Providence City Plan Commission, May 29, 2024 special meeting
Call to Order and Roll Call
The special meeting of the City Plan Commission is called to order. A roll call is conducted to establish a quorum of commissioners and staff present.
Director's Report and Comprehensive Plan Overview
The Director's report is presented, followed by an overview of the ongoing community feedback and outreach process for the comprehensive plan. Key themes from public comments on economic development, public spaces, and sustainability are highlighted.
Discussion of Edits to Built Environment and Land Use Chapters
The commission reviews proposed edits to the built environment and land use chapters. The discussion focuses on growth strategy maps, zoning map updates, and density bonuses for affordable housing.
Arts and Cultural Resources Chapter Presentation and Discussion
Joe Wilson Jr. presents the Arts and Cultural Resources chapter, highlighting strategies for neighborhood placekeeping, creative workforce, and cultural tourism. Commissioners express support for the proposed goals and the nighttime economy initiatives.
Housing Chapter Presentation and Discussion
Emily Friedman presents the Housing chapter, detailing goals for housing production, preservation of existing stock, and code reconciliation. Commissioners discuss incentives for sustainable design, workforce training, and the role of the Providence Redevelopment Authority.
Mobility Chapter Presentation and Discussion
Alex Ellis presents the Mobility chapter, detailing strategies for transit, walking, biking, driving, and freight. Commissioners provide feedback on electric vehicle infrastructure, transit hubs, and speed safety cameras.
Community Services and Facilities Chapter Presentation and Recess
Tim Shea introduces the Community Services and Facilities chapter, covering city services, schools, and libraries. Following commissioner feedback on water lines and school design, the commission takes a brief recess.
Public Comment on Comprehensive Plan
Members of the public provide feedback on various elements of the comprehensive plan, including housing density, transit, and neighborhood preservation. Commenters express diverse viewpoints on urban growth, rent stabilization, and the public engagement process.
Written Comments, Next Steps, and Adjournment
The commission acknowledges written comments received from various neighborhood groups and organizations. The schedule for the upcoming public hearing on June 18 is outlined before the meeting is adjourned.
Speaker 0
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Good evening. I'd like to call this special meeting of the Providence City Council to order. It sorry. City Plan Commission. This is a special meeting of the City Plan Commission.
Speaker 0
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It is Wednesday, May 29, and it is 04:52PM. Let's start off with a roll call.
Speaker 1
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Noel Sanchez. Dave Caldwell.
Speaker 2
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Charlotte Lemchance.
Speaker 0
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Shayan Manjikar, DPD staff. Bob Azar, staff.
Speaker 3
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Sharon Garner, legal counsel.
Speaker 0
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And I am Michael Gazzako, chair.
Speaker 4
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Director's report. Nothing beyond what you're gonna hear tonight about the comprehensive plan. K. With that, we are here this evening, to review the
Speaker 0
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comprehensive plan updates as they continue to be processed by the, each respective department throughout the city. We have a few new chapters this evening, and we have a couple edits to chapters. So with that, I believe we'll call, Tim. Yep.
Speaker 4
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We're gonna have Tim Shea come and and sort of introduce what we're gonna talk about this evening.
Speaker 5
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Okay. Hi, everyone. Thanks. Thank you for having us again. I'm just gonna share a slide deck here.
Speaker 5
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Okay. Perfect. So just a brief, agenda for for our presentation this evening before we we get to hearing public comment. We're gonna kinda introduce where we are in this process, the the chapters that we're discussing today. I'm gonna give a brief overview of feedback that we've heard thus far.
Speaker 5
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The, feedback and public comment process is ongoing, but just to kinda touch on feedback that we've heard on chapters that we've already introduced, not the chapters tonight. And then we're gonna have, an esteemed group of people who've been involved in drafting this this set of chapters. So arts and cultural resources, housing, mobility, community services, and facilities, and then we'll we'll touch on next steps. But, as was mentioned, so we have nine different elements of the comprehensive plan. We so far, in this process, we've introduced our our land use chapter, the kind of centerpiece of the plan, the built environment, sustainability, people in public spaces, and economic development.
