Providence City Council Meeting |Committee on Ordinaces |April 29th, 2026
Call to Order and Roll Call
Chairman Pedro Espino called the meeting to order and introduced the committee members and staff present. The clerk called the roll, establishing a quorum with four members present and one absent.
Ordinance adding parcels to Historic Overlay District (Item 1)
The committee discussed an ordinance to add certain parcels in the Wanskuk neighborhood to the Historic Overlay District. After hearing presentations from the planning department and public testimony, the committee voted to approve the item.
Ordinance amending zoning relating to entertainment (Item 2)
The committee considered an ordinance to amend the zoning regulations regarding entertainment. The item was continued to a future meeting on May 13, 2024, without being heard.
Petition to permit temporary parking lot principal use (Item 3)
The committee reviewed a petition from Brown University Health to allow temporary parking lots as a principal use during construction projects. The petition was approved with an amendment limiting construction material storage to less than 50% of the lot area.
Petition requesting a zone change for 34 Temple Street and 13 Porter Avenue (Item 4)
The committee discussed a petition for a zone change to facilitate the conversion of a historic mill building into medical offices. Following presentations and discussion regarding potential tenants and construction impacts, the committee voted to approve the zone change.
Adjournment
With no further business on the agenda, a motion to adjourn was made and seconded. The meeting was officially adjourned by the chairman.
Speaker 0
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Good evening, everyone, and welcome to committee and ordinance. I'm councilman and chairman Pedro Espino. I'd like to welcome you all here. Today, it is Wednesday, April 29, and the time is 05:44. To my left, we have our city solicitor, and also with us is mister Bob Basa from Department of Planning and Development along with my colleagues here, councilman Royals, councilwoman Harris, councilman Peterson.
Speaker 0
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Thank you all again for being here. Madam clerk, please call the roll.
Speaker 1
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Chairman Espino?
Speaker 0
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Present.
Speaker 1
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Vice chairwoman Shelly Peterson? Present. Councilwoman Mary Kay Harris? Present. Councilman Oscar Vargas is absent.
Speaker 1
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Councilor Justin Royes?
Speaker 2
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Present.
Speaker 1
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You have four present, one absent. You have a quorum.
Speaker 0
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Thank you. And, I'll just make a quick notation for those that I didn't get an opportunity to speak to, which is regarding item number two which will not be heard tonight. It will be continued. But I'll explain more when we get to that item. Madam clerk, if you would please, item number one.
Speaker 1
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Item number one. An ordinance in amendment of chapter 27 of the court of ordinances of the city of Providence entitled the City Of Providence zoning ordinances approved November 2434 has amended to add certain parcels to the Historic Overlay District.
Speaker 0
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Thank you. And, with that, we have mister Bob Azer. Mister Azer, please, if you would please present on this item.
Speaker 3
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Good afternoon, Mr. Chair, members of the committee. Robert Azar, Deputy Planning Director. Thank you. This is a this is an ordinance that was proposed by your very own councilman, Justin Royas, and this would create a new historic district in the Wanskuk neighborhood in the 4th Ward.
Speaker 3
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This is an area that is associated with the Wanskuk Mill. And there has been an effort led by residents in the area and the Providence Preservation Society and supported by the councilman to create this historic district. They underwent a long process of evaluating the properties for their historic merit of community engagement to property owners to educate them as to what it means to to have a property in a historic district. And they came forward with this. They they also worked with staff at the planning department to come forward with this petition.
Speaker 3
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And the city planning commission reviewed this, and they felt that this was appropriate. You can see in the package that that there are a number of people, property owners, who signed on to this. They felt that there was very strong support for this, and therefore, they are recommending in favor of this ordinance.
Speaker 0
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Thank you, mister Azar. Committee members, councilman Royes.
Speaker 2
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Thank you, chair. I just I don't have a question for mister Azar, but I just wanna echo a sentiment he shared, which is that this was a it really started off as sort of like a really grassroots neighbor to neighbor sort of engagement effort to to make, this local historic district happen. And then I eventually took over and, and put that into an ordinance. But the neighbors on these streets, as mister Azar was saying, had initially been made aware of something like this through the efforts, and I wanna give credit to him, Kevin England, who really led the the effort on on this. And so I I fully support this.
Speaker 2
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I think it's overdue for a local historic district in Wanskuk, and, I'm just, proud of of how this all came along. It took some time, but we're here. And so I hope that my, fellow colleagues on this committee would support this. Thank you.
Speaker 0
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Thank you. Question for mister Asia. Councilor Peterson?
Speaker 4
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Not a question, more of a comment. I I was there at the beginning of the engagement of all of this and when I attended one of councilman Royes' meetings and he spoke about what the what the community was asking for and I wanted to just echo my support and sentiment my sentiment of support, excuse me, and say that I think this is a wonderful opportunity for this really wonderful part of the North End and let's hope that we whenever there's an opportunity for more support in other parts that are designated over by by the Wanskuk mills, we can include them as well. Thank you. Good job.
Speaker 0
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Anyone else? Thank you. Mr. Azer, thank you so much.
Speaker 3
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Thank you.
Speaker 0
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And now we'll call those who have signed up to speak on this item. On item number one with mister Kevin England. If you come up, please. And as Kevin comes up, I'll entertain a motion to enter into the record the CPC letter, which is item one.
