Roberta Houllahan’s letter to the editor in today’s Providence Journal strongly conveys the overwhelming public consensus against mixed-use condos and hotels that was expressed at June’s waterfront charrette and September’s charrette follow-up meeting:
How many more times do we need citizen consensus at another charette/charade regarding the Providence waterfront before city Planning Director Thomas E. Deller and the Planning Department get it? Community consensus on Sept. 24 at the Allens Avenue focus group was the same as in June: industrial use only.
The elephant not in the room, developer Patrick T. Conley (Google for background), ducked out of Roger Williams Park Casino just before most people came downstairs for the focus groups. His rehabbed waterfront building was prominently displayed as an example of the mixed-use zoning (for yet more condos, shops, hotels, etc.) desired by Mayor Cicilline and Mr. Deller.
What influence does Mr. Conley (one vote) have on city planning over a consensus of many citizens (many votes) at these charettes?
Mr. Deller said many people would disagree with me regarding citizen consensus on the waterfront for industrial use only. Who are these people and what are their agendas? They and Mr. Conley obviously were not at the table. Do they see Southside Providence as another area of the city to gentrify for their own gain?
I suggest that the Rhode Island Waterfront Alliance consult with the Rhode Island Service Alliance to invest in and expand training programs like Youth Build to bring Southside minority youth into mainstream employment.
I am tired of my taxes supporting developers of unoccupied condos for the rich.
ROBERTA HOULLAHAN
Providence
This past Wednesday at the Roger Williams Park Casino, the Providence Planning Department held a follow-up to the city’s 4-day June Waterfront Charrette. About 100 people attended the meeting to view a final presentation of the city’s waterfront study and to voice their opinions during question and answer and breakout sessions.
As during June’s charrette, participants expressed almost unanimous support for maintaining industrial zoning to protect Providence’s working waterfront. One attendee, who represents property along Allens Ave., even noted that the city’s mixed-use vision for the area has scared away industrial businesses that have wanted to locate here. From the Providence Journal’s coverage of the meeting:
However it turns out, this debate has already cost the city business, said commercial real estate agent Frank Jacques, who has been trying to market the 12-acre lot at 434 Allens Ave.
He said that in the last year, he had two businesses lined up — “written offers, with deposits” — looking to use the property, before they both pulled out.
The zoning debate is what made them run, he said.
“The comments we received, unsolicited, is that they didn’t want to get embroiled in the debate we’re having right now — rezoning.”
South Side community organization DARE also released a resolution expressing support for protecting area jobs by maintaining industrial zoning.
Thank you to everyone who was able to attend to support Providence’s working waterfront!
Media Coverage
09-26-08 “Five Questions With: Thom Deller,” Providence Business News
09-25-08 “Providence lays out options for uses of waterfront,” Providence Journal
09-24-08 “VIDEO: Tug-of-War Continues Over Plans for Providence Waterfront,” ABC 6
Follow-Up Meeting Photos
Direction Action for Rights & Equality (DARE), which represents South Side community residents, has released a resolution calling for the city to maintain industrial zoning for Providence’s working waterfront:
On September 22, 2008, the Board of Directors of Direct Action for Rights and Equality (DARE) resolved to send the following message to the Providence Department of Planning and the Providence City Plan Commission:
- Because DARE’s members have clearly stated that our community needs well-paying jobs with good benefits which are attainable by people of varied education levels;
- Because DARE’s members have clearly stated that our community, especially the South Side, is endangered by gentrification and displacement; and
- Because DARE’s members have clearly stated their concerns about the effects of high energy costs on our community’s ability to survive,
the Board of Directors of DARE opposes any attempts to re-zone Providence’s industrial waterfront as a “mixed-use” zone. We do not want condos, marinas, restaurants, shops, and/or office buildings to be allowed there. We want the City of Providence to do everything in its power to encourage the success of waterfront industry and to bring in more good jobs, especially “green jobs” and jobs for Providence residents. We also urge the Department of Planning to adopt the attached principles of people-centered, community-controlled development.
Download the complete planning study.
To build on the extensive feedback from port experts and the public at June’s Waterfront Charrette, the Providence Working Waterfront Alliance commissioned the planning specialists at the Horsley Witten Group to develop planning and zoning recommendations to both preserve existing waterfront jobs AND provide a flexible platform for future economic growth.
Planning Study Conclusions:
- The Port of Providence is a unique regional resource due to its recently dredged 40-ft deep-water channel, oil storage capacity, and significant number of high paying blue collar jobs.
- The potential for residential or hotel uses in waterfront industrial areas creates a sense of unpredictability that serves as a disincentive for new industrial development or the expansion of existing operations.