Speaker 5
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And tonight, we're gonna kinda give an introduction to this last batch of chapters, which are housing, mobility, arts and culture, community services, and facilities. And we're also gonna talk about a few, edits that we've incorporated already into the land use and built environment chapters. But, of course, it's good to kinda ground, this work today and all of the community outreach that has, informed this this draft plan and this process. So first and foremost, you know, we, as as people who've been coming to commission meetings in recent months, have heard and people who've been seeing us out in the neighborhoods are aware. We've been engaging with the community for over a year now in this process, really iteratively starting from listening sessions, identifying key issues to then using different methods to really reach people where they are in their neighborhoods to to discuss the the most important issues to to our community.
Speaker 5
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And now we're we're in the later stages of this process. So as we get into 2024, we're now, introducing the draft plan to the city plan commission. And after that, city plan commission will will, review as as we have been and voted on to our city council. But for people who are looking for more in-depth, summary of this process and the the outcomes of engagement, We presented it at previous city plan commission meetings, but that that summary is available at plan.providenceri.gov in the what are we hearing so far kind of tab. So it's been a been a great experience.
Speaker 5
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We have been in neighborhoods around the city. And most recently, we've actually been transitioning from that feed in period of community participation to feedback. So, at the city plan commission in recent months, we've gathered over, 60 comments on different elements of the plan. We hosted a few weeks ago. We did five different feedback events at neighborhood libraries around the city.
Speaker 5
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So we kinda strategically placed ourselves east, south, west, north, and central, and and set up for a good chunk of kind of four hours in an afternoon at different locations and encourage people to come and and chat one on one with our team and really engage with the materials in-depth. We gathered, over 230 comments, at those events, and we've also been fielding comments online through emails and through an online form. So I'm gonna talk about a
Speaker 4
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few of those, themes that that have come out
Speaker 5
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of that thus far, but but there this is ongoing. You're welcome to participate in a number of ways through public comment at commission today and the city plan commission hearing next month. We still have a online forum available for comments, at plan dot providence r I dot gov, or you can email us directly at planning@providenceri.gov. And this is one, new thing that we're announcing very similar to kind of the library drop in feedback events. We're gonna be setting up kind of a standing exhibit in this building, next week to gather ongoing comments if kind of an online format isn't ideal or you wanna have a conversation with members of our team about this this content we're gonna be set up, during business hours, really at the at the back of this room from June 3 to June 14.
Speaker 5
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So I'm just gonna pull out some themes, one slide on each of the the chapters that have been unveiled so far of just key key repeated themes that we're hearing in in these feedback. So on economic development, first of all, we've heard, really a lot of feedback is focused on additional areas that people wanna see more more focus on, more substance on. So this includes the importance of rail and transit, especially connections to Boston and New York and how that, interacts with with the city's economic development strategy. We heard a lot about green carbon free climate resilient forms of economic development and wanting to see that more front and center, and detailed strategies there, leveraging universities and keeping new graduates, wanting to see some more on that topic, people talking about specific neighborhood small business corridors and how we should perhaps add some some language around how to encourage vibrancy there, and then more emphasis on the the 195 District and the economic development that we see there in in areas like life sciences and blue green economy. One area that we've heard different perspectives, is on on taxation and tax policy.
Speaker 5
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And this you'll see throughout these slides, you know, there's not consensus on any of these these issues. There's different perspectives. So we heard, some critiques of of tax stabilization agreements as a method for economic development, while whereas some people pointing to tax burdens, making it hard to see the the type of development that that, you know, people either wanna build or or wanna see in their neighborhood, small businesses pointing to the commercial tax rate in the city. So I'm gonna move us along here onto people and public spaces. So this chapter is really kind of focuses on our our park system, and a lot of the comments that we received there were around the expansion of that system.
