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Warwick Poised to Take Land-Use Feud With Airport Agency to Superior Court

Posted on: Friday, 4 November 2005, 18:00 CST

By TONY DE PAUL Journal Staff Writer

WARWICK - City Hall and the state Airport Corporation appear headed to court soon in a zoning dispute to the north of Airport Road, where the corporation allows airport car-rental agencies to do business on residential-zoned land.

Mayor Scott Avedisian said yesterday he was awaiting advice from Peter Ruggiero, the assistant city solicitor working on the dispute, but it seemed all but certain the matter will wind up in Superior Court.

"Our goal has always been to try to solve things amicably without going to court," Avedisian said. "There are some issues that you can't do that on, and this is apparently going to be one of those issues."

On Sept. 2, the city ordered the corporation to close the 15- acre rental-car maintenance and storage facilities operated by Hertz, Avis and Budget, or appeal the city's notice of violation to the Zoning Board of Review.

The Airport Corporation took neither step by the Oct. 2 deadline and maintained that, as a independent state agency, it has immunity from the city's zoning ordinance.

On Oct. 12, Richard Licht, a lawyer for the corporation, wrote to the city to clarify that the state, not the Airport Corporation, owns the 15 acres. The state leases the property to the corporation, which in turn leases it to the car-rental companies, Licht said.

"While we believe the distinction to be of no legal significance, please be advised that you have erroneous information," Licht said.

In meetings held before the city issued the shutdown order, airport officials had claimed to own the parcel, Ruggiero said, even though land-evidence records say the state owns it.

"I never found any evidence that the Airport Corporation owned the property, there was just their statement to that effect," Ruggiero said yesterday.

"That doesn't change the analysis," he added, "because the state is not categorically exempt from zoning. Case law is clear about that. The state is conditionally exempt under a balancing test. It is not absolutely exempt."

"If the city decides to contest the assertions made by the Airport Corporation, it's going to involve a lot of litigation and you don't do that lightly," Ruggiero said. "I'm doing some review of the case law and the issues presented and will make a recommendation about what to do next."

In a Sept. 30 letter to the city, Licht said state law requires local governments to "conform their zoning laws to projects of a state agency."

If the commercial use of the land is in dispute, he said, the State Planning Council would have jurisdiction, not the Warwick zoning board.

The State Guide Plan, he said, envisioned the airport car-rental facilities on those 15 acres, in a part of the Lincoln Park neighborhood that the state condemned because of high levels of jet noise.

Source: Providence Journal

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