North Smithfield Town Council Meeting - February 17, 2026
Meeting — February 17, 2026
Meeting overview
Agenda at a glance
| Agenda item | Summary | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| Liquor/Entertainment License Transfer — Kung Fu Kitchen | Transfer of license from Ichiroku Ramen to Kung Fu Kitchen Inc. at 44 Dowling Village Blvd. Transfer fee waived (already paid under prior license). | Approved 4-0 |
| Consent Agenda (as amended) | January 20 and 22 minutes corrected: TA name typo, 'parasol' corrected to Parasol (engineering firm), 'centimeters' corrected to KCM estimate, 'sally port floor' corrected to full sally port, police sign grant noted. Clerk acknowledged AI-assisted minutes. | Approved 4-0 |
| Leo's Auto Junkyard — License Status Update | Zoning Officer visited site. Substantial progress: vehicles removed, ~one-third of property fenced (abutting residential). Remaining two-thirds is wooded and doesn't require screening. Fire marshal confirmed egress clearance. Municipal court hearing the following day on two pending violations. DeCristofaro requested site map before any vote. | Tabled to March 2 |
| Leo's Auto — GZA Environmental Contract ($17,500) | Lengthy debate over whether to hire GZA for environmental compliance review. Punchak skeptical: no soil sampling, conclusions pre-telegraphed, questioned actionability since DEM/DVR are the regulators. DeCristofaro frustrated town must pay outside firm for work administration should understand. Gibbs defended: no staff engineers, assistant solicitor inadequate, GZA has former DEM lawyer. | Tabled to March 2 |
| Salary & Wage Ordinance — Second Reading | FY July 2025–June 2026 as amended. $17/hour minimum wage update. Punchak caught DPW seasonal personnel still showing $16/hr; finance director confirmed that's a different category. | Approved 4-0 |
| Fire & Rescue Contract Addendum (July 2025–June 2028) | Annual increase of $235,656/year (half-year for current year) to fund two additional firefighters for a second rescue unit. Driven by high mutual aid outflow. Chief Chartier's analysis shows net savings. Department going to 31 personnel March 9. Punchak asked about staffing shortfall recovery — overtime costs historically exceed per-diem savings. | Approved 4-0 |
| Easement — Narragansett Electric & Verizon (Solar, Mattity Rd) | Easement for telephone poles serving solar project at Plat 10, Lot 218. Two amendments: (1) struck 'potentially a paved bicycle path' from recitals; (2) capped easement at five poles maximum. Poles run above ground to boundary, underground from there. | Approved 4-0 |
| Zoning Ordinance Update — First Reading & Public Hearing | Comprehensive update incorporating state-mandated 2023-2024 housing and land use amendments. Key changes: unified development review, ADUs by right, adaptive reuse, solar overlay consolidation, recreational marijuana incorporation. Funded by $100K RI Housing MTAP grant. No public speakers on zoning itself. | Continued to March 16 |
| Payment of Bills ($3,158,843.52) | Deferred to end of meeting pending fire contract. Includes backdated January fire payment and new $19K/month increase. DeCristofaro questioned IT line items (all budgeted, under budget). Punchak asked about crematory inspection (animal shelter). | Approved 4-0 |
Key issues and discussion
Leo's Auto Junkyard — License Status & GZA Environmental Contract
This was the longest item of the meeting. Two sub-items were addressed.
License status update: Zoning Officer Mr. Cody reported he visited the site that day. Leo's Auto has made substantial progress removing vehicles and has fenced approximately one-third of the property — the sections abutting residential neighbors. The remaining two-thirds is wooded and does not require screening. The fire marshal confirmed the site is now clear for egress. The case also goes before municipal court the following day on the two pending violations (fencing and expansion of non-conforming use). The council noted it had expected a fence-completion deadline to be met at this meeting but the item was not positioned for a final decision. Councilwoman DeCristofaro requested a site map with mapped completion status before any vote.
GZA Environmental contract ($17,500): The council debated at length whether to approve GZA's proposal for an environmental review of the junkyard, covering document review, a site inspection, and a compliance report on stormwater, groundwater, wetlands, hazardous materials storage, and licensing. Councilman Punchak expressed skepticism: he said GZA had already telegraphed its conclusions in the proposal, noted it contains no soil sampling, and questioned whether $17,500 produces anything actionable given that DEM and DVR are the actual regulators. He added he had already found a likely freshwater wetlands permit violation himself by reviewing the documents. Councilwoman DeCristofaro expressed frustration that the town must pay an outside firm to do regulatory work that the applicant and town administration should already understand. Town Administrator Gibbs defended the engagement: the town has no staff engineers, the assistant solicitor has not provided adequate guidance, and GZA is one of the town's three on-call engineering firms with a former DEM staff lawyer on the team. No vote was taken — both sub-items tabled to March 2.
