New Shoreham Launches Survey for 10-Year Plan

The Town of New Shoreham has opened a survey asking residents to weigh in on the town's next comprehensive plan, the state-mandated document that will guide zoning, housing and climate policy on Block Island for the next decade, according to a notice posted on the town's website July 27.

A comprehensive plan is a long-range planning document that Rhode Island law requires every municipality to review and update roughly every 10 years. It lays out goals for land use, transportation, housing, conservation and public services, and towns are supposed to use it as the basis for zoning and development decisions. New Shoreham's current plan was adopted by the Town Council in November 2016, making it due for a rewrite.

The update process formally began July 8, when the Planning Board met with consultants from Weston and Sampson, an engineering and planning firm that has previously advised the town's Housing Board. Jim Riordan of the firm told the board the update is "a 10-year plan looking at a 20-year horizon" meant to capture community needs and desires, and colleague Robert Collins described the new survey as a chance "to take the pulse of the community."

The survey, available at surveymonkey.com/r/NewShorehamCompPlan and in paper form at Town Hall, contains 26 main questions plus optional demographic questions and is expected to take 15 to 20 minutes to complete. It covers housing, economic development, transportation, recreation and open space, natural and historic resources, and resilience — the last topic reflecting the island's exposure to sea level rise and coastal erosion.

Officials plan to fold in results from an earlier survey the Block Island Land Trust commissioned in June and July of 2025, conducted by FM3 Research and New Bridge Strategy. That poll drew 131 responses, an 11.3 percent response rate the land trust said outpaced typical industry rates of 5 to 10 percent, and found strong support for protecting freshwater resources, wildlife habitat and scenic rural views. According to the town's notice, those results will be reviewed alongside the new survey data as part of the update.

Timing has been a point of internal discussion. Planning Board members raised concerns about scheduling public meetings before seasonal residents leave the island for the year, and about whether an initial one-month window for the survey would give enough people time to respond given how busy islanders are during the summer. Town Manager Amy Land said she has been trying to coordinate the update's public meetings with other similar outreach efforts already underway.

The plan will be treated as what officials call a "living document," meaning sections can be revised as the process continues rather than locked in after a single round of input. The town has scheduled three public engagement meetings, including a workshop this fall, along with five Planning Board meetings dedicated to the update. Some survey results are expected to be shared at the first public open house in September.

New Shoreham's year-round population was just over 1,400 as of the 2020 census, but the island's population can swell to roughly 10 times that in the summer, a seasonal swing that shapes debates over housing, water and sewer capacity, and the pace of development that the comprehensive plan is meant to address.

Residents can complete the survey online or pick up a paper copy at Town Hall; the town's notice does not list a closing date. The next opportunity to weigh in directly comes with the fall public workshop and the September open house, where planners expect to share initial survey results.