Patrick T. Conley’s “Journal, city fumble ‘wilting waterfront’” (Sept. 30) Providence Journal letter to the editor contains a number of factually incorrect and misleading statements.
First, no adult entertainment establishment has ever been a member of the Providence Working Waterfront Alliance, nor has any such establishment ever contributed one cent to our efforts to preserve a vital marine-industrial neighborhood.
Second, Mr. Conley’s claim that “no new marine industrial business has been created on the waterfront since 1974” is incorrect. J. Goodison Company is a full-service marine repair contractor which employs 19 people. J. Goodison has partnered with Promet Marine for the past three years, and primarily operates from Promet’s pier. As a federal HUBZone contractor, J. Goodison has helped attract numerous Coast Guard repair contracts, and has hired and trained many employees from economically depressed areas of Providence.
Finally, it is a serious stretch to argue that Promet, a water-dependent marine repair shipyard is somehow not in compliance with the city’s W-3, Port/Maritime Industrial zoning. To quote from the definition of the W-3 district: “This zone is intended to promote the Port of Providence and related maritime industrial and commercial uses within the areas of Providence’s waterfront; to protect the waterfront as a resource for water-dependent industrial uses; and to facilitate the renewed use of a vital waterfront.”
Unlike Mr. Conley, the Providence Working Waterfront Alliance is committed to protecting and promoting our waterfront as a resource for water-dependent industrial businesses and the good paying blue collar jobs they provide.
The Providence Working Waterfront Alliance
On September 24th, the Obama Administration’s Ocean Policy Task Force, charged with developing a national ocean policy framework, visited Providence to hear about coastal issues affecting New England. At a kick-off press conference held at India Point Park, NOAA administrator Jane Lubchenco recognized Providence’s “thriving working waterfront.”
NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco
Later in the day, the Task Force held a public hearing at the Rhode Island Convention Center which was attended by more than 250 people. Providence Working Waterfront Alliance member Elizabeth Hernberg of Sprague Energy testified before the Task Force about the critical need to maintain waterways like Providence’s recently dredged 40ft federal channel:
My name is Elizabeth Hernberg and I am with Sprague Energy Corp. Sprague is an energy supplier based in Portsmouth, NH and serves the New England market with a variety of distillates, residual fuels, bio fuels and other. We own and operate nearly 8 million barrels petroleum storage in 17 terminals on the East Coast for direct and indirect supply of home heating oil, commercial and industrial uses.
My message today relates to the life-line that the water provides Sprague not only for Providence, but also the rest of our terminal network. As you may know, this region lacks refining assets as well as pipelines, and therefore the only avenue for petroleum product supply is either over land or by sea. The vast majority of our product comes by vessel, as is the case with most of our regional industry.
In Providence, we are fortunate to have a natural asset on the waterfront with a very deep draft. This has been preserved, as the Army Core of Engineers invested tens of millions of dollars to dredge this area five or so years ago. Sprague spent about $1 million more to dredge our own berth providing over 35 ft draft.
In your discussions on Ocean Policy, please keep this unique feature of New England, and Providence, and its heavy reliance on marine vessels to supply the petroleum needs of this region in mind.
The Providence Working Waterfront Alliance would like to thank the Ocean Policy Task Force for visiting Providence to hear about issues affecting our ports and working waterfronts.
Today’s Providence Journal has a very strong editorial arguing for maintaining and investing in Providence’s Allens Ave working waterfront:
Last month, Patrick Conley threw in the towel on plans to develop a hotel/condo/marina project on Allens Avenue, and that is good news. The people of Rhode Island need Providence’s waterfront for other things than hotels and deluxe condos. Our leaders should be pushing for the full development of all of the state’s ports, encouraging marine-based industry, trade and the creation of high-paying jobs.