- Working waterfront and industrial business along the Allens Avenue corridor are physically and visually isolated from adjacent neighborhoods.
- Experts from other ports have emphasized the need to definitively separate residential and hotel uses from working waterfront industrial areas.
- Language in the Interim Comprehensive Plan attempting to balance the presence of residential, hotel, commercial, and heavy industrial uses would create a counter-productive situation.
Suggested Amendments to the Interim Comprehensive Plan:
1. Extending the existing Jobs District, which prohibits all residential and hotel uses, from ProvPort northward to include the entire working waterfront and industrial area along Allens Avenue.
2. Changing the Proposed Land Use Map’s current “Waterfront Mixed Use/General” area to a “Waterfront Mixed Use/Industrial” area that prohibits residential and hotel uses, but maintains flexibility by encouraging the establishment of criteria for the inclusion of lower intensity non-residential uses.
Suggested Amendments to the Providence Zoning Ordinance:
Create an Industrial/Manufacturing Overlay District (IMOD):
This overlay zone is intended to provide heightened protection to those areas in the City where significant levels of commercial, manufacturing, or industrial activities take place. These areas represent unusual local and regional economic opportunities for high intensity uses due to established land use patterns and/or proximity to transportation infrastructure. Regulations imposed on these areas will be designed to facilitate new development, redevelopment and expansion of heavy commercial, manufacturing and industrial uses by limiting and, in some cases, eliminating the potential for incompatible uses.
Modeled after Baltimore’s successful Maritime Industrial Zoning Overlay District, the IMOD would protect Providence working waterfront and industrial businesses from incompatible residential and hotel uses. While restrictive, the IMOD would allow for certain non-residential uses so long as they follow development criteria designed to minimize interference with existing industrial businesses.
Download the complete planning study.
This week’s Providence Business News features an article about the “National Strategy for the Marine Transportation System,” a new study released by the U.S. Committee on the Maritime Transportation System. The report outlines the tremendous projected growth in international shipping volumes and the need to invest in our nation’s marine transportation infrastructure.
As the PBN’s article details, Rhode Island could benefit from investing in our ports, but a more coordinated policy is needed.
Standing out near the end of the dock at Promet Marine Services on a recent late summer day, Vice President Joel H. Cohen pointed to a semi-abandoned property sitting a few hundred yards south. The privately owned site includes two brick buildings on 6.5 acres that’s mostly vacant, Cohen said.
It could become a prime spot to draw economic development in Rhode Island, he said. With an investment of about $30 million, a new pier and industrial business could be added, he said. Such an investment would require municipal support, he said.
“Anything on the waterfront requires a partnership with the federal government, but it [also] requires direction on the part of the state and the municipality,” Cohen said. “And it requires private enterprise to pull the whole thing together.”
[Keith] Stokes’ [Newport County] Chamber is a supporter of the Waterfront Alliance. He said the way Providence handles waterfront zoning could have regional impacts, affecting the economy and local business.
“What we’re really trying to articulate is there needs to be ongoing support for working waterfronts across Narragansett Bay,” said Stokes, who also serves on the boards of both RIEDC and the Quonset Development Corporation.
In Portsmouth, where 42 acres are set to be “protected” waterfront industry in perpetuity, Stokes made it clear that supporting the maritime transportation industry with services will be increasingly important to Rhode Island in the future.
“By the very fact that more people are living on the waterfront, it has changed not only the use, but also the value” of that land, Stokes said. So it’s become either “unaffordable or near to impossible” to run a true working waterfront.
“If we didn’t [decide to rezone that land], we would loose this very vital [maritime] industry,” Stokes said. “What I think is the last true manufacturing industry in the state.”
Save the date.
On Wednesday, September 24th, from 5:30pm - 8:00pm at the Roger Williams Park Casino, the city will be holding a follow-up to the Providence Waterfront Charrette held this past June. The city’s consultant, Ninigret Partners, will be presenting additional information about development scenarios, economic conditions, and transportation considerations.
There will also be a public input session where you can voice your support for protecting Providence’s working waterfront from incompatible mixed uses like residential condos and hotels.
