Providence City Plan Commission, December 17, 2024 meeting
Call to Order, Roll Call, and Approval of Minutes
The meeting was called to order, roll call was conducted, and the commission voted to approve the minutes from the November 19 meeting.
2025 Meeting Schedule and Filing Deadlines
The commission reviewed the proposed 2025 meeting dates and filing deadlines. A motion to approve the schedule as drafted was passed unanimously.
Director's Report
Staff presented a year-in-review report detailing development activity, approved cases, and residential units built in Providence during 2024. The commission accepted the report as presented.
City Council Referral No. 3589 - Abandonment of Falmouth Street
The commission reviewed a petition to abandon a paper street known as Falmouth Street to merge it with abutting lots. Following a staff report and public comment, the commission voted to recommend approval to the City Council with conditions.
Comprehensive Plan Zone Changes (Phase 1)
The commission held a public hearing and discussed extensive Phase 1 zoning ordinance and map amendments to implement the city's comprehensive plan. After hearing public testimony, the commission voted to recommend approval of the changes with several specific amendments regarding row houses, density, and tree preservation.
Adjournment
A motion to adjourn the meeting was made, seconded, and approved by the commission. The meeting was officially adjourned with holiday wishes.
Speaker 0
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Was it six? Yep. Under. Alright. I think we have enough to start.
Speaker 0
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So good evening afternoon, evening. Welcome to the December regular meeting of the city plan commission. Let's do a it's it is 04:47. We'll call the meeting to order. I'll go around and introduce ourselves.
Speaker 0
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Attendants. Will Sherry. Dave Caldwell.
Speaker 1
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Dave McKenna. Charlotte Lipchitz.
Speaker 2
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Alexa Thompson.
Speaker 3
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Megan DeSanto, legal counsel.
Speaker 4
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Rob Aizar, staff.
Speaker 5
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Leon, manager of our DPD staff.
Speaker 0
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And Michael Gazzdaco. I'm the chair. You all should have received the minutes from the November 19 meeting. Hopefully, you've had a chance to review them. If there are no edits or modifications, we take a motion to approve.
Speaker 6
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Motion to approve. Alright. We have a motion. Do we
Speaker 0
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have a second? Second. Alright. All in favor of approving the minutes from November 19 as drafted, say aye. Aye.
Speaker 0
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Any opposed? Any extensions? The minutes pass. You've also all received the calendar for the proposed twenty twenty five city planning commission meeting schedule, the meeting dates, and the filing deadlines. I'm noticing that there are a few that match with the school breaks, so that's gonna be tough for me.
Speaker 0
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But you don't have school break yet, so you'll be you'll be fine. Anyone care to forward a motion to approve the meeting as drafted meeting schedule as drafted. So moved. Okay. We have a second?
Speaker 0
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Second. And all in favor of approving the 2025 meeting schedule and filing deadlines as drafted and circulated, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions?
Speaker 0
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Alright. We have a 2025 DBC meeting calendar. Next up, director's report. This is my favorite time of
Speaker 4
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year. Well, I hope I hope it meets your expectations. We're gonna talk very briefly about sort of the year in review, And Lev has just handed out some documents that that show graphically in in a table format the projects that have been reviewed and approved through the year. So, Lev, I'm gonna let you go ahead and, give us the quick overview.
Speaker 7
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Absolutely. Thank you, Bob. So a pretty decent, good year for, development in Providence, both in terms of what was built and what was approved by the city plan commission. This is all information that's already on your sheets, but I will just go through it for the, sake of the audience. This year, city plan commission received 74 total cases, both including things that do and do not make it to the board, for official public review.
Speaker 7
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So that's including administrative, subdivisions and certain categories of minors. 34 administrative subdivisions were received. More relevantly to you guys, 33 minuteors were received, both subdivision and land development projects. Of those, nine made it to full CPC review, every single one of which is UER. That's the footprint of, the state law change and the city's, commensurate development regulation change that pushed some of these into administrative review.
Speaker 7
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In addition, there were, six minor LDPs, all of which that, you reviewed, every one of which, was received this year except for one received in 2023. In addition, there were six major, sub, land development projects reviewed, couple UDRs in there. In addition to that, you also reviewed 23 city council referrals, 11 zones change requests, seven ordinance text changes, including what's going before you today, and also five street abandonments. In addition, there was an IMP and, a comprehensive plan public hearing and one major change, that being to 2 79th Thayer. Throughout the entire year, in some form or another, either through a preliminary or, a final plan approval, one of those two were a master, you guys made it to 382 residential dwelling units approved, a pretty good number.
Speaker 7
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In addition, there were several nonresidential projects that went through your review and received approvals, including three schools. In terms of the entirety of the city, our full development pipeline, there are 86, sorry, 85 projects in there right now, including, 3,775 total units,
Speaker 8
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of which
Speaker 7
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of proposed commercial development. Of course, we'll see how many of these projects, sort of how they end up panning out, but that is our current pipeline. Besides that, if you, there are a couple maps included in your, in your little packets as well. These maps represent this year not what was approved by the CPC, but what was built in Providence. Our total numbers of, projects that made it all the way through the process and actually had an issued permit.
