Westerly - State of Rhode Island: Division of Planning

The Westerly Comprehensive Plan9.5.4 Survey – Community Identity and DesignThe community character section of the survey deals with respondents’ attitudes about thecommunity’s identity, appearance and mix of uses.Westerly residents’ positive regard for the community is reinforced by the community charactersection of the survey. There were 67 percent of respondents who agreed or strongly agreed thatWesterly has a strong sense of identity and 70 percent felt a strong sense of community in Westerly.In addition, 64 percent agreed or strongly agreed that the beaches’ character and appearance is ofhigh quality and a similar proportion, 69 percent, said the downtown’s appearance and character isof high quality. A somewhat smaller proportion, 55 percent, felt that the character and proportionof the community’s commercial buildings is of high quality. There were 69 percent who agreed orstrongly agreed that the appearance of tourism-related development should be controlled.Respondents favor encouragement of single-family residential development over mixed-use andmulti-family development. Encouragement of retail development, light industrial and office parkswas favored over the development of heavy industrial development.The results of the community character section of the survey are summarized below.Table 9-10 Survey: Community Identity and DesignNeitherStronglyAgreeStronglyAgreeDisagreeAgreenorDisagreeDisagreeWesterly has a strong sense ofidentity20.4% 56.3% 17.3% 5.3% 0.6%The character and appearanceof Westerly’s commercial 7.4% 47.2% 26.2% 14.8% 4.3%buildings is of high qualityThe character and appearanceof our beaches is of high 16.2% 47.4% 18.3% 16.5% 1.5%qualityThe character and appearanceof Downtown is of high quality19.0% 51.7% 15.9% 13.3% 0.0%The town should encourage the following types of development:Retail 17.5% 45.0% 17.8% 8.4% 11.3%Light industrial/technical 12.4% 44.6% 26.4% 8.6% 8.0%Heavy Industrial 10.2% 19.0% 19.7% 27.2% 23.9%Office Parks 15.0% 33.9% 30.3% 10.1% 10.7%Single-Family Residential 10.3% 41.7% 28.2% 9.9% 9.9%Multi-Family Residential 5.2% 23.9% 30.6% 21.3% 19.0%Mixed Uses: residential, retailand other commercial uses3.3% 22.5% 41.5% 14.7% 18.0%Westerly should control theappearance of tourism-related 29.1% 39.6% 19.5% 6.2% 5.6%developmentI feel a sense of community inWesterly14.2% 56.3% 17.0% 6.2% 6.2%Westerly, Rhode Island 147