The 401 REPORTER
BY ELLEN LIBERMAN
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION: EMILY RIETZEL; ISTOCK / GETTY IMAGES.
Full House
Since 2021, Rhode Island has tried to tackle its housing shortage by relaxing zoning laws and encouraging new builds, but the results are sluggish. What’ s holding the state back?
T
HE NARRAGANSETT TOWN COUNCIL sat on one side of the table, the Planning Board on the other, the lawyers occupied the ends. And, overhead, dangled the threat of a recall petition. The August workshop was meant to open the conversation on the legality of town zoning ordinances that limit density in the wake of new state laws meant to ease the housing crunch.
In early spring, on the advice of its attorneys, a newly elected Town Council proposed loosening fourteen zoning regulations to bring Narragansett policies in line with state law. A furious backlash ensued. The Planning Board voted 4-1 to withhold its support from the changes, and a residents’ group started gathering signatures.
Narragansett can be a fractious place, where residents have pitched yearslong battles over a library, a bike path and access to its iconic beach. But no topic is more contentious than housing.
The town of 16,000 is a unique combination of University of Rhode Island students, who occupy half of the rental units nine months of the year; summer tourists, who take the other three months; and high-income residents. According to Realtor. com, the median price listing for a three-bedroom home in Narragansett is now $ 1.1 million.
Harry Schofield, chairman of the Narragansett Town Residents Association, observed the proceedings with suspicion.“ This is all for show,” he says. The NTRA has been an avid supporter of local measures meant to limit rental housing
— such as a 2023 ordinance that prohibits more than three college students from occupying a single-family home, which now appears to be in direct conflict with a 2024 state law that allows five unrelated persons to live together. Schofield says prices will never come down until URI builds more student housing and makes rentals less lucrative. He calculates a three-bedroom house in town can easily make $ 60,000 a year in student and summer rental income.
“ It’ s a perfect storm,” he says.“ The town needs to aggressively negotiate with URI and make it a statewide issue and use a carrot-and-stick approach whereby you heavily enforce the three-student ordinance.”
George Nonis, president of Narragansett 2100, which represents landlords, is Schofield’ s frequent opponent at meetings, on the editorial pages and in the courts, where the efforts of previous Town Councils to place limitations on housing density have been regularly defeated. Most recently, Superior Court Judge Jeffrey A. Lanphear in February reversed a unanimous Planning Board decision to deny an application to build ten duplexes, with five set aside for low- or moderate-income families.
RHODE ISLAND MONTHLY I OCTOBER 2025 45