BY VINAYA SAKSENA

CUMBERLAND — The parties looking to develop a major new CVS facility in the Highland Corporate Park area got something they had been hoping to get for years by a unanimous Town Council vote Wednesday night.

The new facility, which would include both new office space and 100 units of residential space, was advocated for by Highland Hills, LLC, CVS/ Caremark and the Economic Development Foundation of Rhode Island, who said it would introduce new jobs and increase the town’s tax revenue.
Adam Slesinger, a Cumberland resident who had spoken to the council on previous occasions complaining of hydrogen sulfide gas emanating from the property, reiterated his concerns to the council Wednesday night, but ultimately did not manage to sway the council, which voted unanimously in favor of the requested zoning change.
Highland Hills and the Economic Development Foundation of Rhode Island, which own the property in question, had requested that the town change its zoning classification of that area. The requested change, they said, was intended to allow both light industrial use and open space. The owners had expressed an intention to turn over a portion of the land — approximately 50 acres — to the town, to be preserved in the aforementioned form of open space.
There were, however, some details to be hammered out Wednesday night. Michael Horan, an attorney who had been representing between 30 and 40 property owners abutting the property since 2001, wanted to make sure that the language agreed to would not unfairly limit the town’s use of that land.
“I don’t think we can leave anything open,” Horan told the council. “This language creates questions that I (object) to.”
“This land is not going to a third party,” Mayor Daniel McKee reassured him. “It’s going to the town, and that is what we agreed to.”
The property owners also wanted to make sure that certain terms were part of the agreement, including an exception that would allow land that falls under two zoning types to be treated as if it were entirely the less heavily regulated of the two, rather than the other way around as would normally be the case.
Council member Kelley Morris proposed several amendments to the ordinance, which were approved by the council, including this one.
The only citizen to speak against the proposal that night was Slesinger, who read a prepared statement recounting his previous requests for the council to address what he said were health problems caused by hydrogen sulfide originating from the Highland property’s ailing sewer system. And while he ultimately voted in support of the zoning change, Councilman Jeffrey Mutter said Slesinger’s concerns were at least partially valid. He pointed out that the sewer system there was not intended to serve the nearby residents, but that taxpayers had paid an assessment fee, the end result benefiting the Highland property owners.
Both Mutter and McKee said they felt the sewer problem was a separate issue that should not determine the outcome of Wednesday’s vote. However, McKee noted that Slesinger had correctly quoted him as being concerned about the problem, and said he maintained a strong interest in solving it.
“We’re going to continue solving that problem,” McKee said. “We have (been) planning, and we do have thoughts on how to solve the problem.”