Transit-oriented Development

(TOD)

Westerly's 30.09 square miles of land area experienced sprawl in the 1990s, and the trend looks set to continue. Popular as a beach town, Westerly has become increasingly suburbanized, both with Rhode Island residents and people with summer homes there. The area is very car-dependent, and this is probably both a cause and a result of the suburbanization. The 4 mile trip to the Watch Hill beaches used to be serviced by a trolley from the train station, but, as of now, there is no public transportation from downtown to the beaches. In Westerly, TOD could serve to focus density in the downtown, and TOD works best with enhanced transit options, such as public transportation to Watch Hill.

As for downtown more specifically, the land around the train station is zoned for mixed residential and commercial use, while the land further north is primarily zoned for residential and limited industrial use. Present zoning should not impede TOD at this site.

As for infrastructure, the downtown has adequate capacity for new residential and commercial development. In fact, as currently zoned, the area around the station could go to maximum build-out without overwhelming the water and sewer systems.

The water system is not precisely geographically oriented, in that the areas all draw off one another in a complex system. The current safe yield is 6.2 million gallons per day. From October to April, the town’s daily consumption ranges between 3 and 4 million gallons. From May to September, it ranges between 4 and 6 million gallons. Westerly is putting in a new 1 million gallon well near the downtown, for safety’s sake.

Westerly’s sewage treatment plant serves about 10,000 people, and its capacity is 4 million gallons per day. The average daily flow is 2.5 million gallons per day. Unlike water needs, the monthly flow changes are not correlated with the summer swell in the population; this is because much of the extra summer use is consumptive and because the beach areas generally use septic systems. Instead, the full treatment capacity is used in the spring months, during snow melt. Though the treatment plant has had discharge violations, with the regular upgrades its capacity will be able to handle development. The average annual flow for Westerly has risen insignificantly in the last 15 years.