§ 45-24-53 - Adoption – Notice and hearing requirements.
SECTION 45-24-53
§ 45-24-53 Adoption – Notice andhearing requirements. – (a) No zoning ordinance shall be adopted, repealed, or amended until after apublic hearing has been held upon the question before the city or town council.The city or town council shall first give notice of the public hearing bypublication of notice in a newspaper of general circulation within the city ortown at least once each week for three (3) successive weeks prior to the dateof the hearing, which may include the week in which the hearing is to be held,at which hearing opportunity shall be given to all persons interested to beheard upon the matter of the proposed ordinance. Written notice, which may be acopy of the newspaper notice, shall be mailed to the statewide planning programof the department of administration, and, where applicable, to the partiesspecified in subsections (b), (c), (d), and (e) of this section, at least two(2) weeks prior to the hearing. The newspaper notice shall be published as adisplay advertisement, using a type size at least as large as the normal typesize used by the newspaper in its news articles, and shall:
(1) Specify the place of the hearing and the date and time ofits commencement;
(2) Indicate that adoption, amendment, or repeal of a zoningordinance is under consideration;
(3) Contain a statement of the proposed amendments to theordinance that may be printed once in its entirety, or summarize and describethe matter under consideration;
(4) Advise those interested where and when a copy of thematter under consideration may be obtained or examined and copied; and
(5) State that the proposals shown on the ordinance may bealtered or amended prior to the close of the public hearing without furtheradvertising, as a result of further study or because of the views expressed atthe public hearing. Any alteration or amendment must be presented for commentin the course of the hearing.
(b) Where a proposed general amendment to an existing zoningordinance includes changes in an existing zoning map, public notice shall begiven as required by subsection (a) of this section.
(c) Where a proposed amendment to an existing ordinanceincludes a specific change in a zoning district map, but does not affectdistricts generally, public notice shall be given as required by subsection (a)of this section, with the additional requirements that:
(1) Notice shall include a map showing the existing andproposed boundaries, zoning district boundaries, and existing streets and roadsand their names, and city and town boundaries where appropriate; and
(2) Written notice of the date, time, and place of the publichearing and the nature and purpose of the hearing shall be sent to all ownersof real property whose property is located in or within not less than twohundred feet (200') of the perimeter of the area proposed for change, whetherwithin the city or town or within an adjacent city or town. Notice shall alsobe sent to any individual or entity holding a recorded conservation orpreservation restriction on the property that is the subject of the amendment.The notice shall be sent by registered or certified mail to the last knownaddress of the owners, as shown on the current real estate tax assessmentrecords of the city or town in which the property is located.
(d) Notice of a public hearing shall be sent by first classmail to the city or town council of any city or town to which one or more ofthe following pertain:
(1) Which is located in or within not less than two hundredfeet (200') of the boundary of the area proposed for change; or
(2) Where there is a public or quasi-public water source, orprivate water source that is used or is suitable for use as a public watersource, within two thousand feet (2,000') of any real property that is thesubject of a proposed zoning change, regardless of municipal boundaries.
(e) Notice of a public hearing shall be sent to the governingbody of any state or municipal water department or agency, special waterdistrict, or private water company that has riparian rights to a surface waterresource and/or surface watershed that is used or is suitable for use as apublic water source and that is within two thousand feet (2,000') of any realproperty which is the subject of a proposed zoning change; provided, that thegoverning body of any state or municipal water department or agency, specialwater district, or private water company has filed with the building inspectorin the city or town a map survey, which shall be kept as a public record,showing areas of surface water resources and/or watersheds and parcels of landwithin two thousand feet (2,000') thereof.
(f) No defect in the form of any notice under this sectionshall render any ordinance or amendment invalid, unless the defect is found tobe intentional or misleading.
(g) Costs of any notice required under this section shall beborne by the applicant.
(h) In granting a zoning ordinance amendment, notwithstandingthe provisions of § 45-24-37, the town or city council may limit thechange to one of the permitted uses in the zone to which the subject land isrezoned, and impose limitations, conditions, and restrictions, including,without limitation: (1) requiring the petitioner to obtain a permit or approvalfrom any and all state or local governmental agencies or instrumentalitieshaving jurisdiction over the land and use which are the subject of the zoningchange; (2) those relating to the effectiveness or continued effectiveness ofthe zoning change; and/or (3) those relating to the use of the land; as itdeems necessary. The responsible town or city official shall cause thelimitations and conditions so imposed to be clearly noted on the zoning map andrecorded in the land evidence records; provided, that in the case of aconditional zone change, the limitations, restrictions, and conditions shallnot be noted on the zoning map until the zone change has become effective. Ifthe permitted use for which the land has been rezoned is abandoned or if theland is not used for the requested purpose for a period of two (2) years ormore after the zone change becomes effective, the town or city council may,after a public hearing, change the land to its original zoning use before thepetition was filed. If any limitation, condition, or restriction in anordinance is held to be invalid by a court in any action, that holding shallnot cause the remainder of the ordinance to be invalid.
(i) The above requirements are to be construed as minimumrequirements.