JOHNSTON – Mayor Joseph Polisena Jr. is threatening to challenge the constitutionality of Rhode Island’s three-decade old affordable housing law − and recent efforts to turbocharge it − in order to thwart a proposed 252-unit apartment complex off George Waterman Road.

“If you insist on moving forward with the currently proposed project, I will use all the power of government that I have to stop it,” Polisena wrote in a statement after the project’s developer brought it before the town Planning Board Tuesday night.

“If you think you’ll breeze through the newly created Land Use calendar in Superior Court, I will be forced to challenge the constitutionality of the low-to-moderate-income housing law itself to grind this project to a halt while the courts deliberate on the statute’s constitutionality,” he went on.

Background: Here’s the project he is challenging

The developer, Waterman Chenango LLC, is proposing to build the apartment complex using the state’s Low and Moderate Income Housing Act, which limits the ability of towns to block affordable housing projects if less than 10% of their residences qualify as affordable.

As it stands 7.9% of Johnston homes qualify as affordable, giving Waterman Chenango the option of applying for a streamlined “comprehensive permit” instead of the typical Johnston planning and permitting process. (If built the project is estimated to take Johnston over the 10% threshold.)

To combat an acute affordable housing shortage, in 2023 the General Assembly changed the Low and Moderate Housing Act to allow developments that are entirely income restricted to include 12 additional units per acre than they would normally be allowed to under local zoning. The change was part of House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi’s housing affordability package.

In the case of the 31-acre George Waterman Road property, this nets out to 255 units, according to Waterman Chenango.

Growing movement against dense housing projects

While many political leaders across the state and country have adopted pro-development positions in response to soaring home costs, Polisena is among the Rhode Island elected officials to maintain a “single-family only” approach to land use and opposition to residential density.

In neither his Tuesday letter or an interview with The Journal Wednesday, did Polisena lay out a legal case for why the state’s affordable housing law, which has stood since 1991, might be unconstitutional.

“I would like not to do it, but if it is a mean to challenge this project, if it’s our only opportunity to do so, I will do it,” Polisena said Wednesday when asked whether a constitutional challenge was serious or a bargaining move. “And I’m aware that that statute’s inception was 1991, but there have been significant changes over the past couple of years … So just because it hasn’t been challenged doesn’t mean that it’s not ripe to be challenged now.”

Neighbors rally against the project

Neighbors of the would-be apartment complex on Tuesday night railed against the proposal backed up by Planning Board members including Robert Pingitore, who according to WJAR-TV said it would be the “future Chad Brown of Johnston,” referring to a Providence public housing development.

On Wednesday Providence City Councilman Justin Roias called Pingitore’s comments “blatantly racist” and a “cheap shot dripping with prejudice.”

“If he’s so terrified of affordable housing, I invite him to visit Chad Brown and meet its residents − the parents juggling jobs, the kids chasing dreams, the neighbors looking out for each other,” Roias wrote in a statement distributed by the City Council. “Spoiler alert: They’re not the bogeyman he’s conjured up.”

Is the challenge serious?

Asked about Polisena’s legal warnings Wednesday, Shekarchi said he’s aware some people do not like the affordable housing law and are welcome to go after it in court but “to the best of my knowledge it has been good law since 1991.”

Another layer to the housing debate: Johnston’s town planner is Tom Deller, who chairs a House land use study commission that has worked on several of the pro-development bills in Shekarchi’s housing packages.

Preliminary plans for the George Waterman Road development show five rectangular apartment building arranged at the end of a driveway off the street and around a 255-space surface parking lot.

Waterman Chenango was founded by Salvatore Compagnone of Providence, who died early this year. The current applicant on planning documents is Lucille Santoro.

No votes were taken and the developer is expected to return to the board with more detailed plans in the spring.

Going deeper: Why are opponents against the project?

Objections to the George Waterman Road proposal from Johnston residents and officials focus on the familiar concerns of increased traffic, crime and the cost of educating new school-aged residents who live there.

Polisena said he would eagerly support the construction of new owner-occupied, single-family homes at the Waterman Chenango site, but not rental apartments, which he does not consider reflective of the “American Dream.”

Asked how low or middle income Rhode Islanders can afford a newly built zoning compliant single-family home, which might cost $600,000, Polisena said he would also potentially entertain attached condominiums for a lower price point.

Kelley Morris Salvatore, the attorney representing Waterman Chenango had this response to Polisena Wednesday:

“It is disappointing that the town appears to be judging the proposal without having all of the information needed to make an informed decision. My client is proposing a development for much-needed housing in Rhode Island, where state law provides a clear formula for increased density where affordable housing is proposed. We are confident that our formal proposal will meet all of the legal standards required for the development. “

This story discusses suicide. If you or someone you know is contemplating suicide, please call or text the National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988.

Yesterday’s vices have lost some favor among Rhode Island’s teens and preteens, a new survey suggests.

And yet cannabis seems to have found a bigger audience — namely among middle schoolers — according to the 2024 Rhode Island Student Survey, which is conducted every two years by the Rhode Island Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities & Hospitals (BHDDH) with help from the state’s health and education departments.

Students overall reported using fewer substances of all kinds, but pot consumption rose significantly among the middle-school demographic, with 7.8% using it in the past 30 days, an increase from the 5.4% usage observed by the last survey in 2022. Middle schoolers used cannabis more than any other drug, including alcohol.

“That’s not the good news,” said BHDDH Director Richard Leclerc at a presentation of survey results Tuesday at Classical High School.

