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5/5/2026
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Senate OKs Woonsocket senators’ bill banning deed restrictions that block new grocery stores
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STATE HOUSE – The Senate today approved legislation sponsored by Woonsocket Senators Melissa Murray and Brian J. Thompson to address a practice often employed by large supermarket chains to stifle competitors.
The bill (2026-S 2644) prohibits restrictive covenants that prevent grocery stores from occupying a particular property. Frequently when a grocery chain closes a location and sells the property, the deed includes a covenant restricting the property’s use as a location for another grocery store, often for 30 years or longer, to prevent a competitor from opening a store there. In some cases, the owners or affiliates of supermarket chains have even purchased properties and added restrictive covenants without ever building a market at the location.
Such restrictive covenants can create food deserts — largely low-income areas where many people lack access to a car and live more than a mile from any supermarket — especially in urban neighborhoods where available, appropriate lots are scarce.
Many neighborhoods in Woonsocket are now food deserts. While city officials have been working for years to remedy the situation, restrictive covenants on many of the large available lots are among the problems hampering the effort.
“When a big supermarket closes and prevents any other fresh food retailer from opening on the property, it can leave the neighborhood without a grocery market for miles, deliberately creating a ‘food desert.’ For the many people struggling to get by, especially those without adequate transportation, that means more of their food is coming from convenience stores and fast-food restaurants. It’s going to be less healthy and more expensive. Grocery stores are a vital public health need. Our state should not allow anyone to impose such a restriction on any property,” said Senator Murray (D-Dist. 24, Woonsocket, North Smithfield, who serves as chairwoman of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee.
Said Senator Thompson (D-Dist. 20, Woonsocket, Cumberland), “Restrictive covenants are a corporate ‘scorched earth’ policy that harms communities. It’s a problem that very disproportionately affects people at the bottom of the income scale, who already face food insecurity and don’t have the resources to go somewhere else for healthy, affordable food. Grocery stores are a desperately needed resource in so many neighborhoods today, so we must not allow anyone to prohibit future development of grocery store on land they no longer own.”
The bill, which is included in the Fair Price Grocery Agenda backed by Lt. Gov. Sabina Matos, now goes to the House of Representatives, where Rep. Stephen M. Casey (D-Dist. 50, Woonsocket) is sponsoring its House companion (2026-H 8106).
For more information, contact:
Meredyth R. Whitty, Publicist
State House Room 20
Providence, RI 02903
(401) 222-1923
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