Test one two three. Yeah. You know why there's a handshake. I don't. I'm sorry.
Lev. Where's Lev? Think it's just
oh, he's up there. Hey, guys. All those meetings where we've had sandwiches and and have gotten done really. Forget about you. That that's not today.
We're eating it here today.
Foe show. Alright. We can turn.
Folks, you wanna turn your microphones on, please?
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. This is a call to order of the Providence City Planning Commission. This is a regular meeting. Today is Tuesday, 08/15/2023. We are beginning this meeting at 04:50PM.
Let's start by, taking a roll call.
Let's go around. Sorry. With Noel. Thanks, Ed.
Make sure your microphones are working.
Miguel Gasano. Will Sherry.
Tion, manager, car, PPD staff.
Sharon Garner, legal counsel.
And I'm Michael Gazzako, chair. We will move right into the approval of the minutes from the 07/18/2023 meeting. You should have all received them prior to this meeting. Hopefully, you had a chance to review. If there are any edits, please, say so now, or we can take a motion to approve.
Move to approve for this.
Alright. We have a motion. Do we have a second?
Second. Alright. All in favor, say aye. Aye. All opposed?
Extensions? The minutes carry. We'll move right into the director's report, mister Azar.
Okay. Thank you, mister chair and members of the commission. Today, I just wanted to spend a couple of minutes to talk about some impending changes that are coming to the zoning ordinance and to the development review regulations, which are the rules by which you review subdivisions and land development projects. I sent out a memo, and we have it posted online for for members of the public. It talks about the fact that at the end of the last legislative session, there were some significant bills that were passed related to zoning and land use and and housing production.
These went into effect on June 24, and, we have until 01/01/2024 to make, the changes locally that are required by the state law. It's not a lot of time, given the the way that the public hearing process works. We're gonna need to introduce these to you at the September meeting, to send on to the city council, and then the the hearing process will take place through the fall. Just to give you a a quick overview of what some of these these bills do. First of all, there were, I think, 12 or 13 that passed, but only four of them are relevant to, Providence and our regulations.
The changes to the zoning enabling act amend the standards for variances. They require municipalities to allow for special use permits and variances to be granted together. We already do this. It it had been optional until, until now. Every special use permit now has to have specific and objective criteria.
We do this for the most part, but we'll have to make some updates. Dimensional modification, which is a process whereby the zoning official can grant, minor dimensional variances. We have that in place today up to 10% of any dimensional standard. The law is gonna mandate that we, allow for up to 15%. It could
go as high as 25%. So we're we're, studying that. We'll probably stay at, the 15%.
Uses by variants, under the new law, they can be changed without needing further zoning relief. This is this is an important one, and, we'll describe it more in detail when this comes to you. But suffice it to say that what it means is that a use that was established by variants, will be allowed to be changed through a process similar to that for nonconforming uses. Next, conversion of existing commercial buildings to residential uses will be allowed by Wright. So we're gonna work on standards for that.
So that those are the the important ones with respect to zoning. With respect to land development and subdivision, we are gonna have to adopt a a completely new set of subdivision and land development review regulations based on this new law. And the the changes are significant. It redefines what a land development project is. It redefines development plan review.
It redefines the different categories of subdivisions. There will be things that today come in front of the board that will not come in front of the board in the future so long as they comply with zoning. So there were are a lot of there's a lot of nuance to this law, and we're, you know, working our way through it. We're in the process of putting the all of these regulations together. Next month, we should have a package for you, that I hope will be ready for your review and and, and to advance to the city council.
The zoning changes get adopted by the city council. The development review regulations get adopted by the city plan commission. So stay tuned. We'll have a lot more in September.
I have a question. Yes. You
had mentioned the, the commercial buildings that can be converted to residential by right? That's one of the the legislation. Is that that just for seed zones, or would it include once well because of I didn't know it was medical facilities on that.
It it's actually it actually just applies to residential zones. So if you have a a commercial or or it actually, also applies to things like churches and schools, that are in residential zones that may be nonconforming, they can be converted into housing. A a good example for those who who may follow this, for some of our our Fox Point friends, the Tocquaten home in in Fox Point that was converted to residential or is being converted to residential through both a variance and a zoning change, this it'll be a much more streamlined process for existing buildings.
Okay. Anything else on the director's report? Alright. With that, we'll move right into our the meat of the meeting. And I wanna start out, just due to the public interest in this meeting tonight and and some of the applications in front of us, I wanna set some ground rules from the from the start.
We have a long list of, I believe it's up to 58 or 59 people who have submitted remarks prior to this meeting starting. If you've submitted them, they are a part of the record. We have everyone's name on file. We have all reviewed them prior to this meeting. So unless you have something to add to it, we would prefer, and I'm I'm going to respectfully request that you, during the public comment portion, do not stand and just reiterate your letter.
We already have it. It is already part of the record. We are going to put a two minute, time limit on public comment from each individual. Again, if someone has said exactly the same thing you've said, we would respectfully request that you say ditto or, I agree with this person's sentiments or or whatnot. We wanna move through this public comment as efficiently as possible while also giving the opportunity to those who have not submitted comment prior to this meeting or have chimed in already to give the opportunity for them to say their piece about any of these agenda items.
Again, we're at two minutes per person, and I it'll be my discretion if we if we further that any further. So with that, we will open the first agenda item, which is a major land development project with public hearing for case number 23Dash021M a 269 Wickadin Street. The applicant is Fox Point Capital LLC. And, Choyana, if you want to, or or Bob, you're introducing this. Alright.
Okay. Thank you, mister chair. Alright. So this is a major land development project, which means that it's a a a significant development proposal, mixed use. It triggers land development project review because it's more than 10 dwelling units and more than 10,000 square feet of gross floor area.
Because it's mixed residential and commercial, it it becomes a major land development project. So this major land development projects get reviewed twice by the city plan commission, two stages, master plan and preliminary plan. This is the first of the two stages, so it's at master plan. The applicant's seeking master plan approval for this. It's a five story mixed use building.
It has ground floor commercial space, 62 residential units, structured parking below grade. The applicant is seeking a dimensional adjustment so that this building can have five stories. This is a zone where four story up to 50 feet is allowed by Wright. The building is proposed to be five stories, approximately 65 feet, and that's from average grade. They're also requesting a design waiver from the height of windowsills over two feet from grade.
So with that, I think we can turn it over to the representative for the
applicant. Attorney Conley, take it away. Thank you, mister chairman. Dylan Conley on behalf of the applicants.
mister chairman, honorable member of the city planning commission, as Bob has given us the outline, what we have this evening is essentially a by right mixed use multifamily project that conforms to all the standards the c two based on. We're proposing 62 residential units and at least two to three commercial units. We are eligible for the discretionary height adjustment of up to two additional stories, but we are only requesting one additional story. If we are granted the one the additional story as requested, as noted, it will bring us to five total stories in height. This is only master plan review.
A critical component of master plan review is that it's not complete final design. We're effectively requesting a rough concept approval, and that concept is really just that mixed use five story building. As required by Rhode Island law, we'll be back before this board with complete engineering and design in the preliminary plan stage. But for now, this is a rough concept. It's just loosely the five stories in the mixed use.
This evening, instead of me being straight in the presentation itself regarding the legal standards, thought it'd be valuable to take a brief moment to review the areas surrounding the proposal so that we can actually review the projects in its actual and real context. To that point, I was gonna hand out if you don't mind. This is an exhibit. It includes a few sets of images.
And, you know, within the
local context, what we're looking to do is
not something that's hard to do. In fact, there