Leclerc instead pointed to results that show substance use reported by Rhode Island high school students is largely stagnant or slowly declining. Among high schoolers, for instance, past 30-day use of marijuana dropped from 14.9% to 10.9%.

This year’s report surveyed over 23,000 students in 29 school districts, including Providence for the first time. The online, 30-minute survey featured 81 questions — with several new ones about gambling and cellphone use added this year — and was offered in English and Spanish. Students in grades six through 12 participated voluntarily with parental permission, and each respondent received a brochure with information for resources or support.

Middle and high school students in this year’s survey said they used alcohol, vapes, cigarettes and sedatives at rates smaller than in recent years, and most kids believe that family and friends would disapprove of substance use.

“The numbers you see today show that our prevention efforts are working,” Leclerc said.

Rebecca Elwell, regional director of the state-partnered Newport County Prevention Coalition, agreed. “We work every day to build a safety network for the young people in the state of Rhode Island, through strengthening their positive attributes and addressing the risk factors that young people face,” Elwell said. “Prevention is a science. We use evidence based strategies that have been tested and replicated.”

The peer and parental pressure to not do drugs was reflected in student responses about actual use. Reports of marijuana use in the past 30 days dropped from roughly one in seven high school students to one in nine, while e-cigarette and vape use fell from one in eight to one in 14. Alcohol use showed marked decline among high schoolers, with rates dropping from 14.5% to 10%. Fewer students reported being passengers in cars with impaired drivers. 

Simone Punchak, a senior at Classical High School, told those gathered for Tuesday’s program that her experience as a member of the Mayor’s Youth Prevention Team has taught her “that prevention is not just about ensuring that others are limited from potential risks, but that they are provided with the opportunities for success.” 

“The Rhode Island Student Survey is a powerful tool in this effort,” Punchak said. “The data it provides helps us better understand our challenges and guides us in building stronger programs for the future.”

The data report also crunches the numbers for different regions in Rhode Island, a unique feature important to securing federal funding for prevention efforts. Regional profiles can be found on the BHDDH website. 

The slowly waning rates of substance use among today’s high schoolers, whatever the cause, is even starker when compared to teens at the turn of the millennium. Youth Risk Behavior Survey data from 1997 showed that 36% of Rhode Islander’s high schoolers had been in a car with an impaired driver. In 2024, only 14% of high schoolers said the same on the Rhode Island Student Survey.

But Colleen Judge, director of student assistance services of school-based prevention nonprofit Rhode Island Student Assistant Services, pointed out that some things stay the same. “We need to remember that adolescence is challenging,” she said. “How could you forget?”

Other highlights from the survey included:  

• Eighth and ninth graders comprised 25% and 22% of respondents. High school juniors and seniors responded at rates of 4% and 3%, respectively. Overall, male and female participants were about evenly split at just under half across grade levels. Transgender students and students with other gender identities made up about 4% of survey respondents. 
• Bullying rates dipped a handful of percentage points in the midst of the pandemic in the 2020 survey but have since returned to their pre-pandemic levels. That still didn’t translate to any major increases among high schoolers, but middle schoolers reported a two or three percentage point increase in bullying online or by text. 
• An average of about 38% of students across grades admitted they had “made fun of other people,” while 16% of middle schoolers said they had spread rumors, and another 15% had sent hurtful texts or pictures to a peer.
• Less than 15% of both middle and high school students said they had “considered attempting” suicide. Among the high school students who reported having suicidal thoughts, 35% made an attempt, down from 41% in 2022. (The rate was 35% in 2018.) But middle schoolers who made suicide attempts rose from 45% in 2022 to 46% in this year’s survey.

The appeal of scratch lottery tickets

Gambling and screen time, newly added in this year’s survey questions, couldn’t be compared to past years’ data but both appeared to be relatively popular habits. 

About 21% of students reported they had tried gambling. The most popular form of gambling was scratch lottery tickets. Gifted scratch off tickets accounted for 19% of student gambling habits — outpacing games of chance enjoyed by the young adult crowd, like fantasy sports, which only 5% of high schoolers had bet on.

About half of students said they use their phone between one and five hours a day, although most reported they often spent more time on the devices than they’d like. A troubling 6% of middle schoolers and 4% of high schoolers reported that they spent 16 or more hours daily on their phones.

A Rhode Island man was sentenced Tuesday in federal court in Boston for his role in trafficking fentanyl throughout southeastern Massachusetts and his home state.

Mario Rafael Dominguez-Ortiz, 27, of Cranston, Rhode Island, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Allison Burroughs to one year and a day in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release, Acting U.S. Attorney Josh Levy said in a statement.

In May, Dominguez-Ortiz pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute fentanyl. He was indicted by a federal grand jury in August 2022 along with nine other individuals.

In March 2021, an investigation began into a drug trafficking ring operating in southeastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island led by Estarlin Ortiz-Alcantara, Levy said.

The investigation identified Dominguez-Ortiz as a member of a drug trafficking organization, and he was employed by Ortiz-Alcantara to deliver fentanyl.

Four times between July and November 2021, Dominguez-Ortiz delivered fentanyl to a cooperating source, Levy said. The total amount of fentanyl that he distributed over the fourth-month period was approximately 500 grams.

Estarlin Ortiz-Alcantara pleaded guilty in December 2023 and is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 5.

Assisting federal authorities in the investigation were Massachusetts State Police, the Bristol County Sherriff’s Office, and police departments in New Bedford, Fairhaven, Fall River, Taunton, Attleboro, Scituate, Yarmouth, and Providence and West Warwick, Rhode Island.

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