The temptation to cash in on waterfront real estate for quick property-tax bucks is hard for cities to resist, but there are far-thinking leaders around the country who recognize how important ports are to their constituents’ economic prospects. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, for example, recently reversed course on turning the Brooklyn piers into high-priced residential real estate. He also supported the construction of a multi-billion dollar freight tunnel under New York Harbor to ease congestion on the city’s stressed rail infrastructure. Virginia and South Carolina, meanwhile, are moving aggressively to reap money and jobs when the economy turns around and bigger ships start moving through the widened Panama Canal to the East Coast.
Rhode Island has precious little industrial-zoned waterfront left. Condos in theory might turn a profit for developers there, as along the East Providence waterfront, where much of the region’s heating oil is brought in. But, as Mr. Conley was perhaps forced to conclude, the market cannot support much more fancy condo development for the foreseeable future. It is becoming ever clearer that a key to strengthening Rhode Island’s economy lies in developing the ports.
Mr. Conley’s sobering realization may have yet to penetrate City Hall, where he hopes to find a buyer of his five-acre property. Mayor Cicilline is still promoting a mixed-use commercial and residential zoning scheme around Conley’s property. This makes little sense, given the vital need to revive Rhode Island’s economy and protect the high-paying jobs along Allens Avenue. Moreover, the state’s taxpayers (who help prop up Providence through state aid) should not be expected to back ventures into iffy real-estate deals or obtaining property by eminent domain at the cost of good jobs and state tax revenue.
Providence, like New York, should be nurturing its working waterfront, recognizing that blue-collar jobs are precious commodities in today’s economy.
The Rhode Island General Assembly’s Port Development Commission has issued an interim report which notes:
Historically, Rhode Island was a leading maritime and trading center for the nation but over the past 5 or more decades, the State has fallen well behind others along the Atlantic coast. Despite a few bright spots and successes, many of the jobs and numerous other economic advantages and benefits associated with trade and maritime transportation have gravitated elsewhere. Yet the State’s geographic location, its coastal water resources and its land transportation connections and assets should enable Rhode Island both to resume its proper place in waterborne transportation and to regain the attendant economic and environmental benefits.
Several Providence Working Waterfront Alliance members including Providence Steamboat, Sprague Energy, and Promet Marine have testified before the commission, and we look forward to continuing to work with the commission to bring increased economic development opportunities to our ports and working waterfronts.
On Thursday, September 24th, the Obama Administration’s Ocean Energy Task Force, which is creating a new national ocean policy framework, will be holding a public meeting at the RI Convention Center from 4:00-7:00pm. Task force members and a panel of local experts will be discussing:
- ocean governance
- tribes
- fisheries/aquaculture
- recreational uses
- hazard resilience/climate change
- research/science
- ecosystem management/restoration
- ocean energy
The task force will also be taking public comments. This is a great opportunity to show your support for Rhode Island’s working waterfronts as well as other issues of importance to our marine economy. If you are unable to attend in person, you can submit written comments via the Task Force’s website.
Please attend the hearing to ensure that our national ocean policy recognizes the critical importance of maintaining our region’s ports and working waterfronts.
Providence Working Waterfront Alliance
info@providenceworkingwaterfront.org
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Obama Administration Officials to Hold Ocean Policy Task Force Public Meeting
in Providence, RI, on September 24, 2009
PROVIDENCE, RI – Obama Administration officials will hold their third regional Ocean Policy Task Force Public Meeting in Providence, Rhode Island on September 24, 2009. The Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force, led by White House Council on Environmental Quality Chair Nancy Sutley, consists of senior-level officials from Administration agencies, departments, and offices.
The Task Force is charged with developing a recommendation for a national policy that ensures protection, maintenance, and restoration of oceans, our coasts and the Great Lakes. It will also recommend a framework for improved stewardship, and effective coastal and marine spatial planning. The public is encouraged to attend and an opportunity for public comment will be provided.
Who: Chair Nancy Sutley, White House Council on Environmental Quality
Administrator Dr. Jane Lubchenco, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Vice Admiral David P. Pekoske, Vice Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard
Dr. Dora Hughes, Counselor for Science & Public Health, Department of Health and Human Services
Associate Deputy Secretary Laura Davis, Department of Interior
What: Ocean Policy Task Force Public Meeting
When: Thursday, September 24, 4:00-7:00 p.m.
