Providence City Plan Commission, February 18, 2025 meeting
Call to Order, Roll Call, and Approval of Minutes
The chairperson called the meeting of the Providence City Plan Commission to order and conducted a roll call of the members. The commission then reviewed and voted to approve the minutes from the previous meeting held on January 21, 2025.
Director's Report
DPD staff member Bob Azar provided a brief update on ongoing zoning changes designed to implement the policies of the comprehensive plan. He noted that the first phase had advanced to the City Council, while the second phase addressing more complex issues remains in progress.
Public Hearing for 20 Ernst Street (Case 25-003UDR)
The commission held a public hearing for a major land development project to construct a new public works building in an M-1 zone. After hearing expert testimony, staff recommendations, and public comments, the commission approved the requested dimensional relief, waivers, combination of stages, and the preliminary plan.
Continuation of Case 23-012MA (269 Wickenden Street)
The commission continued its review of a preliminary plan for a 75-unit apartment building, focusing on revised plans for street trees, a vegetative buffer, bicycle storage, and loading. Following extensive public comment and legal clarifications regarding an administrative modification, the commission voted to approve the preliminary plan with conditions.
Adjournment
Following the completion of all scheduled agenda items, the chairperson called for a motion to adjourn the meeting. The motion was made, seconded, and approved by a unanimous voice vote.
Speaker 0
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Good afternoon. We will call this meeting of the Providence City Plan Commission to order. This is a regular meeting. Today is 02/18/2025. The time is 04:52PM.
Speaker 0
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Let's do a roll call starting with Noel. Noel. Vincent. Dave Caldwell.
Speaker 1
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Dave McKenna.
Speaker 2
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Miguel Casaba.
Speaker 3
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Choyan Choyan, manager of our DPD staff.
Speaker 4
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Bob Ezar, DPD staff.
Speaker 5
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Sharon Gardner, legal counsel.
Speaker 0
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And I am Michael Gazdako, the chair. Moving along to the minutes that were circulated for the 01/21/2025 meeting. Hope you you've all got them read them. Any edits or a motion to approve the meeting minutes as drafted?
Speaker 6
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So moved. Alright. We have a motion. Do we have a second?
Speaker 7
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Second.
Speaker 0
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Alright. We have a fully formed motion. All in favor of approving the minutes from the 01/21/2025 meeting, aye. Aye. All opposed?
Speaker 0
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Any abstentions? The minutes pass. Mister Azar, do you have a director's report?
Speaker 4
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Yeah. Just briefly, mister chair and members of the commission, we have been working on we're continuing to work on zoning changes to implement policies of the comprehensive plan. The first round of changes that was approved by the CPC has advanced to the council. There's gonna be a public hearing on that next Wednesday at the ordinance committee at City Hall. And the second phase, including things like, parking minimums, student housing, inclusionary zoning, port zoning, some of the more challenging aspects.
Speaker 4
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We continue to work on that, and, we should have a report for you, probably at next month's meeting. That's all I
Speaker 0
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can say. Alright. Wonderful. With that, we will roll right into the first agenda item. Agenda item number one is a major land development project, a public hearing for case number 25Dash003UDR for 20 Ernst Street
Speaker 8
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Ernst Street. Sure. Thanks, mister Chen.
Speaker 9
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I can give a quick introduction while the applicant's set up. So this is a request to combine master and preliminary plan approval to construct a public works building in the M 1 zone. So the applicant will be walking you through their plans for the vacant portion of a site that already contains a DPW building. And in requesting these approvals, they are also asking for relief through Unified Development Review for a two way driveway with a width of 35 feet, and they'll be explaining why that relief is necessary. In addition, they're also asking for waivers of certain items at the preliminary plan stage, which include a signage plan, a photometric lighting plan, as well as submission of DPW and state stormwater management approvals.
Speaker 9
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So, yeah, I'll turn it over
Speaker 6
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to the applicant, and they can join you.
Speaker 1
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Great. Thank you.
Speaker 0
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Before we, proceed, this is a UDR application, so it includes zoning. We wanna have anyone that you have that's going to testify or speak this evening. Can you have this stenographer swear at them in, please?
Speaker 10
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Would you both raise your hand? All of you? Please.
Speaker 11
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Just in
Speaker 10
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case you do. You solemnly swear? The testimony you're about to give in this matter will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but truth itself you got. You can identify yourselves when you speak. Thank you.
Speaker 0
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You. Please proceed.
Speaker 3
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Good afternoon.
Speaker 4
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It's working. It's on. Yeah. Good afternoon. My name
Speaker 3
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is Edward Rouse. I'm the principal of Rouse Architects. We were selected over a year ago to design this new exciting facility for the Department of Public Works. We have been working with them for over a year. We've worked with the staff and the director.
Speaker 3
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We have worked with the building department. We have met with the planning department, and we're here today to get a major land development approval. Brittany Grant is vice president of Rouse Architects, and this is her project. I'm gonna turn it over to her.
