Could Longplex operations expand in Tiverton Industrial Park? Town, owner set to meet

TIVERTON – Town Councilors and representatives of Longplex are meeting in executive session on Sept. 9 on Longplex’s plans for developing an indoor ice skating rink, a high-end parking/car garage and other possibilities for the North Tiverton Industrial Park .

Town Administrator Christopher Cotta did not comment on Longplex’s proposal but confirmed that there would be an executive session meeting on Sept. 9. That meeting was originally scheduled in late August but was postponed.

Longplex’s lawyer and representative Dan Reilly has detailed what Longplex is proposing and opposing.

Owner Jim Long has offered $2 million to develop approximately 40 acres for the garage and the ice skating building, according to Reilly.

Reilly also mentioned other issues that Longplex will raise during the executive session.

“Longplex is … concerned with the town’s plans to build a larger recycling complex immediately adjacent to the Longplex property, with decaying yard waste piles located right next to the facility parking lots,” Reilly said. “We have proposed to the town that they site the recycling center on other parcels of town-owned land within the park, and we recognize that Tiverton needs a new recycling center in the general area. We have also proposed to pay some infrastructure costs associated with a new recycling center, but have not received a response from the council regarding this proposal.”

Currently, Long runs a 187,000 square foot sports facility and the proposed recycling center would be adjacent to it.

Reilly said that Longplex has been in contact with Rhode Island Commerce and Quonset Development Corporation about the ice skating building and the recycling center issue respectively.

“We have met with the Quonset Development Corporation regarding the Site Ready (recycling) program. Any land that is in that program can only be used for industrial uses, which would be a departure from the wider range of permissible uses currently available in the Industrial Park,” Reilly said.

“We raised this problem with the town and we are not sure if they had realized the limitations that come with the program. The RI Commerce Corporation supports the Iceplex project and is a partner of Longplex on that project, and we are working with them to ensure that the Site Ready program does not stand in the way of this or other projects.”

Last month, Cotta said the industrial park, near Route 24 and off Fish Road, has access to water and sewer but there are other issues with that property, purchased by the town in the late 1980s

Both Cotta and Reilly have said that the site has development challenges such as hills, paper roads and wetlands.

Cotta said that the town was in the process of filing an application with RI Commerce for ideas and help with development.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Could Longplex operations expand in Tiverton Industrial Park? Town, owner set to meet