What: Waterfront Charrette Follow-Up Meeting
When: Wednesday, September 24th, from 5:30pm - 8:00pm
5:30 - Doors open
6:00 - Planning process overview
6:10 - Waterfront study presentation
6:50 - Questions
7:00 - Breakout groups for public input
8:00 - Wrap-up
Where: Roger Williams Park Casino (1000 Elmwood Avenue, Providence, RI 02907)
Flyer
The U.S. Committee on the Maritime Transportation System has come out with an interesting report about the tremendous economic impact of our nation’s ports and the need to invest in our Marine Transportation System (MTS) infrastructure. A few highlights:
The U.S. MTS is complex, decentralized, and composed of an array of interdependent components that link with our country’s navigable waterways, ports, harbors and landside access points. Total freight volumes in the U.S. are expected to increase by 50 percent by the year 2020 while international cargo container traffic is expected to double from 1998 levels, pushing the capacity limits of our ports and waterways. Significant rises in commuter ferry operations, recreational boating traffic and cruise ship operations are also forecast. — press release
Capacity expansion in key cargo ports is critical for economic growth. Even more than other parts of the Nation’s transportation system, marine transportation is a joint private- and public-sector enterprise. The private sector owns and operates the vessels and most of the terminals; it is responsible for the commerce that flows through the system. The public sector provides much of the infrastructure at ports and on the waterways; it keeps the system functioning in support of commerce in a safe, secure, and environmentally sound manner. Therefore, expansion of MTS capacity requires significant collaboration among Federal, State, and local governments, the formation of public-private partnerships, and efforts to improve the efficiency of the system. — executive summary
With a 40ft deep water channel and direct rail and highway access, the Port of Providence is ideally situated to take advantage of the growth opportunities outlined in this study. The Providence Working Waterfront Alliance stands ready to work with our city, state, and congressional officials to form the public-private partnerships needed to build capacity in our port.
This week’s Providence Business News has an excellent article about the recently completed $60 million Providence Harbor maintenance dredge. Thanks to the project — which restored the port’s federally designated channel to a depth of 40ft — the Port of Providence is experiencing tremendous growth:
R.I. Coastal Resources Management Council’s Dredging Coordinator Dan Goulet said the state contributed about $10.5 million to the more than $60 million project. And he said he’s seen evidence of a return on that investment. The deeper channel has been attracting new business, including Motiva Enterprises LLC in ProvPort.
“I see a whole lot more ships, which is great,” Goulet said, adding that at least one East Providence waterfront industry, Wilkes-Barre Pier, is planning a dredging project because “now they can bring larger ships, during all tides, up into the harbor. So the opportunity that this project has opened up for the state is enormous and the economic benefits, and not just for Providence, have high potential.”
“I see a whole lot more ships, which is great,” Goulet said, adding that at least one East Providence waterfront industry, Wilkes-Barre Pier, is planning a dredging project because “now they can bring larger ships, during all tides, up into the harbor. So the opportunity that this project has opened up for the state is enormous and the economic benefits, and not just for Providence, have high potential.”
An editorial in Sunday’s Providence Journal argues strongly for maintaining the existing industrial zoning along Providence’s working waterfront:
As we have long argued, there are plenty of other places for developers to cash in by building condominiums and to hold festivals and concerts. What makes this land special is that it hosts a working port — with hundreds of high-paying jobs with good benefits that the region so desperately needs, while stimulating economic activity throughout the region through trade. It would be folly for the city and state to threaten this vital economic engine at a time when Rhode Island needs all the high-paying blue-collar jobs it can get. Anything other than maritime use is a waste of valuable land and the millions of dollars that taxpayers spent dredging the shipping channel.
Thank you to the Marine Affairs Institute at Roger Williams University School of Law for inviting the Providence Working Waterfront Alliance along for a tour of Providence Harbor on July 9th. Below are a few pictures from our beautiful and educational day out on the harbor:
The Block Island ferry was recently involved in a minor collision with another ship. The ferry was immediately taken to Promet Marine in the Port of Providence for emergency repairs. This is a perfect example of the interdependence between working waterfront businesses in the port and the region’s maritime economy.
Exploring the history and future of Narragansett Bay
July 1-August 21
with Gallery Receptions & Entertainment
July 17 and August 21 5:00-9:00pm
The exhibit includes the work of Del-Bouree Bach, Harley Bartlett, Richard Benjamin, Joan Bogosian, John Cucco, David Everett, Mark Freedman, Lisa Goddard, Richard Harrington, Bruce G. Hooke, Christopher Long, Meg Kerr, Salvator Mancini, Tom Martino, Peter Nievert, Barbara Pagh, Arthur Richter, Lila Samson, Anthony Tomaselli, Denyse Wilhelm.
There will also be Archival Photographs and Artifacts from Save the Bay, URI Graduate School of Oceanography, URI Narragansett Bay Coastal Institute, URI CELS Fisheries Program, Ft Adams Trust, Newport Naval War College Museum, RI Commercial Fisheries Center, RI Commercial Fishermen’s Association, RI Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance, RI Shellfishermen’s Association, Roger Williams University Shellfish Restoration Program, Providence Working Waterfront Alliance, Promet Marine, Sprague Energy, Herreshoff Museum, Duffies Tavern, Quonsett Development Corporation, RI Department of Environmental Management, City of Providence Archive.
