Yeah. Can you remember I had the mirror there? Yeah.
We're gonna go. She was this We're all the way back together. And And I still have her. Oh, wow. Sign.
And then we have a look at it before I do. Okay.
I'm going to spare. Okay. Good afternoon. I'm going to call this regular meeting of the city plan commission to order. Today is Tuesday, 11/19/2024.
It is 04:45PM. Let's start with a roll call. Let's go around and starting with Will.
Miguel Casaba. Sharyan, manager, car, DPD staff. Bob Azar, DPD staff.
Sharon Garner, legal counsel.
And I am Michael Gazzako, chair. We have minutes from last month's meeting, October 15 meeting. Hopefully, you all received them prior to this, and we're able to review them. If anyone has any edits, please, please say so now. And if not, take a motion to approve as drafted.
Motion to approve. We have motion. Do we have a second? Second. Alright.
All in favor of approval of minutes, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Extensions? The minutes carry.
Director's report. Thank you, mister chair. So I'm happy to say that, we're on the cusp of having an adopted comprehensive plan. We expect the council would grant, second passage this Thursday night, and we're having a signing ceremony on Friday. You're all invited.
It's gonna be at 1192 Westminster Street where the there's a accessory dwelling unit that WBNA built that's gonna be in front of that. So, you know, just wanna wanna say that that that this was it's really exciting that that we got this far. You know, as you know, the council process had had a few ups and downs and and hiccups, but, ultimately, we got something that that I think we can all be proud of. And we're excited to move into the next phase of of reviewing zoning changes and and getting those implemented. One thing I I wanted to to just show you, as we start talking about some of these zoning changes, one of the things we we've discussed is, design standards and how the comprehensive plan calls for us to be, convening an ad hoc committee to assist us with looking at our design standards and our design review processes.
I just wanna show you a couple of images that that, will give you a sense of what we've been doing lately with your assistance. So I'm just gonna pull this over onto the screen here. You'll remember this is, 279 Fair Street. This was a project where, it was it was reviewed originally and approved as a four story building. They came back to you with Ground Floor, commercial and asked for a fifth story.
You granted it, but, there were some some, points brought up about the design and about, you know, some of the some of the details, particularly, there was some diff discomfort with this with this decorative band, with some of the materials and the way that, you know, they were going to, appear on the facade and so forth. So we spent a little time working with the, with the applicant on this, and let's see if I can get here. And so this is this is what they came up with. And this this took two iterations of us sitting down, our design staff, and the and the architects. And I think it responded a lot to the comments, some about, you know, the the height and sort of matching, you know, some of the some of the features.
And, ultimately, they decided to to remove that band. I think at the end of the day, it's a much I think it's I think it came out better. I think this process demonstrates that that, you know, we can you know, with with not too much time and effort, we can, you know, get to a better design. So just something that that, you know, we're gonna be talking about in the months to come, and I just wanted to show you, you know, how that process played out. Thank you, Bob.
I I do wish that Charlotte was here because I think she'd really appreciate the transformation between the original product and and what we have here today. And we appreciate the effort and the time that's put into it. And it's it's nice to see them because oftentimes, there are improvements sometimes before they get to us, sometimes after. But there there is a lot of effort, and you guys have been doing a really good job of of adding design, assistance and design review to the, the applicant's packages. Also, I I think it's not, it's kind of appropriate that Thursday, with the second reading and the passage of the comp plan is actually my birthday, so what a great birthday gift
was my birthday when the ordinance can be exact. Yeah.
So we're, we're both, we're both living this today. Alright. With that, let's roll right into the first agenda item. The first case is case number 22Dash063MI. It's 322 Washington Street.
And, commissioners, this is a request for an extension of a project that was approved a while ago in the applicant pool. Explain that context here.
Is that on attorney Stoltzmann? Yeah. Just just speak close to it. It it should be on.
getting me? Good. Yeah. Well, members of the
city planning commission, my name is Rob Robert Stolzman. I'm an attorney at Adler Piakenshin representing the applicant LAC Northeast developer. The property is at 322 Washington Street as your packet indicates, and we're originally before you almost two years ago, 12/13/2022, where this board approved the preliminary plan for a fully affordable, 100% affordable apartment project. The property is currently an empty lot, the parking lot. It's across the street from the public safety complex just west of the highway at the Eastern end of Federal Hill.
It's a great use of the property, and and it's gotten a lot of support from the city. In addition to your approval, we also had an ordinance committee approval to put this in the transportation overlay district. We're surrounded by it, so we cleaned up the tran our proposal is to clean up the transportation oriented district lines. So this is all going along swimmingly. Of course, the capital stack, the phrase that we used to put the money together to build the project, private equity, private debt, some public debt from Rhode Island Housing.
We're in the queue at Rhode Island Housing. Last year, you may recall there were 60 over 60 applications, about about a dozen received funding. We've been encouraged by Rhode Island Housing to reapply for this next round that's out now. So our request for you today is to give us another year extension so we can take the project that you've approved and take it back to Rhode Island Housing. We've been tweaking the operating budget and and and some of the construction budget to make it up to speed with today's cost and hopefully more competitive with, our competing applications at Rhode Island Housing.
Mister Shaw may be on, on Zoom, if you have any questions of him as the principal, but I'm pretty familiar with the project and its financing structure as well. But it's we we're very encouraged at Lincoln Avenue Capital, very, very highly regarded affordable housing developer throughout New England and and elsewhere in the country, but their New England division's very active. They're eager to put a shovel in the ground in Providence, and this location works well. Again, it's just the key grinding away to get the money. Every
time I I pass that, on the service road, I always wonder what's going on. When is that gonna get built? Because we really want it to. Anyone, on the commission have questions for the applicant? Sorry.
I I don't other than asking how we can reach out to Rhode Island Housing to make sure this gets built. Can we can we Well positive recommendation to Rhode Island Housing then.
I I don't think that's necessary. We're we're we're well aware of the project, and and we support it any way we can.
This this you the staff and the the city's been very supportive. Council members, everybody's been supportive. It's just now a matter pushing all these projects through the funnel and Yeah.
And trying to get them And there's a limited amount of dollars in projects that can be funded. So alright. No questions. This is just a request for extension. So take a motion to approve the request.
Double. And a second? Second. Alright. We'll go around and do a voice vote.
Noel? Name because I believe. It's
Dave? Yes. Miguel? Yes. And I vote aye.
Thank you. Best of luck. Hope to not see you back next year.
Yeah. Our goal not not to see you again. Okay. It's wonderful.
Alright. Second agenda item is another request for extension. It's case number 22Dash051MI. It's 150 Pittman Street.
Hey, man. My name Gary. John Garrity on behalf of
the applicant. You want me to proceed? Hang on. Would you like to introduce it?
as a request for extension.
I'll be happy to There you go.
