Providence City Council Meeting | Committe on Ordinace | June 25th 2024

Meeting an ordinance. If you have not yet, please signed in. We will be starting in about a minute. Good evening, everyone. Welcome to committee on ordinance.

Today is Tuesday, June 25, 2024, and the time is 05:32. Madam clerk, roll call, please.

Chairman Espinal?

Present.

Vice chairwoman Peterson? Present. Councilwoman Harris? Present. Councilman Vargas?

Present.

Councilor Royes?

Present.

You have five present. You have a quorum.

Thank you so much. I'll entertain a motion to take an item out of order.

So moved. I'll second.

Motion is made by councilor Vargas and second by councilor Peters. All in favor, aye. Aye. Opposed? The ayes have it.

Let's entertain a motion to enter into the record exhibit three a and three b.

So moved.

Motion is made by councilor Peterson. Second. Second by councilor McArthur in favor, aye. Aye. Opposed?

The ayes have it. Madam clerk, item number three please.

Item number three is a petition from John j Garyhee, Esquire, John J. Garahee Law LLC 2088 Broad Street Cranston Rhode Island 02905 on behalf of John Edward Quatrochi trustee of the John Edward Quatrochi revocable living trust requesting a zone change for the property located on Assessor's plat 14 Lots 193 And 194176 Gaino Street and 38 Amy Street from R 3 to R 4.

Thank you. Do we have anybody presenting on this item tonight? Mister Azar from CPC, please come on up.

Thank you mister chair, members of the committee. My name is Robert Azar. I'm the deputy director of the department of planning and development. This came in front of the city plan commission on 04/16/2024. This is a petition to change the zoning of a...

Of two parcels of land at the corner of Gayno Street and Amy Street from r three zoning to r four. And this is so that the property owners can construct two three story 10 unit buildings. These would not be allowed in the r three, but they are allowed in the r four zone. The City Plan Commission found that this was consistent with the comprehensive plan and that it was consistent also with the purposes of zoning. And they voted to recommend that you approve this zone change subject to the condition that a footnote be added to the map to prohibit short term rentals on the site.

So that would be something that we would advise prior to the close of the hearing that you add as a condition of approval. Once again, a footnote saying that the map that a footnote on the map saying that short term rentals would be prohibited on the site.

Is that anywhere within the documents? Did you write that up anywhere? No. Affirmative. Thank you, Bob.

I'll turn to Gary. You wanna come up? Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, members of the committee, John Gary here on behalf of the applicant. This, as Bob indicated, this is a vacant parcel, has been vacant for much too long on Gayno Street. Gayno is a transit oriented street which can accommodate more density and this provides more density for the area, but not too much density. To the credit of the planning department, before we actually applied for this zone change, we had had to put together exactly what we were gonna propose for this land.

And we have done this. The next speaker is Kevin Diamond who is gonna make a short presentation to you as to exactly what's going to go on this property which is two very, I'd suggest, very good looking buildings that are going to be on this property and to improve the area. This is appropriate for the area and I would hope and suggest that you pass it as part of... Into the R four zone. Thank you, mister chairman.

Thank you, attorney. So mister Ayesa has suggested a footnote saying that there will

be no short rental. Will you or your client have any opposition to that? No objection, mister chairman. That was recommended at the Planning City Planning Commission. We had no objection there.

We have no objection to that being amended to be included within the proposal. Thank you.

So with that said, I'll entertain a motion to enter a footnote of a no short term rental.

So moved.

Motion is made by councilor Peterson and second by council member Vargas. All in favor, aye.

Aye.

Opposed? The ayes have it. Thank you, attorney Gary.

And thank and thank you for the courtesy.

Thank you so much. Councilman Goncalves, would you like to speak on this, councilman, since this is your award?

Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I've heard from some residents, particularly of Butters here, that would like to have an opportunity to know more about the plan. So I respectfully ask that the committee continue this matter to provide the property owner with an opportunity to sit down with the butters and neighbors so they can hear more about the plans.

I think this will allow for some constructive dialogue about what they intend to do here so we can address this collaboratively. So I ask that the commission or the committee today respectfully continue this matter so that there's some transparent communication and community involvement in the decisions moving forward. Thank you.

Thank you, councilman. City sergeant, can you please bring up anyone that has signed up to speak on item number three?

Excuse me, mister chair. Yes. Just just a word of advice on continuance. If you are inclined to continue this matter, ideally, would be best if you could continue it to a date certain. Otherwise, this would require re advertisement, which is three notices in the in the Providence Journal once a week for three weeks in advance of the hearing.

Mister chairman, I would say that I agree with the continuance to a date certain.

Well, we can also close the public hearing where we don't have to continue to a certain date, but delay the vote on this, which will allow time for engagement, which is also an option.

I would agree to that. I think having members of the community be able to weigh in on this would be critical.

Okay. The first person that signed up to speak is Paulo Vieira.

Hi. Paul Good evening. Good evening. Paula Vieira from 34 Amy Street in Nevada to this. First of all, I've lived in the neighborhood since a small child, and that lot has always been vacant with one small exception that there was a very small house on the very corner of it.

The reason being is because there's a tunnel, a train tunnel that runs underneath it. That train tunnel can be seen. That rusty bridge is part of that. We can see on the river. It's directly on the other side of Gaynold Street, the entrance to the tunnel, which has been sealed by the Parman.

I think there was there was some issues way in the past. However, my backyard and many of my neighbors were not allowed to build on the back for that very same reason that it cannot sustain the weight. As you get further closer towards, let's say, the next street, which would be Ives or even Governor. As you get deeper in, obviously, there's more distance between the top of the tunnel and the surface. Now people have garages.

Now people have buildings. But that lot, if I had to estimate, it's definitely under a 100 feet. Probably more like 20 to 50 feet, and you're gonna hit the top of that tunnel. I am sure that if there's a cave in, it's gonna hit major news where Gainesville Street's gonna cave in and people's backyards are gonna cave in. Not something I think Providence wants to promote.

So that's my concern. Not the concern that the owner wants to make use of his property. I can understand that. It's just that in my opinion and obviously many inspectors and engineers of the day, they felt that that was not suitable to have a building or any heavy structure. That's my point.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for your testimony. I'll I'll do that after this. Alright.

Elizabeth?