Providence City Council Meeting | November 3rd, 2025 | Commettee on Ordinaces | Regular Meeting
Call to Order and Roll Call
Chairman Pedro Espinal calls the Committee on Ordinance meeting to order at 5:46 PM on November 3. The clerk calls the roll, establishing a quorum with four members present and one absent.
Item 1: Zoning Ordinance Amendment - Entertainment
The committee discusses a proposed amendment to the city's zoning ordinance regarding the definition and hours of incidental entertainment. After hearing from Deputy Director Robert Azar and addressing questions from Councilor Peterson, the committee votes to approve the amendment and the item as amended.
Item 2: Zoning Ordinance Amendment - Cannabis Establishments
Deputy Director Robert Azar explains that this amendment aligns city regulations with state law by reversing the order of approval operations for cannabis establishments. The committee hears the explanation and votes unanimously to approve the ordinance.
Adjournment
With no further business on the calendar, a motion to adjourn is made by Councilor Peterson and seconded by Councilor Harris. The motion passes unanimously, and the meeting is adjourned.
Speaker 0
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Good evening, everyone, and welcome to Committee on Ordinance. I'm Chairman, Pedro Espinal. Thank you all for being here. And today is November 3, and the time is 06:46.
Speaker 1
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05:46.
Speaker 0
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Oh, we got the We got Gotta change
Speaker 2
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the plan.
Speaker 0
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Let's change that. Alright. 05:46. Thank you so much, vice chair. Madam clerk, please call the roll.
Speaker 1
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Chairman Espinal.
Speaker 0
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Present.
Speaker 1
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Vice chairwoman Peterson. Present. Councilwoman Harris. Present. Councilman Vargas is absent.
Speaker 1
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Councilor Arroyas.
Speaker 0
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Present.
Speaker 1
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You have four present and one absent. You have a quorum.
Speaker 0
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Thank you, madam chair. First item on the agenda, please.
Speaker 1
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Item number one 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 articles two and twelve relating to entertainment.
Speaker 0
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Thank you. So we had a public hearing on this item, last week. We had a large number of people that testify. We take all, testimony into consideration. There is a small rewording of a sentence that we need to do.
Speaker 0
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For that, we have we invited Mr. Bob Azar here to explain what that is.
Speaker 2
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Thank you, Mr. Chair and members of the committee. Robert Azar, Deputy Director, Department of Planning and Development. There's a request by the administration that there be a small tweak to the language in the definition of incidental entertainment. As you recall, we made an amendment during the public hearing and it was to speak to if incidental entertainment is being provided as live music performance and the times when it's supposed to cease.
Speaker 2
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I'm gonna read to you the way the sentence was
Speaker 0
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Okay.
Speaker 2
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Was changed in committee and then I'm gonna read to you the way we suggest that the sentence be reworded. And this is to align with other city ordinances relating to licensing. So the way it was amended in the hearing, it says, if incidental entertainment is provided as a live music performance, it shall cease at 09:00PM Sunday through Thursday and 11:00PM Friday and Saturday and the night before a city recognized holiday. That's the that's the first phrase of that sentence. So the proposal here is to make that a complete sentence and then the next phrase that says pre recorded music may continue through closing time, that'll be a separate sentence.
Speaker 2
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Just a change in punctuation there, but then there's a slight change in the wording that we are suggesting so that it would read as follows. If incidental entertainment is provided as a live music performance, it shall cease at 09:00PM Sunday through Thursday, that's all the same, and here's where it changes a little bit. And 11PM on Friday and Saturday, as well as on the Sunday night preceding a city recognized holiday that falls on a Monday. This change would actually narrow the days at which there could be music as incidental entertainment going until 11:00PM. It would only be allowed on the Sunday night preceding a city recognized holiday that falls on a Monday as opposed to say a Wednesday night before a Thursday holiday or a Thursday night before a Friday holiday.
Speaker 2
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So that's the extent of the suggested change.
Speaker 0
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Thank you, mister Azer. And that was the intended purpose of the proposed amendment.
Speaker 2
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Yeah. In retrospect, reviewing the record and recalling what councilman Vargas was saying in that hearing. I think we didn't properly capture exactly what he was saying as we were doing this on the fly. But it's my recollection that this fully captures what he was intending.
Speaker 0
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Understood. Any question from my Yes. Councillor Peterson?
Speaker 3
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Thank you. Mr. Azar, thank you for the presentation on this. I did see that we also made the change to include trivia and karaoke, was something that was brought forward by Board fourteen businesses, so I appreciate that. But the one question I actually do have is, and forgive me if this was something that was presented prior to the meeting, the public hearing last week, it says in the very next sentence, if a bar or restaurant and it's crossed out and says facility includes incidental entertainment, do you by any chance know why we did the switch from bar or restaurant to facility and what does facility include?
