---
type: "Bill"
title: "AN ACT RELATING TO TOWNS AND CITIES -- SMALL BUSINESSES -- ZONING ORDINANCES (Imposes one year moratorium on enforcement of municipal ordinance or zoning requirement that penalizes owners of food service establishments/bars for modifications/alternations to their premises in response to an emergency declaration.)"
description: "AN ACT RELATING TO TOWNS AND CITIES -- SMALL BUSINESSES -- ZONING ORDINANCES (Imposes one year moratorium on enforcement of municipal ordinance or zoning requirement that penalizes owners of food service establishments/bars for modifications/alternations to their premises in response to an emergency declaration.)"
jurisdiction: "us/states/ri"
legislature: "Rhode Island General Assembly"
session: "2021"
identifier: "SB 654"
citation: "Rhode Island SB 654 (2021)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Business & Professions", "Cities & Towns", "Food and Drugs", "Zoning"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["DiMario", "Kallman", "Mendes", "Murray", "Pearson", "Quezada", "Raptakis", "Valverde"]
version_count: 1
action_count: 14
vote_count: 1
first_action: "2021-03-18"
last_action: "2021-07-08"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/8e5110a8-e3a7-410c-99d8-91134b1e2ade"
source_url: "https://status.rilegislature.gov/"
source_hash: "1df37e8c94c8d6c00b2f4aedfab7750d72b08b31cc7b4c1a29c734bb7a722c4c"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ri"]
---

# Rhode Island SB 654 (2021) — AN ACT RELATING TO TOWNS AND CITIES -- SMALL BUSINESSES -- ZONING ORDINANCES (Imposes one year moratorium on enforcement of municipal ordinance or zoning requirement that penalizes owners of food service establishments/bars for modifications/alternations to their premises in response to an emergency declaration.)

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **654 SUB A** (committee substitute) — [source](http://webserver.rilin.state.ri.us/BillText/BillText21/SenateText21/S0654A.pdf)

## Votes

- ORDINANCES — **35–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- DiMario — primary (person)
- Kallman — primary (person)
- Mendes — primary (person)
- Murray — primary (person)
- Pearson — primary (person)
- Quezada — primary (person)
- Raptakis — primary (person)
- Valverde — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2021-03-18** 03/18/2021 Introduced, referred to Senate Housing and Municipal Government `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2021-04-03** 04/03/2021 Scheduled for hearing and/or consideration (04/07/2021)
- **2021-04-07** 04/07/2021 Committee recommended measure be held for further study
- **2021-05-21** 05/21/2021 Scheduled for consideration
- **2021-05-26** 05/26/2021 Meeting postponed (05/27/2021)
- **2021-06-18** 06/18/2021 Scheduled for consideration (06/24/2021)
- **2021-06-23** 06/23/2021 Proposed Substitute
- **2021-06-24** 06/24/2021 Committee recommends passage of Sub A `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2021-06-24** 06/24/2021 Placed on Senate Calendar (06/29/2021)
- **2021-06-29** 06/29/2021 Senate passed Sub A `passage`
- **2021-07-01** 07/01/2021 Placed on the House Consent Calendar (07/01/2021)
- **2021-07-01** 07/01/2021 House passed Sub A in concurrence `passage`
- **2021-07-06** 07/06/2021 Transmitted to Governor `executive-receipt`
- **2021-07-08** 07/08/2021 Signed by Governor `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/8e5110a8-e3a7-410c-99d8-91134b1e2ade`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Rhode Island legislature records).