The University of Rhode Island is asking for too much from the town to house students, Narragansett Town Planning Committee members said in a meeting on Tuesday.
Despite contributing nothing to the town financially, URI expects Narragansett to absorb the ever-growing off-campus student population, Board Chairman Mark Brady said during a planned discussion about affordable housing.
More students now live in Narragansett than on-campus, Brady said.
Brady proposed a potential student assessment charged to the university or their students for off-campus housing in Narragansett. The assessment would provide funds to further affordable housing options for residents.
URI announced their intentions to build new dormitories to house 1,100 students in December 2024, with plans to begin construction this fall, according to Rhody Today. The apartment-style dorms are slated to be built on Flagg Road, eventually replacing what some students call the “slums.”
The URI Strategic Plan makes no mention of the number of beds the dorms would hold, though Brady claimed it does.
“700 beds over 15 years and [URI] just doubled their ask for sewer capacity where we house their students,” Stephen DiSimone, member of the Planning Board, said. “Insane, ridiculous. I hope URI is listening to this.”
The URI Narragansett Bay Campus could be utilized for housing as well, Planning Board Member Rupert Friday said.
The discussion around student housing isn’t intended to be an insult to students, Planning Board Vice Chairman Joseph O’Neill said.
“It’s not pro-student or anti-student,” O’Neill said. “It’s an acknowledgement that students are a fact of life.”
Brady, a URI alumni himself, shared the sentiment.
“This is not against the university and it is certainly not against students,” Brady said. “I think they add a vitality and energy to this town that we desperately need.”
URI needs to be planning for 2,500 to 3,500 new beds instead of 1,100, O’Neill said.
The town’s infrastructure is built around the student rental market, which makes it difficult to change, member of the Planning Board Thomas Callahan said. Affordable housing is realistically possible for either residents or students, and is out of balance.
Large financial backers assisting in the project on both the town and URI’s part would help move things along, Callahan said.
“The University of Rhode Island’s tagline is, ‘Think big, we do,’” Callahan said. “We need to think bigger, and we need to do bigger than the University of Rhode Island.”
The number of students, over half of the school’s undergraduates, according to Brady, is a growing issue, Callahan said.
“We’re the host community for the Bay Campus,” Callahan said. “We’re the host community now for 6,000 to 8,000 students. We need a better partnership on an agreed upon agenda that can move things not only between the town and the university but also at the state level in terms of providing resources to move forward.”
Potential financial partners were brought up, including Thomas M. Ryan, former Chief Executive Officer of CVS.
Affordable housing issues in Narragansett go further than only URI, according to all the Planning Board members.
The lack of housing for town employees is a leading issue, Brady said.
“We don’t have housing for our town staff,” Brady said. “We don’t have them for our trades. We don’t have them for our fishing industry. We don’t have them for our hotel and restaurant [industries].”
Ordinances are a powerful tool to control the development of the community, according to Brady.
The Narragansett Town Council has been discussing the feasibility of the three-student ordinance, Chapter 1088. The ordinance would prevent more than three students from renting a home, but clashes with state law allowing for one renter per bedroom, according to the Council.
“Don’t give ordinances away for free,” Brady said. “Use them aggressively as incentives to assist homeowners and investors in providing attainable housing for existing housing stocks and new bills.”
Retaining affordable houses like cottages instead of knocking them down to build more expensive housing could be another solution, Friday said. Retaining landlords offering affordable rent is another possible route.
Student housing that goes un-rented during the school year could be advertised on the town website, Brady said.
The next Narragansett Planning Board meeting will be held at Town Hall on Oct. 26 at 6 p.m.
