Providence City Plan Commission, August 30, 2022 meeting - Part 2
Case 22-035UDR: 29-41 Portland Street Minor Subdivision
The commission reviewed a minor subdivision and unified development review application for 29 to 41 Portland Street to construct five two-family homes. After hearing testimony from the applicant, SWAP, and public support, the commission approved both the dimensional variances and the minor subdivision.
Case 21-035MA: 659-663 Admiral Street and 22 Gloucester Street Major Land Development
The commission discussed a preliminary plan application for a five-story mixed-use development with 48 residential units and ground-floor commercial space. Following discussions on design modifications, parking adjustments, and neighborhood concerns, the commission approved the requested waivers, dimensional adjustments, and preliminary plan.
City Council Referral 3525: Rezoning to C-2
The commission considered a petition to rezone 11 lots from R-3 to C-2 on and near Admiral Street. Due to the lack of a specific land development project proposal and incomplete site control, the commission voted to advise the City Council to take no action until a formal project application is submitted.
Speaker 0
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I met with the head of school several months ago. Yeah.
Speaker 1
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Okay. We have we have repaired the glitch, so we will call this meeting back to order.
Speaker 2
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Yeah. Alright.
Speaker 1
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Thank you very much. We are we are we are continuing this meeting of the city plan commission, and we will go to our next agenda item, which is number three on your agenda. It is a minor subdivision with unified development review. It's case number 22Dash035UDR. It's for 29 To 41 Portland Street, and the applicant is swamped.
Speaker 3
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Alright. And, mister Sow, quick introduction. This is the site that measures approximately 20,000 square feet and is composed of four vacant lots of about 5,000 square feet. This is located in the R 3 zone, and the applicant is proposing to subdivide the lots into five lots of about 4,000 square feet each with a width of 40 feet. So what they would like to do is develop each site as a new family building for total of five units.
Speaker 3
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And they are requesting zoning relief pursuant to QBR for lot size and lot width because you need a minimum lot size of 5,000 square feet and a width of 50 feet in the zone. And they're also seeking relief from the corner side setback, which is required to be the same dimensions of front setback for one of the lots. So I guess the applicant will be here. They will be telling you why they are requesting the relief as presented.
Speaker 1
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Okay. Thank you very much.
Speaker 2
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Once again, I'm Carla DeStefano. I'm the executive director of SWAP, and to my left is Gary Sharpen here who's been the director of design and construction at Swap for more years than either of us probably wanna acknowledge. So Swap has been, for almost fifty years, involved in affordable housing in the city of Providence and for for many of those years, very focused on South Providence. We've invested, just under a $150,000,000 in apartments, homeownership, and commercial spaces, in the city and most of that in Upper And Lower South Providence. We have been looking literally at this lot out our windows at 439 Pine Street for many years or these multiple lots.
Speaker 2
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And working with the city, we're designated as the developer of four three of the four lots or four of the five lots and set out to develop them by Wright. We could have built four two family houses or multiple units of 12. Four three families or 12 townhouses. Townhouses. And when we looked at these properties and some of the other homeownership units we've built around the South Side, we have built this particular model of two family house, which is our our favorite house to sell for obvious for maybe not obvious reasons to all of you.
Speaker 1
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Can I pause you for just
Speaker 2
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one second? Yes.
Speaker 1
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We just realized this is UBR, so we need to swear you in.
Speaker 2
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Oh, got it.
Speaker 4
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Please do not agree.
Speaker 1
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Snogger Park can do that.
Speaker 2
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Yes. DeStefano, d e s t e f a n o.
Speaker 5
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Gary Chapentire, c h a r p e n t I e
Speaker 2
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r. Thank you.
Speaker 1
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Now can that count for everything they've said already on the record?
Speaker 2
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Just ask them to
Speaker 1
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Can you reaffirm everything you stated is true.
Speaker 2
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True and accurate. Yes. I can.
Speaker 1
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Thank you very much. Please continue.
Speaker 2
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So the two the two family model is our most popular model of affordable house to sell. Owner lives on one of the units and rents out the second unit. The most important component is that the rental income from the second unit allows a low income family at or about 80% of area median income to be able to afford a home. So when we looked at the lot and we looked at the other houses in the neighborhood and around the South Side that we've built but are existing, we realized that if we came here today and asked for this relief, we would be able to build five houses instead of four, still well under the maximum number of units. And more importantly is that, this lot was sitting vacant and blighted for a number of years because of the environmental issues, that, we had nothing to do with.
