Providence City Plan Commission, June 28, 2022 meeting
Call to Order, Roll Call, and Director's Report
The meeting was called to order, and a roll call of the commissioners was conducted. The Director of Planning then provided updates on the comprehensive plan and pending zoning ordinance amendments.
City Council Referral 3523: Student Housing Ordinance
The commission discussed a proposed amendment to expand the student housing ordinance restricting the number of college students in non-owner occupied residential dwellings. After hearing public comments and discussing enforcement strategies, the commission voted to recommend approval with additional recommendations.
City Council Referral 3519: 48 Marlboro Avenue Rezoning
The commission reviewed a request to rezone 48 Marlboro Avenue from R-3 to C-1 to allow for the expansion of an adjacent retail business. Following a brief discussion and public comment, the commission voted to recommend approval of the rezoning.
City Council Referral 3522: Abandonment of Penelope Place
The commission considered a petition to abandon a portion of Penelope Place to facilitate a subdivision and parking area for an abutting property owner. The commission voted to recommend approval of the abandonment with conditions.
Recess
The commission took a brief recess to allow members a short break. The meeting was then reconvened to address the final agenda item on the docket.
Minor Land Development Project: 153 to 165 Gano Street
The commission reviewed a proposal for four apartment buildings at 153 to 165 Gano Street, including requests for dimensional adjustments for height. After hearing extensive public testimony regarding traffic and parking concerns, the commission voted to approve the project with several conditions, including a post-occupancy traffic study.
Speaker 0
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Indirectly,
Speaker 1
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I don't know why.
Speaker 2
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Alright. Good evening. Today, Tuesday, June 28, we are convening the special meeting of the Providence City Planning Commission. It is 04:48PM. Let's start off by taking a roll call.
Speaker 2
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We'll go around in order. Christian? Here. Harry? Here.
Speaker 2
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Noel? Here. Manuel? Here. Choyang?
Speaker 2
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Present. Bob Azar? Here. Present. And Kelly Morris Salvatore is present for possibly her last meeting, which is very sad.
Speaker 2
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We'll we'll hand it off to Bob for a director's report.
Speaker 3
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Okay. Just briefly, I wanted to update you on the comprehensive plan and our pending zoning ordinance amendments. We have started the process of of rolling out the comprehensive planning process. We have, sent out a a correspondence to the city council members letting them know that that, this is coming. We started to, have some discussions with neighborhood organizations, about this process.
Speaker 3
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We've been to, WBNA and South Providence Neighborhood Organization, Association. Tim Shea, showed up right on time. Tim is our community liaison, and, he's been our presence out there, in community. Throughout July, we'll be attending various events and and, talking up the plan, and, we'll continue to keep you updated on that. And the, zoning, we handed it out last time.
Speaker 3
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These are amendments, that are being proposed by planning and inspection and standards, to deal with some of the, emerging, issues, primarily clerical, corrective, technical in nature, but also there are a couple of, substantive more policy related issues there. We'll discuss that at meeting on July 19.
Speaker 2
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That's it. Wonderful. Thank you, Bob. Then let's roll right into our first agenda item. It is referral city council referral number 3523, the student housing ordinance.
Speaker 2
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The proponent is councilwoman Helen Anthony, is here this evening. I could see her. Choi Young, would
Speaker 3
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you like oh, do you wanna see this up? Yeah. I can introduce this one. Okay. So some of you on this board will know that we've been talking about student housing, going back to around 2015, when the council first adopted an ordinance with respect to, specifically to student occupancy of dwelling units.
Speaker 3
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And at the time, the ordinance that was adopted is the one that's actually on the books today. And what it says is that in a single family house, in the R 1 and in the R 1 a zoning districts, the two single family zoning districts in the city, no more than three college students are allowed, to live together. And that was actually pared down considerably from from some of the earlier from some of the earlier versions of of the ordinance that that were reviewed by, the city planning commission and the council. That ordinance was appealed, and it it made its way up through superior court and then ultimately to the Rhode Island Supreme Court. And in May 2020, the Rhode Island Supreme Court upheld, the constitutionality of that of that ordinance and found that the council had acted, within its, authority within the purposes of zoning and within the city's comprehensive plan, in in passing that ordinance.
Speaker 3
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And and I might stress that it really does reinforce the the importance whenever you act on zoning changes and whenever the council does as well, that you make specific findings with respect to the the purposes of zoning and the comprehensive plan. The court was very clear that that, that it was important that those findings had been made. So at any rate, there were some other attempts to expand student, housing regulations. In 2019, there were some attempts made. They didn't move forward, in
Speaker 4
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part, I think, because the court matter was still sort of taking place.
