Warren council approves procedural ADU amendments, sets one-space parking rule

Warren — The Town Council advanced a set of changes aimed at updating the town zoning code to reflect recent state rules on accessory dwelling units (ADUs) and to resolve local parking and infrastructure questions. Councilors voted to adopt the state ADU definition into section 32-1-30, direct staff to annotate the use table with asterisks and to make ADUs in the business and manufacturing columns 'special use' entries, and to require one additional off-street parking space per ADU as the default standard.

The measures grew from a planning board review and an extended public discussion that highlighted competing goals: the state enabling law requires municipalities to allow ADUs in residential districts, while councilors and the planning board warned about parking pressure and water/wastewater capacity in dense neighborhoods. "State statute ... mandates that ADUs be a permitted use in all residential zoning districts," the council's solicitor told members during the discussion, pointing councilors to the enabling statute. Planning board member Jenny Flanagan, who helped draft several of the planning board recommendations, urged that the standards in section 32-1-33 apply uniformly whether an ADU is allowed by right or by special permit.

On parking, the council debated whether to require one space per bedroom or one space per ADU. After discussion about existing nonconforming properties and how adding units can expand the required parking obligation, the council settled on one additional space per ADU, with a requirement that nonconforming properties be brought into compliance if adding an ADU expands parking obligations.

Council members also instructed staff to clarify potable water and septic capacity language to ensure ADUs cannot be permitted where utilities lack adequate capacity. The planning board had recommended adding the state ADU definition and asterisks in the use table to make the ordinance consistent with state law and easier for the public to interpret.

What’s next: Council directed the solicitor and staff to produce a clean ordinance draft that reflects the motions passed tonight; the ordinance language will return for formal adoption in a future session.