Speaker 2
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And so the cost of that has been prohibitive in, previous developments, and we have moved forward. And Gary can talk to the technical issues about this. And so for us, it's a win win. We provide an additional homeownership unit. The density is actually lower than what is allowed in the zone, and we will be mitigating, environmental blight on the site.
Speaker 2
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Thank you. So talk to this specific
Speaker 5
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So go back to Karla's point of environmental, and I just wanna clarify that three of the existing four lots are the contaminated lots under d DEM regulations. The fourth lot, which is located at 29 Bourbon Street, is owned by SWAP. I've been involved with this property probably since about 2012. PRA came to Swap to see if there'd be any interest in develop developing the property. The history that I have from it, it goes back to about 2004 where the city has, tried to get a development going on here.
Speaker 5
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There's been three or four separate phase ones done, environmental studies on the lots as long as well as, multiple test pits down the site. Site used to house what was known as the Pine Street Garage or the Portland Garage, and I believe there was actually an automotive automotive paint shop there at one point from what I've written in the history. It's the typical gasoline and oil related type contamination in the soil. Most of the site is building debris. Whatever was on the site is buried at the site.
Speaker 5
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We have conditions going down to about 10 feet. There's still some existing foundations on the site. Proposal is basically to excavate the entire site, process the site, get rid of all the trash, the the type of rock masonry, process the soil. Soil, as it comes out of the ground, is placed on protective tarps, monitored by the environmental company, and then cleared for either going back into a hole or taken off from the site. That cost is probably about $200,000 across three lots, not counting what we may find in the lot that we also already own.
Speaker 5
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The idea was not only could we provide more affordable housing by adding an additional house, but also spread the cost around per per lot to pick up that cost differential. We just received the preliminary approval from Rhode Island DM. That's subject to, environmental justice publication notification for the neighborhood. Working with GZA Environmental is well known at the state. We've worked with them for years.
Speaker 5
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They were also involved with previous testing on that site. It's one reason why we hired them. Relief requested, I just wanted to pick up on the corner setback only because it's there seems to be some vagueness in table 4.1 where they request the minimum side setback. That's the way it's stated on on the table. In the column, it says the same as.
Speaker 5
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So to me, that's kind of vague where it's the minimum. It's the same as. So the same as we're proposing a 10 foot setback, the same as would be 10 foot on the side. We're proposing 12 feet on the corner lot, which is 41 Portland Street, only because the back of the lot will take the parking. We're trying to give them a bit more yard over there.
Speaker 5
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No other relief is needed. House meets all the other requirements. It's a building that we've built for the last twenty five years.
Speaker 1
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Pretty much it. When you, when you wrap up, are you are you looking to
Speaker 4
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have a a closure from DEM, or
Speaker 1
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we have an ELUR on the site?
Speaker 5
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There will be ELURs for the what if we if this is approved, there will be four lots which will have an ELUR out of the three lots that exist now. Okay. The other lot is not required.
Speaker 1
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K. Great. Go around. Any commissioners have questions at the app?
Speaker 2
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I guess,
Speaker 6
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do you know how many bedrooms will be in the unit? Yes.
Speaker 5
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1st Floor has three bedrooms. The 2nd Floor has two bedrooms.
Speaker 6
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Thank you.
Speaker 1
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Anyone else have questions of the applicant before you or the staff report?
Speaker 7
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I guess
Speaker 8
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a a follow-up on the question of the ELUR. I I guess it it prompted me to wonder about the the obviously, each of the future owners will be well aware of of what they're purchasing, but I imagine that the ELUR might make it difficult to do any other work including landscaping. So I I guess I I wonder whether what you're showing here is part of the plan, whether they get a site that actually has landscaping. And I only say it because I I imagine a future where they might wanna do things and maybe limit it because of the prohibitive cost of dealing with an ELUR just to even plant a tree. So just thinking how.
Speaker 1
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Yeah. Yeah. How do you plan to cap the site? Is it gonna be two feet
Speaker 5
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up The remedial action work plan has a couple of options. One would be you excavate the site, clean soil goes back into the site. You cap it with a geotechnical fabric and then one foot of clean soil. The other option is two feet of clean soil with no geotechnical. Our option number three, which is not required, would be to put the geotechnical fabric down in two feet of clean soil.
Speaker 5
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We would plant the trees. And fully landscape the site. A lot of times what we do on these homes because typically, there's a buyer before the houses are completed. Sometimes we'll even include, like, a garden area for them for vegetables or and they want sometimes a raised bed. In this case, it would probably be a raised bed.
Speaker 9
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Thank you.
Speaker 1
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Thank you. Any other questions from the commissioners before we open this up? Just had one