NORTH SMITHFIELD – The long-awaited continuation of a hearing on Material Sand & Stone’s request for creation of a new zoning ordinance in town that allows earth extraction was once again delayed this week after an attorney for the applicant reportedly failed to notify abutters.
Presentation of the findings of independent experts from GZA GeoEnvironmental was scheduled on the Town Council’s agenda for Monday, Oct. 6, but then continued.
“There was some situations of miscommunication or some mailings that did not go out,” said Council President Kimberly Alves. “It has nothing to do with the Town Council.”
“It was completely all my fault,” said Attorney Ryan Hurley. “We simply did not send out the letters. I made a clerical error. I cannot apologize enough.”
The North Smithfield Town Council postponed a decision in March on the proposed zone change, an effort by the company to end decades of litigation with the town over the business’s mining operations on on Pine Hill Road. At the time, councilors had heard hours of paid expert testimony in favor of the request at public hearings, and sought to delay further deliberations on the issue until the statements could be evaluated.
The business has operated a quarry on their 89-acre property for decades, but has largely skirted town regulations and efforts to limit the scope of activities by appealing local decisions in Superior Court.
That ended in 2023 when a judge ordered Material Sand to work with North Smithfield officials on administrative solutions to the ongoing litigation. The town had passed a moratorium on earth extraction in the 1970s, and while some of the business’s land was grandfathered under the old law, town officials have long disputed the addition of a second lot to the operations.
The unusual request to remedy the legal issues by creating the “Industrial Special Management District 1 Overlay,” to apply at the subject property was submitted in January, with initial hearings through February and March. When councilors voted to delay a decision on Material Sand’s application and to hire independent experts to review the testimony, they had hoped to revisit the issue in May.
But in the months that followed, Town Administrator Scott Gibbs said local officials struggled to find experts qualified and able to perform the review. The town finally hired GZA GeoEnvironmental for the peer review in June, but hearings have seen additional delays as the firm reportedly prepares for the presentation.
On Monday, the Town Council was scheduled to start their meeting at Town Hall and then reconvene in the cafeteria of North Smithfield Middle School. Instead, the town sent out notice that the hearing had been cancelled Monday morning.
Town Administrator Scott Gibbs said the hearing will be continued sometime in November.
He doesn’t respond to anything other than RFPs for his “company” and the experts he hires to write the findings he wants….See TIF study.
I second that about Gibbs. I predict he will be a one and done. We would have been better off with Mrs. Newberry!!!
Do you or anyone else know the precise reason for starting the meeting at Town Hall and immediately moving over to the Middle School? I am thinking I will just go to the Middle School, but is there a chance if turnout is low that they will just remain at Town Hall despite the agenda?
It’s a good question. I will see what I can find out.
I’ve been told the agenda was published with the wrong location, so they have to meet there before moving, so you will be fine to wait at the middle school
Cancel that! The town just sent out a notice that the hearing is cancelled and the meeting will only take place at Town Hall
I really liked the Gibbs comment “local officials struggled to find experts qualified and able to perform the review”. The quote should have been we do not want to hire or find experts qualified and able to perform the review. As predicted, Gibbs has been a huge disappointment as Town Administrator.
Isn’t the company themselves paying for the review if memory serves me correctly? That’s why the long wait, and no one else was looked into really, nor hired by the town as the company offered to pay, so NS instead, waited…..to save from paying, and many residents said it needed to move forward once and for all, and here it is……kinda got some twisted facts thrown in there by the TA seems like…..
Gibbs responds to zero issues in the town when brought to him by taxpayers.
Gibbs once again proves my point in tonight’s town council meeting delaying the meeting until mid November. Backroom politics at its best.