Providence City Council Meeting | October 16th, 2024 | Committee on Ordinances
Call to Order and Roll Call
Chairman Espinal called the Committee on Ordinance meeting to order, and the clerk confirmed a quorum was present. Following a brief recess, the chairman announced that public testimony would be taken that evening while final decisions would be continued to a subsequent meeting.
Item 1: Presentation and Council Discussion on the Comprehensive Plan
Planning Department staff and council policy advisors presented updates and proposed text and map amendments to the Providence Comprehensive Plan, including provisions for industrial zoning and unhoused residents. Council members then debated tenant protections, landlord rights, and anti-displacement strategies before voting to enter submitted materials into the record.
Public Hearing on the Comprehensive Plan
Residents, business representatives, and community organizations presented testimony on various components of the proposed comprehensive plan. Key topics addressed included potential restrictions on new gas stations, port and industrial zoning rules, parking minimums, student housing impacts, and historic preservation.
Council Member Remarks on the Comprehensive Plan
Council members voiced their perspectives and shared constituent feedback regarding the proposed changes to the comprehensive plan. The debate highlighted concerns about parking minimum reductions, the economic impacts of restricting gas stations on working-class residents, and strategies for advancing environmental justice.
Motions to Continue and Adjourn
The committee approved a motion to continue the public hearing on the comprehensive plan to October 21. A subsequent motion to adjourn the meeting was then made and approved.
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Good evening, everyone. Welcome to committee on ordinance. Today is October 16, and the time is 05:54PM. Madam Clerk, please call the roll.
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Chairman Espinal?
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Present.
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Vice chairwoman Peterson? Present. Councilwoman Harris is absent. Councilman Vargas? Present.
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Councilor Royas? Present. You have four present and one absent. You have a quorum.
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Thank you. If you are here to testify, please make sure you sign in. And we will be taking your testimony shortly. I'm gonna ask madam clerk that we stand at ease for about ten minutes. Thank you.
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So much once again. Our deepest apologies. We did have some inconvenience, and that took us from where we were. To start out with, I'll tell you that we will continue this meeting. No decision will be made tonight.
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We'll continue till next Monday, October 21 at 05:30. So but tonight, we will be taking your testimony which are very valuable to us. With that, madam clerk, the first item on the agenda, please.
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Item number one is an ordinance adopting the city of Providence's official comprehensive plan.
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Thank you. And we have mister Bob Azar from Department of Planning presenting. Thank you, Bob.
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Thank you, Mr. Chair, members of the committee. Robert Azar, Deputy Planning Director for the City of Providence. We have been working over the past week to consolidate some of the changes to the document that were discussed at the last meeting and that have been put into the record. And there are a couple of things that I just want to bring to your attention about the current state of the plan.
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First of all, I want to mention that the plan is online at the City Council's homepage. So folks will have an opportunity to see the plan with all the red lines in it on the City Council's homepage. So I just am going to briefly describe some of the changes, and I believe Erin Eastergardner will describe some of the other changes. First of all, because some of the the objectives and strategies have changed through this process, we had to update the implementation table in Appendix C. Appendix C describes all of the responsible parties and the timelines for implementing all the objectives and strategies.
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So that's been updated. We have made minor text edits to correctly refer to the I-one Hundred 95 District. Apparently they changed their name from the I-one Hundred 95 Innovation And Design District. So we made that change.
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Thank you.
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And I mentioned last time we had a series of map changes to the future land use map and the proposed zoning changes. There are a couple of minor changes since then. I had said that there was a proposal to change the zoning for 173 I had said 193 Ives. I misspoke. It's actually 173 Ives.
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So we made that change. And also at the request of Councilman Gonzalves, there is a further change for the property at 639 Wickenden to be rezoned to C2. That's in Ward 1. Also in Ward 12, I believe we had omitted another area of National Register District. Those are the Andrew Dickhout Cottages on Bath Street.
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We are proposing that those will stay R3, the same as the other National Register Districts in that ward. And then finally, we have changed the labeling on the growth strategy map to adjust the font size of the label for the jewelry district. And I think that's all I have for you. Happy to answer any questions you might have. Any questions from my committee members?
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Seeing none, thank you, Bob.
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Thank you.
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And next, we'll have our policy team, mister Aaron Insta Gardner and mister Gil Rose.
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Thank you, chairman. Today, I just have two, specific changes that I wanted to read the language, in into the record. So first and foremost, on the document that is online as Bob mentioned, I think we have page 32 which is under h three, special needs housing. We're adding language for k which replaces the old language and I'll read this into the record now. Adopt policies supporting the city's unhoused residents, including but not limited to providing temporary use permits for emergency shelters, improving outreach and social services to encampments, developing permanent housing options, ensuring access to mental health and substance use treatments or other innovative solutions in housing safety and public health.
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And again, that's page 32, h three k.
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And additionally, there were some modifications
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to the language that was related to M 2, industrial District, and W 3, the port with specific uses. And we had this language that I'm about to read, we actually added, you know, under to speak directly to M 2 and for W 3. So, read it right now. The city may prohibit future industrial uses in the general Industrial District M 2 that it determines go against the public interest of a, public health and quality of life in near industry neighborhoods, or b, realizing fossil fuel emissions reduction goals in response to climate change, and will encourage future industrial uses that promote environmentally just development and adjust transition for workers currently maintaining fossil fuel dependent infrastructure and industry. Future m two prohibited industrial uses may include, but are not limited to, facilities that import, store, process, or distribute fossil fuels, facilities that import, store, manufacture, or distribute flammable, hazardous, or explosive chemicals or waste products, facilities that generate or result in harmful air pollution emissions, facilities that produce high carbon emissions or import and distribute high carbon content products, facilities that generate water pollution including both point source and storm water runoff pollution.