Speaker 7
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This includes both things that received CPC review and things that went exclusively through the building department. Alexis would know quite a lot about a great many of these projects. There are two categories of maps here, one covering just this past year and one covering the span of 2015 to 2024. In this past year, the city, issued permits for 576 new residential dwelling units of in various forms and lost through either demo or renovation 24 units, bringing us to a total of 552 new dwelling units, somewhat above our average. Throughout the past ten years, we've added a little under 5,000 new units and lost a little under or, yeah, a little under 500 for a net total of around 4,500.
Speaker 7
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So our total of 560 is a little bit above our norm. That is the state of, residential development in Providence today. Thank you to the city, to the city plan commission for all the units that you have reviewed and approved.
Speaker 0
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Thank you, Lav. That was great.
Speaker 4
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Is that it for the director's report? That's it.
Speaker 0
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Alright. Then we will go right into agenda item number one, which is city council referral number 3589, abandonment of Falmouth Street.
Speaker 4
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Is there anybody here for the applicant? Falmouth Street. Oh oh, we it looks like we have someone online. Okay. So Raising hand.
Speaker 4
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Alright. Should I get an introduction? Yeah. Go ahead, Troy.
Speaker 5
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Alright. So thanks, commissioners. This is a request to abandon Falmouth Street. And as you will see, this is a street that lies right on the edge of Providence and North Providence. And the the offenders, the owners of the subject lots who are also the petitioners are requesting to abandon the street as it lies between their lots.
Speaker 5
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And so I guess we have the the, representative for the applicant the petitioners who can tell you more, and their intention is to merge the abandoned portion of the street with their respective lots.
Speaker 9
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Yes. Can can you hear me? Or
Speaker 0
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Yes. We can.
Speaker 9
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Yes. There's, I had a chance to, meet with the neighbors out at the property.
Speaker 0
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Hang on one second. Can you start by stating your name and affiliation for the record, please?
Speaker 9
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It's attorney George Luff Russo and Luff PC on behalf of, the Kasabian family, the Yara family.
Speaker 0
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Thank you.
Speaker 9
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So, basically, the the neighborhood had gotten together, and they that street, Falmouth, has not been in use. In fact, if you go by the property, you'll see there's there's wood chips and then there's a there's asphalt on a portion of it. And the the parties just wanna kinda revert that to a to a state of nature as it is there.
Speaker 4
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So, mister chair and members of the committee, this is a Paper Street. It hasn't been developed. There is a there is a a driveway that encroaches onto it that accesses one of these properties that actually is, partly in North Providence and partly in Providence. The other two abutting properties are wholly within Providence. So it's it's the three abutters that are filing this petition.
Speaker 4
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And if the council agrees to, abandon the street, the the area of Falmouth Street in Providence would be divided between the three property owners. There is this tiny little triangle in North Providence. And, if they want North Providence to abandon that, they'd have to to, address that to to the, to the town. But, this street, as you can see, is is not built out. It's not being used by the public, and it, and there are, there are alternative ways to get between these streets without using it.
Speaker 0
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When I when I looked at it from, like, Google Street View, it looked like there were curb cuts, heading into it from the Providence side on what was that? Brentwood? Yeah. There was there was a there was a curb cut there. Big trees in the middle of it.
Speaker 0
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It's it's completely undeveloped. That's right. Commissioners, do you have anything for the, applicant's attorney or representative?
Speaker 4
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You'd hear the staff report?
Speaker 0
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Yeah. Sorry. With that, we'll hear the staff report.
Speaker 5
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Sure. Thanks, commissioners. And as you've seen, this is a paper street that's only useful to access the properties that did abut. So we feel that abandoning it would not have an adverse impact on the public interest. Given that it's only useful to accessing land that it abuts, we don't foresee a negative impact on future plans or existing land uses.
Speaker 5
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As the as the petitioners are the owners of the lots abutting the property, we we feel that they're all in agreement. No physical or legal access will be denied to other parts of the city, and they would need to grant any necessary easements. And they have provided a petition and plan as required. However, to that, we would like to add that they do need to provide an administrative subdivision so that the assessor can assess the value of the street, and this has to occur prior to them appearing before the city council. So based on that, we recommend that you make a positive recommendation to the to the committee on public works subject to these conditions that the abutters come to an agreement on how the land will be abandoned and indicate that on a survey that they will provide to the city.
Speaker 5
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They should apply for an administrative subdivision to subdivide the abandoned portion of the street as described. And, also, as was mentioned, this would only apply to the portion of the street that is within, Providence. It will not apply to North Providence, and
Speaker 10
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they will be required to grant any necessary easements. K. Thank you. Guess with that, we'll we
Speaker 0
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will open this up to public comment. If there's anyone in the virtual audience or here in person who wishes to speak on this matter, again, it's city council referral 3589. Seeing none, we'll close the public comment portion of this agenda item. This one's a pretty straightforward commissioners. It's a paper street.
Speaker 0
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Never been in use. I don't see any any harm in selling it back to the abutters on either side. I would support a positive recommendation to the city council.