Speaker 5
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So really kind of clarifying the city's view on where new parks should be developed. There's some language in there, but but really kind of strengthening it and adding to it. Looking especially at the relationship between areas where we're proposing more density and how we're thinking about green space and green space access, in those those hubs. And then, you know, people thinking about long term population growth, climate resilience, and perhaps the need for, you know, more broad long term strategy for parks and greening in the city. I'll note that forestry and tree canopy, this relates to the sustainability chapter, but we see a lot of comments on this topic in particular.
Speaker 5
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And I think the way we have it structured now, we have strategies that address this topic in two different places, but we've heard that maybe maybe we needed an additional kind of dedicated objective on forestry in people in public spaces. Sustainability. The the main thrust of comments that we've heard were around seeing, you know, more specifics and more commitment, on a few things on things like fossil fuel emissions targets, more on hazard mitigation and flood resilience, kinda really where is the focus areas within the city that we're looking at here. Biodiversity and kind of environmental quality, people wanting to see maybe a bit more action or specifics around what what are, you know, specific flora and fauna and how we're trying to encourage, their their vibrancy, their biodiversity, public green space, and tree canopy again, and its expansion, and then several comments on just highlighting how compact development and kind of density that that is being talked about in the land use section relates to sustainability, and trying to highlight that. So last two chapters here.
Speaker 5
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Appreciate you all, sitting through this with me. So the the built environment and land use are the focus of a lot of a lot of comments. So the built environment really being our kind of urban design, chapter. So we've broken out a few perspectives that we've heard a a lot of it come through in these comments. So the first is on people who are interested in, strengthening design standards, design innovation, and adaptive reuse.
Speaker 5
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So both, you know, promoting things like contemporary architecture as we're promoting, as we're also promoting preservation, so not shying away from the new forms of of, architecture and design while we try and preserve what exists. But, also, people wanna see more teeth. You know, how do we make sure that adaptive reuse is is really implemented implemented, not just promoted around the city and questioning whether we need additional design review processes. Another perspective we heard, from is around preservation of of historic buildings. So both folks who are advocating for expanding historic districts as well as people who are thinking about those kind of the national register properties around our city that may not be within historic districts and whether we wanna think about, design review, demolition delay, and and these sorts of policy ideas, on these properties.
Speaker 5
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And then the last perspective that we we also heard a lot of commenting on this chapter is people who are concerned that too much attention to to design review, and to to higher design guidelines and standards could slow important housing development. So people who often spoke to the city should embrace, you know, different kinds of change in our built environment in the city and that design, restrictions can be quite subjective and whether that should really slow, important housing units. There are some people who are encouraging nuance views. Maybe you incentivize certain types of design quality for more building massing or or other things of that nature. And lastly, summarizing feedback.
Speaker 5
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So land use is the focus of of more than half of the the comments that we've received thus far. We've laid out a few different kind of key perspectives on this slide, and I have a second slide that we've heard repeatedly. So there are, there's feedback and critiques from kind of a more urbanist perspective. So people who often cite wanting to get rid of things like parking minimums and incentivize transit and cycling, who wanna reduce, you know, requirements around lot sizes and dimensional regulation setbacks and maybe expand density or redefine low density. We heard from people who were bringing critiques around, the future land use map and think about equity around our city.
Speaker 5
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So where upzoning is proposed, folks particularly pointing at lower density areas that are currently identified for low density residential, on the East Side in Elmhurst, places like Summit and and Whalen Square and Fox Point, and questioning the decision whether or not they should be, redefined as more of a medium density or otherwise based on how close they are to, amenities, based on the existing development patterns in those areas, as well as just kind of a sense of sharing the additional units around the city. And then on on high density, we have kind of two perspectives we've outlined here. We've had folks who really, you know, have voiced opposition to higher density residential. So concerns that are often cited here around the impact, on the built environment, on on the character of neighborhoods, on traffic, on on kind of the existence of green space in denser areas, whether there might be more demolition of good quality buildings and housing, and how kind of neighborhoods, massing aligns between between properties and neighborhoods, things like shadows. We had people who are really trying to refine the high density residential, so suggestions around maybe stricter design standards, topics like inclusionary zoning, some mandating affordability in some of these areas, incentivizing types of units that we'd like to see, maybe family size or homeownership, and opposition to short term rentals like air b you know, Airbnb or student housing types.
