Providence City Council Meeting | June 10th, 2025 | Committee on Ordinances

Good evening. I'm councilman chairman Pedro Espinal. Welcome to committee on an ordinance. Today is Tuesday, 06/10/2025, and the time is 05:40. Madam clerk, please call the roll.

Chairman Espinal?

Present.

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

Councilor Royas?

Present. You

have four present and one absent. You have a quorum.

Thank you. Before we begin, I'd like to acknowledge councilwoman Vargas is here. Thank you for being here. And we also have councilwoman Sue Endebuah. Councilwoman Gong Kalps, thank you for being here, and our city solicitor.

Thank you. K. Before we get started, also, has anybody had an opportunity to sign up? If you wanted to speak on one of the items, we're ready at the table. Just signed up.

Okay. Madam clerk, first item on the agenda.

Item number one is an ordinance and amendment of chapter 27 of the code of ordinances entitled the City Of Providence zoning ordinance approved 11/24/2014 as amended to change the zoning district on the official zoning map for the property located on Assessor's Plat 110, Lot 24983 Ethan Street from R 3 to C 2.

Thank you. And from Department of Planning, we have Mr. Bob Azar, who will be presenting. Good evening, Mr. Azar.

Good evening, Mr. Chair, members of the committee. Robert Azar, Deputy Planning Director. This is a petition to rezone this property from Residential 3 family to commercial two. At this site is a mixed use property that has a bar on the Ground Floor and residential use upstairs.

My understanding is that this is a very longstanding commercial operation, been in operation for decades as such. And while we do recognize these sorts of uses in the residential zones and allow them to continue and even expand somewhat, in this particular case, this business wants to add a kitchen. And the lot is pretty constrained. It's very small and it's very tight. In order to do the expansion in the R3 zone, it would be R3 is not conducive to this kind of expansion of the building because of the way the dimensional regulations work.

We tried to work with them for some time, and it just wasn't gonna work out. The comprehensive plan does speak to these kinds of things where you have nonconforming uses in residential zones. And the comprehensive plan does support the possibility of a zoning change. So in this case, the request is to go to C2, which would it's a mixed use zone that allows for residential and commercial, and it will allow for the expansion that they're looking to do without any further zoning review. So this was considered by the City Plan Commission at its meeting in May, And they made findings of consistency with the comprehensive plan.

And they are recommending that you approve this zoning change.

Question, Mr. Bubba. How long have they been in business? How long has

this I heard something like that this has been a bar for one hundred years.

For over the years. Yeah.

I can't verify that, but that's the number that sticks in my head.

Any questions from my committee members for mister Azar? Hearing none. Thank you, Bob.

Thank you.

Appreciate it. Before we go to further testimony, I'll entertain a motion to enter exhibit a and exhibit b into the records. So move. Motion is made by councilor Moroya, second by councilor Mervargas. All in favor, aye.

Aye. Opposed? The ayes have it. Also like to acknowledge vice chair, councilor Warren Peterson, has just joined us. Thank you, councilor.

So noted.

Could could you please bring me over the list of people that have signed up to speak on this item? Mister sergeant? Thank you. Thanks. Mister Pavel Fernandez.

Good evening. The first one. Can you hear me now? Yes.

So I'm the owner of Bella bar Bella's bar.

Quickly state state your name and last name for the records. Lebel Fernandez. Good evening. Good evening.

So I'm the owner of Bella's Bar, formerly Gemma's Bar since 1935 at this very location. Like Bob had mentioned, we've been back and forth with the city trying to get an expansion so we can house a commercial kitchen as another service to include at the bar. It was tough to design in the r three zone, and that's why we're here petitioning for commercial.

Alright. Thank you. Any questions from committee members? Hearing none, thank you so much. Miss oh, counselor Vargas.

Thank you.

Good evening, everyone. Thank you, giving me the opportunity, chairman. And I'm here support for Pavel for the this business. In my area, the world seven, we know how hospital, we know how so many things that we have in different work. The only thing we have for more than hundred years, this building for the bar.

For now, the populations is grow up. The population like to, you know, go and it's different population. Before, people, they can drink and then go. But in my population, it like it, you know, eat, drink, and go. So that's the reason this business ask for, you know, building for the new kitchens.

And I said, well, this is a great idea because people can eat, drink, and go. So I know it is residential, but this is for residential is having a hundred years in this area to serve as drinking. So it can be a hundred year more to service food. It's better because people not can drunk so much when you have some food in your stomach. That's my consideration.

Thank you.

And I think I support this a 100% because that's our business. Our people can need having a little fun for more years. Thank you.

Thank you, counselor. Alright. So hearing that there's no one else to speak on this matter, I'll entertain a motion to close the public hearing on this matter. I move. It's made by councilor Leroy, second by councilor Mabayas.

All in favor, aye. Aye. Opposed? The ayes have it. This public hearing is now closed.

And following the recommendation of the CPC and after hearing testimony, I'll entertain a motion to approve. So

moved. So moved.

It's made by Second. Second. It's made by councilman Vargas and a second by councilor Arroyas. All in favor, aye. Aye.

Opposed? The ayes have it. This item number one is approved. Madam clerk, item number two, please.

Item number two is an ordinance and amendment of chapter 27 of the code of ordinances of the City Of Providence entitled the City Of Providence zoning ordinance approved 11/24/2014 as amended to change certain text in article 19 regarding adjustments of dimensional regulations for land development project projects.

Thank you. I'll entertain a motion to enter into the record exhibit two a, which is the letter from the CPC. Motion is made by councilman Roya, second by councilman Vargas. All in favor, aye. Aye.

Opposed? The ayes have it. Mister Azar, please. Item number two.

Thank you. This ordinance was introduced, was written by the planning department. And the reason is because we had a recent land development project that was appealed, and the judge in this case issued an interesting ruling that was a bit of a surprise to us all. He told us that he thought that a particular provision of our ordinance should be interpreted in a way that's different from the way we've been interpreting it since it was written sixteen years ago. We have in the ordinance what we call incentive zoning, which is a process whereby the city plan commission can allow a building to be taller in exchange for something that we consider to be a public benefit, such as mixed use, structured parking, or affordable housing.

The way that the ordinance is written, it says that, for example, in a nonresidential zone, a building can be taller by 24 feet or two stories. The judge narrowly interpret that word or to mean that you can get either the numerical 24 feet or the two stories, but you can't get both. We tried to argue that it's practically impossible to get one without the other. And we even went so far, our law department went so far as to ask the judge to reconsider his initial ruling. But unfortunately, he did not agree with us.

And so it kind of creates a big problem for us. To illustrate that, I have a list in front of me of 10 properties that were approved by the City Plan Commission with that allowance of additional height. None of them have been built yet. They've gotten their approvals, but they haven't been built yet. A total of three forty five dwelling units are in jeopardy because of this ruling.

Of those, there are two that are affordable housing projects with a total of 85 units. In one of those, the city has awarded them money from the affordable housing trust. In another one, the PRA, the Providence Redevelopment Agency, is providing the land for the project. There's an eleventh project that's under construction right now. There four phases.