Zoning Ordinance Update — First Reading
Town Planner Mark Crulo and consultant Emily Keys-Innes (Innes Land Strategies Group) presented the first reading of a comprehensive update to the North Smithfield Zoning Ordinance, funded by a $100,000 Rhode Island Housing MTAP grant. The update incorporates state-mandated 2023–2024 General Assembly housing and land use amendments.
Key changes include: unified development review (now required, was optional; planning board can grant zoning relief as part of land development applications); zoning appeals now go directly to Superior Court; adaptive reuse of commercial-to-residential conversions now permitted by right with conditions; substandard lots of record get proportional dimensional standards; dimensional variance hardship standards relaxed; special use permits can now be granted concurrently with dimensional variances; inclusionary zoning requiring 20% affordable units in 10+ unit subdivisions; ADUs must be allowed by right for owner-occupied properties; solar approval pathways consolidated into one overlay-district process; and recreational marijuana zoning incorporated (reflecting the town's 2019 referendum result).
Councilwoman DeCristofaro raised a concern about whether the groundwater aquifer overlay district protections were being inadvertently stripped; Crulo confirmed they were not. Punchak submitted a written list of questions requiring only minor language corrections. The public hearing was opened with no public speakers on zoning itself. Continued to March 16, 2026 with second reading scheduled for the same date.
Fire & Rescue Contract Addendum — Second Rescue Unit
The council approved an addendum to the North Smithfield Fire and Rescue contract, adding an annual increase of $235,656 for each remaining year of the contract (with a half-year increment for the current year). The increase funds two additional firefighters to staff a second rescue unit, driven by high mutual aid outflow and a financial analysis by Chief Chartier showing net savings to the town. The fire department will go to 31 personnel on March 9 but will simultaneously lose one member to a serious health condition.
Councilman Punchak asked whether the town recovers money if staffing dips below 31; the finance director explained that staffing shortfalls generate overtime costs that historically exceed the per-diem savings, citing a recent prior-year example. Punchak also caught that the contract still named a prior town administrator and a prior council president in the signature block; the motion included a correction for the current administrator's name.
Open Meetings Act — Police Station Subcommittee Question
Mike Clifford raised a procedural concern that has been building across multiple meetings: every prior building project in town had a formal Building Committee that held open public meetings under the Open Meetings Act. Two council members, the administrator, the architect, and others are meeting regularly on the police station project without it being constituted as a formal committee with published agendas and minutes.
Clifford pointed to a specific instance where a new $6.3 million figure appeared at a meeting and council members present did not know where it came from, suggesting decisions are being made outside public view. Councilwoman Alves said the meetings are 'just updates' with the contractor and that all decisions come to the full council. The solicitor said he would need to understand the nature of the meetings to opine and agreed to research the question and provide a written opinion. No deadline was set.
Public comments
| Speaker | Summary |
|---|---|
| Mike Clifford 489 Black Plain Rd, (Opening Open Forum) |
Raised a procedural concern about the police station building project: every prior building project in town had a formal Building Committee that held open public meetings under the Open Meetings Act. He observed that two council members, the administrator, the architect, and others are meeting regularly on the police station project without it being constituted as a formal committee with published agendas and minutes. He pointed to a specific instance where a new $6.3 million figure appeared at a meeting and council members present did not know where it came from, suggesting decisions are being made outside public view. |
| Stan Zuba 910 Iron Mine Hill Road, (During Zoning public hearing) |
Asked Town Planner to confirm that a non-conforming use is legally limited to its scope at the time it became non-conforming — and that this applies under existing case law, not just the new ordinance. Crulo confirmed. Also addressed council during closing open forum: concerned March 2 agenda will be overcrowded with junkyard items. Noted DEM, DVR, and EPA have been difficult to engage. Asked whether public can present its own expert at March 2. |
| Christopher Zangieri Attorney for HT Auto LLC (Leo's Auto), (During junkyard license item) |
Had prepared substantial demonstrative evidence (insurance docs, vehicle removal logs, photographs and video of fencing and natural screening). Asked council what it wanted him to present. Said natural tree buffer provides significant visual screening even in winter. |