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And additionally, this section shall not apply to publicly owned treatment works. Future m two encouraged industrial uses include, but are not limited to, offshore wind development and associated activities, solar electricity generation, battery energy storage facilities, micro grid infrastructure, electric infrastructure for ship to shore plug in power and charging electric zero emissions trucks, food and commercial goods imports, storage and distribution that can be run on zero emission electrical infrastructure, and vocational education facilities to support workforce for excuse me, workforce development for a just transition to a green economy. And again, that the same language is added for uses in W three and in M two. So, that completes the language that we added that we wanted to share today.
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Thank you.
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Thank you.
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Any question from committee members? Vargas.
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Thank you very much for the presentation. I see that you're reading on page 31. We'll go all the way to letter s and letter t. Work with the community development. Which neighborhood are most vulnerable and insurable.
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Are authorized for affordable housing development. Then you go to letter u, page 32, advocate for a stronger tenant protection for renters who are defined as being the most vulnerable to displacement. You're right about the tenants. We want to do anything that we can have in our power to protect them. But what about when they when we have a bad tenant?
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Do wanna pay the rent? They start breaking the apartment? They start breaking the fridge? Start breaking the microwave? Making holes in the wall?
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And then a month later, he will walk away and say, thank you very much. That repair will cost you at least between 1,000, 2,000, $3,000. I don't see any protection here for the property owner. What is your answer?
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Well, so my answer would be that, you know, obviously in this, you know, language here is really to, you know, address or at least ask the city to just advocate for changes mostly at the state level because at the local level there are, you know, limited things the city can do. But my answer would honestly be, you know, councilman, within the, you know, landlord and tenant handbook, it's at the state level. I mean, the the the powers for, you know, a landlord are, you know, outlined there when such as security deposits, etcetera, that I know you're aware of. But outside of that, we're not speaking to make any changes to laws on the state level, but at the same time, that doesn't say we can't advocate for things that are proper.
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Yeah. If I could just add, it's our understanding that any matter here is related to tenant protections is a state matter, and that's where that's why the language was chosen for advocate for tenant protections. But, of course, Erin and I sit here presenting amendments that came from city councilors. And so I think if that was a request for amendment, we should definitely talk about it further. But this package of amendment came from counselors, that one, and and that request isn't one that we had received for our package.
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I wonder what what they these colleagues or counselors are meaning by tenant protection, like renters? Like, what protection they're looking for? Like, they're looking for them not to be displacement or for them to what's the what's the what's what is the reason?
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Council president Miller.
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Councilman, I'm very happy. Although this amendment wasn't something that I proposed, I'm very happy to speak a little bit about the kind of protections I hear from renters in terms of not having, right? So things that I hear from renters and I'm a renter myself although I have a I enjoy a very positive relationship with my landlord. So some of those include every winter including actually last night when there was a really horrible fire in my neighborhood. I get calls from renters who don't have heat, don't have locks on their doors, don't have access to some basic protection.
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I think that we all have some neighbors who have seen really big rent increases, right? Not like a regular and we know better than anyone else what taxes are, right? Because we passed the budget and we So we can expect a year to year slight increase but in the last couple of years, I've had neighbors who, oh gosh, there was a woman who lives on the street one over from me, her rent increased $800 with thirty days notice. So I think that one of the nice things about presenting a plan that's kind of in vision form, right, that's sort of charting a path forward for our city is that we get to say things like strengthen tenant protections, and by doing, by saying that, we are committing ourselves to do work together to make sure that we do that. Right?
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Whether it's at the state house, whether there's things in existing law working with DIS, even on procedural things so that we're strengthening protections for everybody. And I think there's actually quite a bit in the overall comp plan that speaks to property owners as well both in terms of creating more freedom for them to develop on the land that they have, to ensuring that the like neighborhood and character of the neighborhood retains all of the things that make Providence beloved. So I think, you know, and I thank you all for your work that you've done so far. This is public hearing number four on this matter, right? I really do thank you.
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Like like this is the opportunity to talk about the vision. And then by doing so, we commit ourselves to doing that work together on behalf of our neighbors.
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Thank you very much, council president.
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Thank you.
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Can I share? Sure.
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Go ahead.
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Thank
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you. I am afraid that by putting a lot of stuff, the property owner will say, like, thank you very much for your lease, but your lease is over. I need my apartment back. And then we want to be displacing people because all the a lot of things that we're doing here, a lot of vision that we put in, a lot of regulation that we're trying to put to protect one side only and forget about the other side. But don't forget the other side is the property owner.
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He might say, thank you very much. I won't be able to rent to you no more because so many rules I had to follow. I'd rather have my apartment empty than give it out. So we have to be careful how we we go with these new rules and new laws that we're trying to do for the next ten years. That's that's what I'm trying to figure out.
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It's something that there has to be a balance. Because as a taxpayer person who has a property, the administration is not going to think twice to raise the taxes because the administration need to to to make a budget. And who's gonna be paying at the end? The property owners who pay tax. That's the reason.
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Thank you, mister Vargas. Councilman Royals.
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Thank you, chair. To sort of add to this discussion, I think this is a I think council the council president was mentioning this. This is a visionary document, and then there's reality which are the preemption laws that are baked into state law which is the Landlord Tenant Act. And so there are some things that we'd probably like for it to happen. We hope that we reach a future where it does happen, But we might be prevented to move forward with some visionary things because of preemption laws at the state level.