Speaker 5
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Second. It's
Speaker 0
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made by councilor Leroy, second by councilwoman Harris. All in favor, aye. Aye. Opposed? The ayes have it.
Speaker 0
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Thank you. Good
Speaker 2
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evening.
Speaker 6
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Good evening. Kevin. Marissa Brown was not able to make it to this meeting from Providence Preservation, so I'm filling in for her to some extent. I'm glad to hear the support, and it was a long effort. But I wanna try to add some context to the local historic district.
Speaker 6
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Lanskok is a national historic district. This is to form an overlay for our local historic district. But when you look at the overlay, it's a flat piece of paper. This is not about a flat piece of paper. And some people look at historic districts and say, okay, there's a lot of old houses.
Speaker 6
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They're all over the place. That's true, but that's not what this is about either. The easiest way to conceive of this, I don't know if any of you have been to Old Sturbridge Village in Sturbridge, Mass. It's a living museum in the mid eighteen hundreds, the same time period as what we're talking about with this village. It has trades, church, meeting house, a lot of old homes just like we have, and I did all the updates for the architecture for the local historic district, so I I know we have old homes.
Speaker 6
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And it had mills. But there's a difference, and the local historic district has all of those. The Wanskip Mill, Roger Williams Chapel to the North, and actually Roman Catholic church built at the same time to the West, Saint Edward's. A meeting house in the South, and a series of homes that were built from the early eighteen hundreds through, oh, probably 1960. But there are three major differences.
Speaker 6
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Old Sturbridge Village International Museum draws tourists all over the world. It never existed. Old Sturbridge Village was created by taking buildings and trades from all over New England and moved. They were donated and moved and the place was recreated. The Wanskell Local Historic District is real.
Speaker 6
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It's existed in the exact same way that it exists today from the early eighteen hundreds. The second difference out of the three is that Wanskuk has been continuously occupied during that entire time. No one lives at Old Village. There's interpreters, there's some historians, there's maintenance people, but they don't live there. They never had a community at Old Sturbridge Village because it never existed.
Speaker 6
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And the third difference, brings some historic context to this, Wanskok is a very good example of the difference between a Rhode Island village of the period from Massachusetts. At Old Sturbridge Village, the meeting house where they held government meetings just like this was the church that's at one end of the the village, and then the trades were around that and the old houses. At the Wanskut Local Historic District, the church is in the North, Roger Williams Chapel, meeting houses in the South. And the reason for that is that Roger Williams had a firm belief that there should be a strict separation of church and state. And so villages in Rhode Island of the period were built that way.
Speaker 6
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They weren't connected. You did not have a government meeting in a church. It just did not happen, nor did you have church services in a government meeting house. The interesting thing is that all those buildings still exist for now. Early last year, we had one, not one of the older ones, it was early nineteen hundreds, nineteen o four, that was demolished.
Speaker 6
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It was demolished so there could be a secondary exit for the apartments at the Wanskip Mill. I don't have any argument with that for safety reasons they should have it. Whether the building had to be knocked down or not, I don't know because we were never part of the conversation, never had a voice. And the funny thing that wraps the whole thing up is that that secondary exit has been blocked with Jersey barriers for over a year. So I don't even know why there has to be a secondary exit if you can't get out.
Speaker 6
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But not having a voice and not having input into how things are demolished, especially in a historic district, is one of the reasons that brought the community together to form this local historic district. We were national, but unless it's national funds, you don't get a voice. So in summary, what we're dealing with is an overlay for a living museum that's called the Wanskuk Local Historic District. And I'd like to urge everybody to consider that when making your decision. And I wanna thank all of you for your time and hope you have a great rest of the week.
Speaker 6
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Better weather. No snowstorms.
Speaker 0
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Thank you, mister Abraham.
Speaker 6
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Thank you very much.
Speaker 0
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Thank you. All right. So, no one else signed up for this item. Any comments from our committee members before we close? All right.
Speaker 0
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Hearing none. All right. So, I'll entertain a motion to close this public hearing.
Speaker 4
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So moved. Second.
Speaker 0
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Second. Councilor Peterson, second by councilor Moroya, and councilor Harris. All in favor, aye. Opposed? The ayes have it.
Speaker 0
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This is public hearing, and item number one is closed. And with that said, I'll entertain a motion to approve. Second. Made by Counselor Peterson and second by Counselor Harris. All in favor, aye.
Speaker 0
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Aye. Opposed? The ayes have it. Item number one is approved. Congratulations.
Speaker 0
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Madam clerk, item number two.
Speaker 1
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Item number two, an ordinance in amendment of chapter 27 of the court of ordinances of the city Of Providence entitled the City Of Providence zoning ordinance approved November 2434, has amended to change articles two and twelve relating to entertainment.
Speaker 0
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Thank you, madam clerk. And, I'll entertain a motion to enter into the record letter of testimony made by Councilor Peterson, second by Councilman Harris. All in favor, aye. Opposed, the ayes have it. And, this is the item that I said at the beginning that we are not going to hear tonight.
Speaker 0
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So, instead, we are going to continue it to a date certain of May 13 at 05:30. So, I'll entertain a motion to continue this item to May 13 at 05:30. Upon the rise of the regular committee and ordinance. Made by councilor Peterson, second by councilwoman Harris. All in favor, aye.
Speaker 0
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Aye. Opposed? The ayes have it. And item number two will be continued. Madam Clerk, item number three, please.