Where: Rhode Island Convention Center
Ballrooms D & E
One Sabin Street
Providence, RI 02903
According to the Providence Journal, a City Council appointed commission has concluded that the city’s new animal shelter should not be built along the main road leading into the Port of Providence because “it would be too stressful an environment for the animals.”
But the council’s animal shelter commission argues that the new site poses a safety hazard for the animals, since it is in a flood zone and in a heavily industrialized area.
The high volume of truck traffic on the road where the shelter would be located, as well as two rail lines nearby, would contribute to a stressful environment for the animals, commission members say.
“I don’t think that anyone would argue that this is a utopia,” said State Veterinarian Scott N. Marshall, who is a member of the council commission. “It’s not a place you’d want to visit.”
E.J. Finocchio, president of the Rhode Island Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and another commission member, was even blunter: “You couldn’t find a worse site than what is being proposed. It’s just no place to have an animal shelter.”
There’s plenty of 24 hour truck traffic and loud noise all along the Allens Ave. industrial working waterfront, most of which is also in a flood zone. While the City Council’s commission doesn’t think the area is fit for animals, the Providence Planning Department is still pushing zoning changes that would allow for a hotel directly in-between an oil terminal, an asphalt plant, and a marine repair shipyard.
Apparently city officials believe that hotel guests will never complain about the loud noises, bright lights, and truck traffic that is typical in the marine-industrial neighborhood? Not fit for the animals but no problem for hotel guests?
This ABC 6 News story is a clear illustration of why residential condos/apartments and industrial uses don’t mix. For years CAPCO Steel has been parking their steel beam trailers along Harris Ave in what is a primarily light industrial neighborhood.
View Larger Map
Residents of the street’s only condo/apartment development, The 903, complained that the trailers were unsightly. Not surprisingly resident complaints won out over a long established industrial business which has even partnered with the city to train steel workers.
If condos or hotels are allowed in the middle of Providence’s industrial working waterfront on Allens Ave, similar complaints are guaranteed. Future residents surely wont want to hear the rumble of fuel oil trucks, see the glare from a welding torch, or smell hot asphalt being made.
Put simply, mixed-use does not mean locating residential/hotel uses directly next to heavy industrial uses. It’s a recipe for complaints, and industrial uses almost always end up on the losing end.
Today’s Providence Journal has an excellent editorial noting how New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg has changed course from once supposing waterfront condos to now pushing for the expansion of Brooklyn’s working waterfront and good blue collar jobs:
Nothing like a recession to inject a little realism into people’s thinking. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has reversed course on opposition to a $7 billion freight-rail tunnel under New York Harbor connecting Brooklyn and New Jersey. Not long ago, when New York financial-services industry was booming and the city coffers were flush, Mr. Bloomberg opposed the tunnel, and most other efforts to develop what remains of the city’s working waterfront. In those days, “condo to the max” was the rule. Water views command the highest rents.
Now many of those masters of the universe are gone, or are lying low. High-end condominiums are going begging and New York City is, like many other municipal and state governments, looking for replacement cash. Suddenly, gritty port activities don’t look so bad, in part, perhaps, because they aren’t so gritty.
Recently, the mayor went to the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal to announce a $165 million plan to revitalize the many under-used industrial buildings, with the aim of modernizing them to attract new industrial tenants. He hopes to boost blue-collar jobs in the city. What a change from the mania for loft-condo conversions of yore.
These initiatives indicate that New York’s famous economic-development instincts are still sharp. They will position the city to remain one of the world’s great ports.
New York is fortunate. Even though much of the waterfront near Manhattan has been rezoned as residential, there is still some left in the city, mostly in Brooklyn. Other cities aren’t so plentifully endowed with waterfront. They rezone it for condos and restaurants at their peril. A longshoreman makes a lot more than a bus boy or a maid.