Speaker 3
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But, now that we know that we can regulate the number of students living together, there's been a new proposal that's made by councilwoman Anthony, who's who's here today and you'll hear from in a moment, that would expand this regulation. And what it would do is expand to, other zones. It would expand to the R 2 and the R 3 districts, and it would also include not just single family houses, but any type of dwelling. So, to give you a little bit of context, within the, R 1 and the R 1 a zones, there are on the order of 7,000 single family dwellings. Those are subject to this current regulation.
Speaker 4
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In
Speaker 3
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let's see here if I have this information. I do not have the I don't have the number the specific number of dwellings that are in the r 1, r 1 a, r two, and r three zones, but I can tell you that the the amount of the city currently, covered by the the r one plus r one a zones is about about 16% of the the city. All all four of the the residential zones that are covered by this proposal would amount to on the order of, 47% of the the land area of the city. So just just a little bit of context there. But I think, I've said enough, and perhaps, councilwoman could come up to the mic up in front and, and just give you a little bit more of her reasoning.
Speaker 3
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I'm sorry. Councilman, if you wouldn't mind, the the mic there. Yeah. We have two podiums or two places to speak.
Speaker 5
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This is much more comfortable. Thank you. And if
Speaker 3
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you could just move the mic a little closer.
Speaker 5
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Good evening. My name is Helen Anthony, and I am the city councilwoman representing Ward 2. And I, first of all, would like to thank all of you for your service to the city. You're doing a tremendous amount of work, and we're very appreciative for everything you do. So, there is a problem throughout the city in areas surrounding our universities and colleges where residential homes are being bought by developers and con converted into what is essentially college dorms.
Speaker 5
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The effect on the surrounding neighborhoods have been devastating. There are constant problems with trash, noise, parking, and lack of maintenance of homes and yards. Like many, when I started in my council position, I thought that the problem was enforcement of our laws pertaining to all these issues. Despite best efforts by me, neighbors, other city councilors, and the city staff, and I'm gonna give a particular shout out to Maureen McManus, deputy director of the Department of Public Works, and Alexis Thompson, deputy zoning official, we just can't keep up with the violations. I have so many pictures and emails regarding the issues.
Speaker 5
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It would take me days to download all of them, and I'm not exaggerating. The city, as Bob said, currently has an ordinance that states that the following states the following, in R 1 a and r one districts, a single family dwelling that is non owner occupied shall not be occupied by more than three students. Unfortunately, this ordinance applies to very few dwellings, so it's having little impact on an increasingly growing problem. I have proposed an amendment to the ordinance which expands the no more than three college students per dwelling to all non owner occupied residential or dwellings in R 1, r 1 a, r 2, and r three districts. But I'd like to be clear.
Speaker 5
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I am not proposing to prevent students from occupying dwellings. I'm merely trying to prevent students from over occupying dwellings by limiting the number to three. It is it is the over occupying that is destroying the character of the neighborhoods that surround our universities and colleges. Allowing three students per dwelling and a three man three family means that nine college students can occupy the three family. Six students could occupy a two family.
Speaker 5
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I think that's more than reasonable. I would also like to say that the city is embarking on a review of the of its comprehensive plan, as Bob was just describing, which has to be done every ten years. I'm hopeful during that process that we'll we will be discussing the strategies recommended in the Providence Anti Displacement and Comprehensive Housing Strategy Plan, many of which encourage density. If we increase density, we must have some controls in place so that we protect the integrity and character of our neighborhoods. This is one of those tools.
Speaker 5
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I ask that you send this to ordinance with a recommendation of approval. Thank you.
Speaker 2
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Thank you, councilwoman Anthony. So, I think maybe Harry, I don't remember if, Christian, you were around when we we went through this the first time. But we we spent a a great deal of time discussing this, deliberating. We even created subcommittees to, to study this and reported back our findings. We we we did help, recraft some some language and put it back to the city council.
Speaker 2
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And this is the way I interpret this, and and Bob can correct me if I'm wrong. This is simply expanding the areas with the same delineation that we have for the single family zones across the two family and three family zones across the city. So, in one house in a single family house, it would be three students. In a two family house, it would be six students. In a three family house, it would be nine students.
Speaker 2
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Obviously, we've we've tested this, and it meets legal muster the way we we passed it the last time and the city council adopted it. So I think if we do you have any questions for Bob before we open up for public comments, or or would you like to discuss anything beforehand? Yes. We'll we can read the staff report and go from there too.
Speaker 3
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Mister Eisel, would you like I
Speaker 6
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have a I guess, maybe just one question, and I I guess it's the the extension through r two and and r three. And I I I think, Bob, you started to speak to that, but I I guess I'm I'm curious about any guidance that you can provide. And in particular, I I guess I wonder whether the restriction around multifamily or some of the the kind of r three in particular is is can be or will be too limiting.
