August 22, 2002

Group puts town maps on Web

By Matt Sheley/Daily News staff MIDDLETOWN - Copies of the town's zoning maps and Comprehensive Community Plan are now available at Middletown First's Web site.

Middletown First member Gail Greenwood said the grassroots group that formed last year to oppose a new West Main Road shopping plaza has been working recently to upload the information to its site at www.middletownfirst.org, in an attempt to better inform people about their community.

A portion of a $5,000 grant from the Rhode Island Foundation paid for the work by Practical Planning Services of Bristol, run by former Town Planner Michelle Maher.

"When I first started getting involved and wanted to find out how things worked and where to go, I wasn't sure what I was entitled to, how things worked or even where to go," Greenwood said. "Hopefully, this will be a place for people to turn to for all sorts of useful information."

Greenwood said the Web site was designed to be easily accessible, even for less savvy computer users.

On the site, a map of the town is divided into nine different areas. Clicking on a number set aside for each region reveals the property's zoning, which is delineated by the town's comprehensive plan.

Middletown First has about eight highly involved members, Greenwood said, with many others throughout town curious about its efforts. The group was formed in opposition to Middletown Square, a new 107,800-square-foot shopping center to be built at 1305 West Main Road, the old home of the Aquidneck Family Golf Center driving range.

Greenwood said Middletown First's work has drawn the attention of several people around the country. She said she took a call from a Wisconsin woman fighting a Wal-Mart superstore proposal in her community and looking for information about the town's new development impact review ordinance, requiring developers to pay fees for third-party reviews of their projects.

The site also features a list of people on local boards and commissions, project applications for the town's Planning Board and Zoning Board of Review and a place where visitors can leave comments about the Web site.

Greenwood said Middletown First hopes to load all the town's zoning regulations onto the site soon, along with other helpful information for the public. "My dream is a lot of this could be done through the Web," Greenwood said. "It helps educate people and galvanize people and gives them a voice. I was never involved before. I'd just drive down West Main Road and swear and go to bed depressed at night when I saw another field turned into a subdivision, but when you realize you can do something about it, it becomes a lot of fun

. "All of us have really realized you're not alone," she said. "Every community seems to have the same problems."