The Gallery Night Reception on July 17th will include music by Fishing with Finnegan and a book signing with Richard Benjamin.
The exhibit explores Narragansett Bay as a source of transportation, food, work, and recreation from prehistory to the future some of the contemporary environmental concerns facing the Bay.
URI Feinstein Providence Campus Gallery is located in the 1st and 2nd floor lobby
80 Washington Street, Providence RI 02903
Hours:
M-TH 9:00 am - 9:00 pm
F&S 9:00 am - 4:00 pm
(closed Sunday and Holidays)
For information call Steven Pennell at 401-277-5206
On June 11th, the Providence Waterfront Charrette hosted a session on “Waterfront Industry Trends,” which included presentations by experts on short sea shipping and other emerging shipping techniques. Below are renderings of what a short sea operation might look like in the Port of Providence. The images depict a roll-on-roll off operation as well as a transload lift-on-lift-off facility.
Providence Working Waterfront Alliance member Sprague Energy currently operates a transload lift-on-lift off operation in Portland, Maine. If properly protected and promoted, the Port of Providence would be well situated to attract a similar operation.
Last week’s 4-day Providence Waterfront Charrette proved to be an excellent forum for educating city officials and the public about the value of working waterfronts and how to best protect these resources through appropriate zoning. Highlights from the charrette:
- Near unanimous opposition from invited experts and neighborhood organizations to allowing residential condominiums along the waterfront. This sentiment was perfectly captured by the Providence Journal headline, “Housing on city waterfront rejected at charrette.”
- An economic impact study conducted by FXM Associates found that just 7 water-dependent and industrial businesses operating in the Allens Ave. area are responsible for $294,000,000 in annual business sales and employ 372 workers with average salary and health benefits of roughly $60,000 per year.
- Planners from Baltimore, Boston, and Portland all explained that “mixed use” does not mean placing condos and hotels right next to water-dependent industrial users. Instead, each of these ports has created extensive areas devoted exclusively to marine industrial uses. These areas are then buffered from more mixed use neighborhoods where residential, commercial office, and retail are encouraged. The best example of this is Baltimore where their inner-harbor is mixed use, but their 1,000+ acre outer harbor area is reserved exclusively for marine industrial uses.
- Widespread support for the creation of a Rhode Island Port Authority or similar entity to protect and promote Rhode Island’s ports. This entity could also help develop policies (like a gross tonnage tax) to help compensate host communities for housing port infrastructure that benefits the entire region.
- Near unanimous support for developing the former Shooters property along the India Point waterfront as a public recreation destination, not a residential condo tower.
Media Coverage
Local Blog Coverage
Charrette Photos
Thank you to everyone who was able to attend to support Providence’s working waterfront!
Providence’s “Waterfront Charrette” begins today at 9am at Johnson & Wales Harborside campus (directions). You can download the schedule here. Please come out and show your support for Providence’s working waterfront!
Today’s Providence Journal also has an article previewing the charrette:
The greatest focus will be on the city’s industrial port area on Allens Avenue north of Thurbers Avenue, where the city is considering changing the zoning to mixed-use to allow condos.
This evening, a consultant hired by the city will present the results of its economic study projecting the dollar-value impacts of four waterfront development scenarios.
In anticipation of that report, the Providence Working Waterfront Alliance, a group of Allens Avenue industrial businesses, commissioned a study by FXM Associates, a consultant based in Mattapoisett, Mass., that focuses on seven of those businesses.
The study found that the companies’ annual total sales average $294 million. They employ 372 workers, 90 percent of them full time. The report states that the seven businesses paid $716,371 in property taxes to the city, $546,000 in sales taxes to the state, and $4.2 million in excise taxes and fees.
The study concludes it would take 1,400 new condos or apartments, inhabited by new city residents, to replace the jobs lost if the seven industrial businesses closed.
Brothers Joel and David Cohen, the owners of Promet Marine Services, an Allens Avenue shipyard, have been the loudest voices in The Working Waterfront Alliance. They contend that condos in the area would be a death knell for the industrial businesses.
“The mayor would have you believe that everybody would love to live next to a heavy industrial shipyard,” Joel Cohen said.
“They’d complain us out of business. It would be death by a thousand paper cuts,” David Cohen said.
Initially, the Cohens said, they tried to convince the city that mixed-use zoning would be a bad idea. Now, they have shifted their focus to the court of public opinion and to state lawmakers because, they say, the city is not listening. Mayor David N. Cicilline, the brothers say, has made up his mind.
“We have to convince the general public, and people within the State House,” Joel Cohen said.