Speaker 2
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So that was that was in this ordinance from the time it was introduced as far as I can recall And so a facility could mean some sort of other some sort of other use. It So if you read the the definition of incidental entertainment, originally there was that that first sentence that said, background music provided at a bar or restaurant. The way it's written now where it says incidental entertainment is background music, that would be something that would be allowed at any number of of different uses. So for example, if you had an office use and you wanted to have an office party with incidental entertainment, this is explicitly or not explicitly but implicitly saying that that it could happen there. So I think the point being that virtually any use would be okay to have incidental entertainment.
Speaker 2
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So a public building for example like City Hall, if you wanted to have amplified music here, we would consider that to be incidental entertainment as long as it meets all of the standards.
Speaker 3
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Thank you. So to confirm, it's bar or restaurant and any other facility, for lack of a better word, any other building that's going to be amplifying music or sound?
Speaker 2
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Yeah. Or or providing or providing entertainment that that fits the definition of incidental entertainment, trivia, karaoke. Again, some something that's intended to be to be contained within a facility where the volume is is low and there's no cover charge and so forth.
Speaker 3
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Okay. Thank you very much.
Speaker 0
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Thank you, Councillor Petersen. Anybody else? Hearing none. So it's close to the public. We had the public hearing last week.
Speaker 0
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We had a public hearing. We advertised the public hearing. Over 60 people actually testified. We were here for over four hours. Well, everyone that was here had an interest of being here.
Speaker 0
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We allow them to speak. Anyway, so Bob, we'll be making the motion on making the amendment that As you prefer?
Speaker 2
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Yes. As I read into the record. So
Speaker 0
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I'll entertain a motion to amend as directed by mister Bob Eza. Is made by councilor Peterson, second by councilor Harris. Bob, would you mind stating exactly how you want this to be worded?
Speaker 2
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Yes. So starting with the sentence that begins with, this is in the definition of incidental entertainment starting with the sentence that begins with if incidental entertainment, it should now read, if incidental entertainment is provided as a live music performance, it shall cease at 09:00PM Sunday through Thursday and 11:00PM on Friday and Saturday as well as on the Sunday night preceding a city recognized holiday that falls on a Monday period. And then the next sentence starts with capital p, prerecorded music, etcetera.
Speaker 0
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Thank thank you, mister Aeser. All in favor, aye. Opposed? Do you guys have it? Thank you.
Speaker 0
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Okay. Thank you so much. And so after hearing from SDPC policy team, our colleagues, after hearing from the public, we made the necessary adjustments as we move forward to enacting a new policy when it pertains to entertainment, one that it's up to date. We need to do that every so often. And we aim to make it more business friendly, but also making it more safe.
Speaker 0
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So with that said, I'll entertain a motion to approve.
Speaker 1
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As amended.
Speaker 0
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As amended. Made by Councillor Peterson.
Speaker 3
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Second.
Speaker 0
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Second by Councillor Harris. All in favor, aye. Opposed? Opposed. The ayes have it.
Speaker 0
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Thank you. Motion is item number one is approved. Thank you. Madam clerk, item number two.
Speaker 1
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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 regulations regarding cannabis establishments.
Speaker 0
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Thank you. Bob, you wanna give a brief, again, understanding of what this item number two is? You know, it it's just the alignment and Yes. Taking the steps necessary to correspond with the state legislation that was drafted around this.
Speaker 2
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That that's exactly right, mister chairman. The the the way our ordinance had been written after the state law changed was done without knowing what the ultimate regulations were gonna be for licensing cannabis facilities. And, the way that our ordinance was written is that you needed to get state approval before you got city approval. But the way they wrote their regulations is that you need to get city approval first before you get state approval. So, these rules simply change it to reverse the order of operations and it's it's really to ensure compliance with state law so that if we have applicants, they're allowed to go through the state process without any hitches.
Speaker 0
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Thank you, Mr. Azar. Any questions from committee members? Hearing none, I'll entertain a motion to approve. Motion made by Councillor Peterson, second by Councillor Manhares.
Speaker 0
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All in favor, aye. Opposed? The ayes have it. Thank you. Item number two is approved.
Speaker 0
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And being that there is no further business in the calendar, I'd like to turn a motion to adjourn. Made by Councillor Peterson, second by Councillor Harris. All in favor, aye. Opposed, the ayes have it. This meeting is adjourned.