WESTERLY − There are two competing visions for the future of the Winnapaug Country Club in Westerly: a sprawling 2,300-unit housing complex spread across 90 apartment buildings or a golf resort.
Both visions are now on parallel tracks in front of the town's Planning Board, after an initial attempt at a golf resort by the owner, Winn Properties LLC, was shot down by the Town Council in 2022.
For the town's Economic Development Commission, resurrecting the proposal to build hotels, cottages and turn the property into a golf resort is a way of averting the transformation of the sprawling, 120-acre golf course property into a massive housing development.
How to pivot a housing proposal
EDC Chairman Douglas Brockway wrote in a cover letter to the Planning Board that the "Hospitality option" would maintain 70% of the green space at the golf course, result in its renovation and result in a maximum of just a quarter of the housing units, which would be an estimated 575.
Offering the developer the option to turn the country club into a golf resort would mean there would be "no added demands on the schools."
During an initial planning meeting on both proposals Tuesday, Brockway said it his his impression that as long as the developer is allowed to turn the country club into a resort, they will drop their housing plan, but not until a zoning overlay district is passed by the Town Council.
In an interview on Wednesday, Town Planner Nancy Letendre said the proposed zoning changes in 2022 would have applied to all golf courses, not just the one, and that the Town Council wanted a conceptual plan.
This time, instead of changing the rules for all golf courses, the proposal is for a zoning overlay district for the golf property and the developer is likely to submit a conceptual plan, she said.
"It will help people understand what's being asked for," she said.
For the proposal to stay on its current course, with a meeting set for Feb. 20, Letendre needs the plan by Feb. 16.
"Hopefully they've been preparing for this point all along and are somewhat ready," she said.
How a huge housing development can move forward in Westerly
Winn Properties can propose its massive housing development, a proposed 372% more units than would have been created by the failed 47-story Fane Tower proposal in Providence, because Westerly does not have enough income-restricted housing units.
Because less than 10% of Westerly's housing stock is income restricted (4.9% per the Housing Fact Book, or 533 units) that allows the developer to propose new housing under the state's comprehensive permit, so long as 25% of the units, 690 in this case, are income-restricted.
According to the developer's proposal, 84% of Westerly's income-restricted housing units are dedicated to the elderly, including beds in nursing homes and assisted-living facilities and special-needs housing.
What is proposed for the housing development?
The proposed housing development is 90 three-story buildings spread across 10 acres of the golf course.
The market-rate units, 1,610 of them, would all be 900 square feet with two bedrooms and 1½ bathrooms.
Of the 690 income restricted units proposed, 393 would be restricted to people making no more than 60% of the area median income, or AMI, while 297 would be restricted to income of no more than 80% of the area median income. They represent 30% of the total units.
All of the 80% units would be two-bedroom, one-bathroom units, 800 square feet, along with 345 of the 60% area median income units. An additional 48 of the 60% units would be 700-square-foot, one-bedroom apartments.
Map renderings show housing units would be placed on the contours of the golf course, which is already surrounded by a housing development.
A full build-out of the housing development would take seven to 10 years, according to the application. A preliminary construction budget shows a total estimated cost of $705 million.
What would a golf resort look like?
Although no conceptual plan has yet been submitted for a golf resort, the first draft of a zoning amendment would allow for a "hotel complex" in "one or more building" as well as "residential cottage suites," essentially a group of houses and "garden style suites," essentially multi-family buildings, employee apartment buildings and 80% income-restricted housing.
What happens next?
The housing proposal is set for another public meeting on March 5, followed by a possible additional special meeting on March 19.
The zoning overlay district to allow for a resort is set for a meeting on Feb. 20, although it could also be heard at the March 5 meeting if a conceptual plan is filed soon.
At the Feb. 20 meeting, Letendre will present a reviewed, edited and packaged zoning overlay amendment.
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Reach reporter Wheeler Cowperthwaite at wcowperthwaite@providencejournal.com or follow him on Twitter @WheelerReporter.
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