Welcome to Middletown First

We are a grassroots organization dedicated to preserving the character of our community in Middletown, Rhode Island. We formed because of our collective concern over ongoing foolish, wasteful land uses and concern for our environment.

Like many small towns across North America, we too are witness to the ravages of sprawl. Our once beautiful, rural, New England seaside town is littered with flat, windowless hulks of architecture-home to national chains and fast food outlets. Locally owned stores are suffering the consequences of big box bargain competition. Acres of asphalt and crumbling cement curbs accompany countless (and many underutilized) stripmalls. Cars whip past pedestrians and bicyclists trying to negotiate sidewalkless and shoulderless roads. Power lines and interior lit plastic signs clutter our once unobstructed panoramic horizons. 24 hour security lighting pollutes our night skies. Rooftop HVAC units drone mercilessly through the night. Residential subdivisions claim the names of farms that once stood in place of them- yet retain none of the character. Urban runoff continues to threaten our watershed. What are we doing?!

How did we end up here? Our town grew without a plan. Our planning was simple subdivision of land without thought of aesthetics or quality of life. And as it has in just about every other American city, automobile-based consumerism has driven Middletown's commercial development. Regular citizens are no match for the deep pockets of developers and their "wall of experts" when they come through small towns to plead their cases. The promise of tax revenue and the fear of appeals helps most small towns make these extremely difficult decisions very easily.

In February of 2002 the Newport County Chamber of Commerce graciously took us under the wing of their 501-c3 nonprofit status. Through generous donations from the New England Grassroots Environmental Fund and the Rhode Island Foundation, we were able to provide expert traffic and real estate testimony in a series of 8 public Zoning Board hearings against a proposed stripmall in a watershed/wetlands/floodplain district (see pictures below and read our testimony before the ZBR here). JSP Land Development blew wide holes in the proponent's traffic testimony. This disclosure led to the enactment of the Middletown First proposed Development Impact Review ordinance, which requires developers to pay for objective third party reviews of their projects.

Although we ultimately lost the mall battle, the issue did galvanize half a town over the concern for our environment, quality of life and our town's unique (and vanishing) charm.

Moving forward, in June of 2003 the Van Beuren Charitable Foundation awarded Middletown First a $5000 grant to put Middletown's Zoning Ordinance on the web site. This user friendly document went live in September 2003. Now all Middletown residents can access their town's zoning ordinance and learn what's allowed (and where), without leaving the house nor wasting paper.

In fact, Middletown First was the first site ever to post Middletown's entire Comprehensive Plan, Zoning Ordinance, Zoning Map and Zoning/Planning applications on the WEB.
Quite an impressive feat for a citizen's group.

Our job at Middletown First is to make sure that Middletown comes first, and developers come second. Through better knowledge of our Zoning laws, our Master Plan and current development proposals we WILL level the playing field. We're not antigrowth (although a moratorium on development is not a bad idea until we can straighten this mess out...), we're anti-sprawl.

This SITE:

Middletown's entire Comprehensive Community Plan (our Master Plan) is online NOW in easy to use PDF format. It is completely interactive with pop up maps and figures. This is normally a $55 document were you to purchase it from Town Hall. With PDF you can print out just a few pages or the entire document on your home printer-for free. The Plan has recently been updated and is available online now.

The Zoning Map is up! Find your neighborhood and click on it. See what it's zoned, view all setbacks and permitted uses, etc. Practical Planning Services from Bristol, RI put together both the Comp Plan and this map for us. We think you'll agree that they rule.

A complete copy of our town's Zoning Ordinance is up now. Updates since 10/30/06 available here.

A news and views section keeps all abreast of current proposals and their subsequent hearing dates.

A section devoted to community character- where your old photos "of the way we were" is up now. The first installment featured photos of the interior and exterior of the beautiful old Vanicek home on West Main Road. Despite Herculean efforts to relocate the home, it was demolished (along with her 75 year old weeping beeches) to make way for an auto repair facility. Recently added are photos of historic Middletown. Check out the aerials of 2 mile corner shot over the last 50 years.

Keep fighting the good fight. Thank you for visiting us and please check back soon.