcels were originally created. 

We propose to allow double lots to be subdivided for new homes as long as the newly created lots resemble nearby parcels, maintaining neighborhood character. For example, a 10,000 square foot lot surrounded by 5,000 square foot lots could be divided in two.

High construction costs make it financially difficult to build new triple-deckers or other small multifamily buildings in Rhode Island. These costs stem in part from the fact that three- and four-family homes must meet the same commercial building code requirements as high rises, shopping malls, and hospitals. We propose to reclassify three- and four-families as residential, making these homes more cost-effective to build while maintaining the high safety standards of modern construction.

It should be easier for families to buy a starter home and for seniors to downsize in their community. Townhomes offer a path to homeownership at a more affordable price point and are significantly easier for builders to finance compared to condominiums. 

We propose to legalize townhomes in residential zoning districts at reasonable levels of density, depending on the type of community, while allowing cities and towns to retain control over key design characteristics.

Building homes on small lots used to be a common practice in Rhode Island cities and villages, but unfortunately it is no longer permitted without a special zoning exemption.

Re-legalizing homes on small lots will help to reduce sale prices, as more houses share the cost of land, and create new options for families just starting out or older residents looking to downsize in their community. The state will also be able to build more homes while still preserving our farmland and forests.