Speaker 5
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And then my last slide here that summarizes feedback, still within land use, we we received a lot of of comments on the Port Of Providence and and industry, in the future land use map. So people advocating for stronger alignment with the climate justice plan and decarbonization goals, kind of phasing out of of fossil fuels and public health, impacting industries. We we heard, people wanna see more more teeth. There's kind of a vision, a pivot towards greener industry, but really wanna see specifics about how to stop different kinds of of, undesirable, industrial growth from their perspective or that impacts quality of life, impacts environmental quality in these neighborhoods. And two additional topics here, a lot of comments on vacant lots and surface parking, wanting to see stronger incentives for development of these these land use types, and then, neighborhood commercial districts.
Speaker 5
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So there's there's discussion in the draft chapter of maybe looking at combining our current c one and c two. So people questioning what kinds of uses are allowed and the difference between there. So, comments maybe suggesting that car centric uses should be reserved for other areas or kinda our c three commercial areas and also entertainment, uses being a concern. So these are key themes from a lot of comments that we've received. This is an ongoing process, as I mentioned.
Speaker 5
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We're introducing the next set of of four chapters here tonight, and we know it's gonna create a lot of discussion and debate, and we we welcome that, both in public comment here, whether you want to follow-up and kinda dig into the materials and and send some comments and suggestions online, or if you wanna come back and and engage with with our team here, in the building from June 3 to to the fourteenth. So with that, I'm gonna pass it back, to deputy director Azar for a moment to talk about some of the edits.
Speaker 4
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Thanks, Tim. So I'm gonna just talk briefly about, some of the edits that we made to the built environment section and to the land use section. Tim, while I'm I'm gonna just run quickly through built environment, if you wouldn't mind, could you pull up the, land use section so we can I wanna there's a couple things I wanna illustrate? Yeah. But with respect to, built environment, I thought there were a lot of of constructive comments, some from the Jewelry District Association, some from the commission, and others about how we could improve this language.
Speaker 4
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So, there's we we included, some language about about embracing contemporary architecture and design, including language about, the I 195 District, the Innovation And Design District, and and their mandate.
Speaker 0
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We
Speaker 4
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added some language speaking reinforcing the language about adaptive reuse. I believe it was the chairman's comments that we responded to about institutional buildings that that should have historic protections. And then, also, we added in some language about enforcement and and maintenance and stewardship of buildings and also about working with the state on on codes as they relate to historic preservation as well as the cost of construction and what what, reforms could be made that that might address those issues. That so that kinda sums up the built environment. And then with respect to land use,
Speaker 5
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were were you able to were you looking sorry. Just for the the this these No.
Speaker 4
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The section. The the the actual chapter.
Speaker 0
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Oh, I see. Yeah. I see. I'm sorry. So
Speaker 4
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so I just wanted to talk about the, first of all, the growth strategy map. Tim will pull that up in a minute. We've made some refinements there. The first thing is that I we just wanted to clarify, the managed growth areas. It I wanna really make sure that people understand that this is this map is not really something that we wanna rely on when when it comes to zoning.
Speaker 4
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This is more sort of a general illustrative map of of, you know, big picture how we see the city. So I wanted to make it clear that in the managed growth areas, there could be areas of mixed use. And one thing I wanted to show, if you just go to the next page, page three. So we we made a couple of tweaks here. One is, Tim, if you could highlight the area East Of Of Eddy Street, we we kinda paired back that that area that is called industrial, what do we call it, general industrial, to show so that we we want the general industrial areas to more or less correspond with our with our, heavy heavier industrial districts, the m ones, m twos, And where we have areas of mixed use, those can also exist within that managed growth area.