Speaker 1
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Great. Thank you. As Ted mentioned, I am Britney Grant from Rousa Architects. I'm not seeing an option to share my screen.
Speaker 4
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Oh, just a minute.
Speaker 0
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We'll promote you so that you're able to do that.
Speaker 12
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Yeah. Request to rejoin. Okay.
Speaker 1
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Great. Thank you. I will share my screen. Alright. So we are working with the city of Providence to go under this project for the new DPW complex.
Speaker 1
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We are asking to combine both the two stages of review for the major land development project, with preliminary and master planning into a single stage submission. And you're seeking waivers for, storm water management design, a photometric plan, and in site signage plan. Our reason is that we are still in progress on those items, and I will touch upon them throughout the presentation, but we are in the progress on those items. Okay. To be to touch upon the existing use of the site, it's located at 20 Erinn Street.
Speaker 1
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They currently operate out of a brick building located on the site that was built around the nineteen fifties. The building is in poor condition. There is limited heating and ventilation in the space. The natural light and artificial light are lacking, and the structure itself is degrading. It's overall a poor working environment for the city employees.
Speaker 1
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Our proposed project is a 48,000 square foot, new construction buildings that will bring the people centered functions out of this existing building and into a new structure for the city. The area is zoned m one, and this use, or will be a continued use of what is already there, and it is compliant with the m one zoning requirements. The existing garage will remain on the site to house solely vehicles. So our our goal is moving the people out of that space. Overall, a goal with our design was to create a safe environment for the DPW staff.
Speaker 1
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The existing facility has no site security, fences, cameras, access control. And, you know, with those large vehicles driving around, that that just doesn't feel adequate for the staff that are working there daily. Excuse me. Goal is to create a well lit, well ventilated working space with proper clearances around the vehicles within the building and within the site, a fully secured site with a fence and access control gates, cameras throughout, and overall building access control to keep the DPW staff and city owned city owned equipment safe and secure. This building will also align with the mayor's carbon neutral initiative, so all systems are being fed via electricity, eliminating the need for fossil fuels to run the building daily.
Speaker 1
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We will be meeting LEED certified standards for this project at a minimum. We had a site survey performed of the lot itself and surrounding lots that were city owned. This identified all of the existing utilities, the grading on the site, existing trees, etcetera. And we additionally notified all of butters within 200 feet, so we have a radius plan shown here, identifying those knots. There are additional, documents in your handout that are more supporting.
Speaker 1
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So if there are any additional questions, feel free to to ask them. But now I will jump to.
Speaker 12
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Hello? I'm Joseph Weed with Park Corporation. I'm the site civil engineer, and I could run through the site improvements here real quick. So we're looking at the demolition seven erosion demolition plan. So just to orient yourself up straight up on on the drawing here is north, and then to the left is is west.
Speaker 12
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And Allen's Avenue is on the on the left side of the screen here, and Ernest Street is to the north. Mhmm. And then to the east, there's the existing building that is to the to remain in south. There's quite a bit of grade change to the south because existing city lots that are owned and administrative buildings to the south in the adjacent lot. So this plan, there there was an existing building structure there that was recently demolished.
Speaker 12
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So we kinda show the outline here, and then the site is pretty much ready to be constructed on. We just gonna do some cleanup, some demolition of some additional pavement, and some, clearing and drubbing and some earthworks and sites ready for construction. There's a general site plan. You could see the outline of the new proposed building. We've got a finished floor elevation of 28.
Speaker 12
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There's access, into the driveways off of Ernest Street. And then there's the we have a dedicated entry and exit to the to the general yard area and also to the parking lot area that you see to the south that comes into off Ernest Street. We have staff parking in the back. I believe it's seven numbers here. As far as the off street parking, the for a public works facility where we calculate 74 spaces are required for the zoning requirements,
Speaker 0
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and
Speaker 12
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we are providing 74 spaces. In addition to that, there's also some parking actually inside the buildings, and then there's also parking on street parking on, Street, which is available. We don't expect this to be really used by the public. This is more for staff mostly. So the public would be using the administrative buildings, not the site.
Speaker 12
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As far as zoning dimensions, we were meeting all those zoning setbacks, which are basically a zero setback here and height requirements. And then the the, the fencing along Ernest Street, the frontage, we've got seven feet, set back there. I believe it's five feet or six foot all fence. We're also providing bicycle parking, which, this site requires 10 spaces for bicycle parking. We have five spaces that we're gonna provide up front, easy access, and then there's another five spaces long term on the inside of the building.
Speaker 12
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And then we also have a couple of loading spaces, which there's plenty of room for vehicle loading spaces in this area. We'll come back and talk to the talk about the entrance and exit driveways
Speaker 13
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a little bit.
Speaker 12
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So here we're looking at the drainage utility map. Same orientation with Ernest Street to the north, which is up on this page and Allen's Ave to the west left on this page. We're asking for conditional or waiver of the stormwater management, but we have been in talks with, write in. We've got a pre application meeting with. We also had a pre application meeting with NBC.