§ 45-23-53. Local regulations — Public hearing and notice requirements.
(a) No local regulations shall be adopted, repealed, or amended until after a public hearing
has been held upon the question before the city or town planning board. The city or
town planning board shall first give notice of the public hearing by publication of
notice in a newspaper of local circulation within the municipality at least once each
week for three (3) successive weeks prior to the date of the hearing, which may include
the week in which the hearing is to be held. The same notice shall be posted in the
town or city clerk's office and one other municipal building in the municipality and
the municipality must make the notice accessible on the municipal home page of its
website at least fourteen (14) days prior to the hearing. At this hearing, opportunity
shall be given to all persons interested on being heard upon the matter of the proposed
regulations. The newspaper notice shall:
(1) Specify the place of the hearing and the date and time of its commencement;
(2) Indicate that adoption, amendment, or repeal of local regulations is under consideration;
(3) Contain a statement of the proposed amendments to the regulations that may be printed
once in its entirety, or may summarize or describe the matter under consideration
as long as the intent and effect of the proposed regulation is expressly written in
that notice;
(4) Advise those interested where and when a copy of the matter under consideration may
be obtained or examined and copied; and
(5) State that the proposals shown on the notice may be altered or amended prior to the
close of the public hearing without further advertising as a result of further study
or because of the views expressed at the public hearing. Any alteration or amendment
must be presented for comment in the course of the hearing.
(b) Notice of the public hearing shall be sent by first-class mail to the city or town
planning board of any municipality where there is a public or quasi-public water source,
or private water source that is used, or is suitable for use, as a public water source,
located within two thousand feet (2,000′) of the municipal boundaries.
(c) Notice of a public hearing shall be sent to the governing body of any state or municipal
water department or agency, special water district, or private water company that
has riparian rights to a surface water resource and/or surface watershed that is used,
or is suitable for use, as a public water source, located within either the municipality
or two thousand feet (2,000′) of the municipal boundaries; provided, that a map survey
has been filed with the building inspector as specified in § 45-24-53(f).
(d) Notwithstanding any of the requirements set forth in subsections (a) through (c) above,
each municipality shall establish and maintain a public notice registry allowing any
person or entity to register for electronic notice of any changes to the local regulations.
Municipalities shall annually provide public notice of the existence of the registry
by a publication of notice in a newspaper of general circulation within the municipality.
In addition, each municipality is hereby encouraged to provide public notice of the
existence of the public notice registry in all of its current and future communications
with the public, including, but not limited to, governmental websites, electronic
newsletters, public bulletins, press releases, and all other means the municipality
may use to impart information to the local community.
(1) Provided, however, notice pursuant to a public notice registry as per this section
does not alone qualify a person or entity on the public notice registry as an "aggrieved
partyâ€� under § 45-24-31.
(e) No defect in the form of any notice under this section renders any regulations invalid,
unless the defect is found to be intentional or misleading.
(f) The cost of newspaper notice and mailings shall be borne by the applicant.
(g) The requirements in this section are to be construed as minimum requirements.