Speaker 4
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If you pan up to downtown in College Hill, you'll note that we added some subheadings for some of the subdistricts in downtown. We have a capital center, down city, and the jewelry district. And then, also, we clarified that boundary line between downtown and the, the historic area on on the East Side. That was from another comment that we received. Okay.
Speaker 4
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So next, if we go to there's, I could I could maybe just sort of talk through this, and I'll I'll have you go to the the zoning map in a minute. So we we added a little bit of language about, low density residential areas, suggesting that there could be an allowance for, in certain cases, like large large parcels that we would allow for for, some multifamily development. Two two large parcels that come to mind, are the Beresford Nicholson Estate, otherwise known as the Grand Office State on the East Side. That's a large parcel with a single family house in the middle of it. There's also a a parcel of land just north of American Tourister.
Speaker 4
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It's a vast acreage of of, single family zoning. Probably not really well laid out for, you know, a traditional subdivision with with roads and cul de sacs and such. So in areas like that, we still want them to be, you know, relatively low density, but I think it it would be appropriate to cease to to have an allowance for multifamily there. We have added language in the medium density residential areas about density bonuses for affordable housing. In response to concerns about, the high density zones, specifically the r four, zone, we've introduced language about, having a a a density regulation so that there would be a cap based on how large the parcel is, but with bonuses for affordable housing.
Speaker 4
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If you go to, page 14 of the page 15, actually, this is where this is new. This is the this is the map that actually shows where the zoning changes would be. And then on the next page, there's a key. There are nine categories of map changes, and I'll just quickly walk you through those. The ones and twos are, parcels that are city owned parcels, that should be rezoned should be zoned open space and public space, that corresponds with parks and schools.
Speaker 4
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These, parcels are currently in residential zones, and they should be in the zones that are reserved for parks and schools. So that's that's one and two. Number three, this is correcting a mistake. There are two parcels with houses on them, that are zoned open space, and they shouldn't be. So we've we've got those slated for r three rezoning.
Speaker 4
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That those are both over next to debate school in Olneyville. Number four, those are primarily the r two areas that we're proposing to to turn into r three. And then five are primarily the r three areas that we're proposing to rezone to R 4. Not all of R 3, but but some of R 3. Number six is one parcel on Smith Street.
Speaker 4
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It's it's taking a commercial property and zoning it residential professional. Number seven is primarily the C 1 areas that we propose to rezone to C 2. And there are also along commercial corridors. We've identified a handful of of commercial properties that are in residential zones that should be in commercial zones. So that's what that is.
Speaker 4
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Number eight is a single parcel at at the Northern end of Charles Street at the in the North end. That's also a commercial property being rezoned to commercial. And then nine, there's just a these are parcels that are being rezoned to MMU 75, all of which you have seen because they've come through, this this commission for rezoning. They're being sort of incorporated into the plan. And, speaking of which, any zoning change that is in the process that where it's already come to the city plan commission and it's moved to the council and has yet to have a hearing, we're including it in here.
Speaker 4
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And, you know, if it turns out that that those don't pass for whatever reason, we'll we'll remove them, but, we're trying to capture all the zoning changes that are in progress. Couple of other things. There there are a couple of parcels at the request of council members, two in the 8th Ward, a parcel on Buffalo Court, and another parcel on Mashapag Street where there's been some interest in multifamily housing, and the councilman is supportive of a change to R four, so we've included those. And then there's a a a few parcels on Benefit Street that are between Thomas And Meeting Street. They're on the west side of the street.
Speaker 4
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They're currently in the institutional zone, the I 2 zone. They shouldn't be because they're not owned by an institution, so the proposal is to rezone those to c two, to correspond with the the surrounding zoning. So that kinda sums up the, the zoning changes. And then the the future land use map was was tweaked to to match up with these zoning changes. And let's see what else.