Speaker 2
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As as I recall, and correct me if I'm wrong yet, Bob, is that the original proposal that we reviewed back in, what was it, 2017 or 2019, was put forward by councilwoman Joanne Ryan, and specific to her neighborhood. And I think that's probably why it worked well there because there was a lot of single family residences with college occupancy around it. I think this is probably speaking and and, Bob, you can pick it up, but this is probably speaking to more broadly the city as opposed to certain parts of the city.
Speaker 3
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Yeah. That's some good context. So so, yes, Councilwoman Ryan was the one to to, first bring this up, and it was in response to to concerns that were, cropping up in the 5th Ward in in the in the vicinity of Providence College. And as many of you probably know, there are, you know, entire blocks that that have nothing but triple deckers occupied by students, most of which are owned by the same the same business. And those areas are generally zoned r two with a little bit of r three.
Speaker 3
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And there was some concern that that there was some creep towards a single family zone where where student landlords student housing landlords were were buying starting to buy single family houses. So it it so happened that this the the regulation that was put into place works pretty well, to kind of contain the growth of student housing in and around Providence College. Around College Hill, not so much because, while there is some single family zoning there, a lot of it is two and three family zoning. And I might add that, while much of the single family zoning in in the Elmhurst area is kind of a monoculture of single family houses, In College Hill, we have a lot of what we call nonconforming two families, three families, and multi families in the single family zone. So even even though these buildings are in that r one zone, they wouldn't the the current ordinance wouldn't apply to them because it only applies to single family houses.
Speaker 3
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So I think this this ordinance has been written in a way that would have a broader impact, not only because it applies to to to different zones and different types of dwellings, but also because of, the the the characteristics of of College Hill, that include a lot of two and three family zoning and a lot of nonconforming,
Speaker 2
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structures.
Speaker 7
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Is there is there a way that it is limited only to college students or is it also in referring to unrelated individuals?
Speaker 0
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You can take
Speaker 3
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that. Yeah. This has nothing to do with unrelated individuals. This specifically speaks to college students. And in in the it's not it's not in this particular amendment, but whenever we use the term college student, it it refers to the definition in the zoning ordinance, and I can I can read that to you right now?
Speaker 3
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It says, an individual enrolled as an undergraduate or graduate student at any university or college educational institution who commutes to a campus. So specifically, off off campus housing. By the way, one important thing to to mention that I don't know that we made clear, is that none neither the current ordinance nor the proposed ordinance would apply to owner occupied property. So you could if if the owner lives in one of the units and rents to, students and other units within the building, there wouldn't be this three student cap. The presumption being that owner occupants, have have much more immediate ability to deal with problems as they come up.
Speaker 8
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So I understand the current ordinance worked to reduce the number of single family homes, but it didn't reduce the number of students in the neighborhood. Right? And so those students kinda got pushed into other multifamily homes around Providence College. Right? So is the goal of this ordinance to reduce the number of off campus students, or is it to because it it seems like this is really hard to enforce.
Speaker 8
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And the real, you know, culprit, if you wanted, for lack of a better word, is the universities and the colleges.
Speaker 6
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And if they're going to be
Speaker 8
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submitting these massive plans and saying, hey. We're going to have, you know, x percentage of students. There doesn't seem to be much enforcement here on, like, shouldn't they pay more money to the city or or, like, I I I just see this as as reducing the number of people in a unit, but but and then not putting a cap on the number of students that move off campus. That just means more units will be absorbed by certification, which is not a not a outcome I'd like
Speaker 3
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to see. Okay. So so excellent question. Let me let me see if I can address that. So, what what this would what this would do, is in in if if there are, dwellings that have units with more than three students living in them, which let's let's face it.
Speaker 3
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There are. There there are many of them. Those would become those those would, if if this restriction is is enacted, it would apply, and, the landlords would, no longer be able to rent to that many people in that particular dwelling unit. So what we think this will encourage is, student housing landlords to look to other places to house students and to develop their properties. First of all, it's not a ban.
Speaker 3
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You know, they could certainly continue to to use, their their the dwelling units that they have, so long as they they aren't, overcrowded. And overcrowd by overcrowding, I mean more than more than three students per per dwelling unit. In fact, I think we are seeing a bit of a a bit of a trend with student housing landlords that they are building housing in commercial zones and and in the residential professional district, which is not covered by this proposed ordinance. So I think some of that is is already happening. I think that that, you know, if this goes into effect, that might that might be an outcome.
Speaker 3
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With respect to enforcement, yes, this is gonna be very difficult to enforce. We hope that, we would get cooperation from the the landlords to voluntarily comply. But, primarily, we expect that this would be enforced by responding to complaints from residents who are are, you know, becoming aware of of particular behaviors. With respect to the colleges, this ordinance does include some additions to the institutional master plan, such that the the universities would have to tell us, how many people are living off campus and would have to have certain policies related to to students. I might add also that we are seeing the the universities building dorms.