Big Step for 'Attainable' Housing in Little Compton
Sakonnet Times | December 8, 2025
Two-home development works its way through planning process, as Commons Foundation members await
Little Compton could see its first-ever “attainable” homes over the coming year, as a proposal to build two single family dwellings on Rita Way works its way through the planning process.
At last week’s planning board meeting, representatives from the Aldrich Descendants 2002 Trust were granted master plan approval for a major subdivision that would see one home built on each of two adjoining lots at 11 Rita Way, off Swamp Road.
Trust representative Peter Aldrich is also a member of the Commons foundation, a non-profit formed in 2023 to help increase Little Compton’s attainable housing stock, and said Monday that should board members grant preliminary and final approval, the trust’s plan is to transfer title to both properties to the foundation, which will develop and sell the homes to deserving families.
“For Little Compton, we will demonstrate that using the attainable regulations makes it possible to produce a very attractive single-family home for young families, the elderly, or people who can't continue to live in Little Compton, or families that work in Little Compton,” Aldrich said.
What is ‘attainable?’
Little Compton’s attainable housing ordinance was passed last year to help give families who may earn too much under ‘affordable’ housing guidelines find homes in Little Compton. Those eligible for attainable housing must have a combined family housing of less than $150,000, more than state affordable housing guidelines allow.
The proposed land donation is among the non-profit Commons Foundation’s largest steps yet in securing more attainable housing in Little Compton, and the first time land has been donated for that purpose.
“It will be our first use of the attainable housing ordinance,” Jim Lock of the Commons Foundation said. “It's the first time in the history of Little Compton that anyone has donated land for housing in Little Compton.”
The lots cover about 2.5 acres off Swamp road, and Lock said he hopes that if the planning process concludes successfully, construction will begin by the summer.