Providence city officials should follow Mayor Bloomberg’s example and abandon plans for waterfront condos and hotels in the Port of Providence, and instead promote the expansion of marine-industrial businesses and the good blue collar jobs they provide.
WRNI political analyst Scott MacKay has a great On Politics Blog post about the need to protect Rhode Island’s working waterfronts as a state-wide resource:
Marine businesses that use the bay to repair boats, ship heating oil or unload fish are concerned about being gentrified out of their perches on the bay front by those who favor residential or recreational uses.
Legislation is pending before the state Senate that is designed to protect the state’s working waterfront, particularly the Port of Providence. At a hearing last week at the State House, boat repair, shipping and commercial fishing industry representatives told senators they need protection from the pressure for condominium and commercial development along the coast.
David Cohen of Pro Met Marine, a boat year owner was emphatic, telling senators that there is no way that the condominium crowd can co-exist peacefully with marine industries that make noise 24 hours a day.
What inevitably happens, Cohen says, is that folks in the condominiums get tired of the noise from the boat yards. The condo folks complain to politicians. And they get their way because they organize and vote.
Marine businesses must be on the water. The federal government paid $65 million to dredge the Providence channel to a depth of 40 feet to accommodate shipping. Hotels, condos and restaurants don’t have to be directly on the water.
The city of Providence is against the measure to protect marine businesses because officials fear they will lose control of their waterfront zoning to the state. A good point, but the city’s waterfront is a state resource, much like Green Airport. Do we really want the Warwick City Council to control the airport. Don’t hold your breath waiting for runway improvements.
Show your support for Rhode Island’s working waterfronts by attending tomorrow’s Senate Housing & Municipal Government Committee hearing on the “Rhode Island Working Waterfronts Protection Act.” This legislation would protect our working waterfronts and water-dependent businesses from incompatible residential and commercial development.
SENATE HOUSING & MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT COMMITTEE TO HEAR “RHODE ISLAND WORKING WATERFRONTS PROTECTION ACT”
Legislation would preserve and protect Rhode Island’s working waterfronts from incompatible residential and commercial development
WHAT:
Senate Housing & Municipal Government Committee bill hearing on S-0758, the “Rhode Island Working Waterfronts Protection Act.” Legislation would empower the Coastal Resources Management Council (CRMC) to preserve and protect Rhode Island’s working waterfronts and water-dependent uses including commercial fishing, shipping, passenger transportation, boat building and repair, marinas, and other marine related businesses which must have access to the water to operate.
WHEN: Thursday, May 21st at 4:30pm
WHERE: State House, Room 310
This week’s Providence Business News features an article and an editorial about how Rhode Island’s ports are working to attract short sea shipping. Both the Port of Providence and Quonset/Davisville have recently expressed interest in being designated as Marine Highway Corridors by the U.S. Maritime Administration. With this designation, Rhode Island ports would be eligible to tap into millions of dollars in federal funding for infrastructure improvements to accomodate short sea shipping operations.
From the Short sea shipping support growing article:
Cohen said several Allens Avenue properties, including Promet’s, could handle the shallow-draft vessels needed for short sea shipping. And ProvPort, which has the deepest port in New England since a 2006 dredging, could easily handle the ships, he added. “There’s a multiplicity of available properties between here and Quonset,” he said, adding, “Although we’re not looking to compete with Quonset.”
In a February letter to MARAD, Waterson Facility Director Stephen Curtis wrote, “Our facility is best suited to respond to this opportunity because of our distinct advantages; large laydown areas, deep channel and dock access, strong tenant base, ability to attract smaller niche cargoes and our close proximity to [Interstate 95].”
From the Mapping a new way to sea lane success editorial:
Rhode Island is trying to get itself on the map – specifically, on the federal map of approved shipping routes for the nation’s “Maritime Highway.”
The hope is to make Providence and Quonset Point become part of a network of short sea shipping ports. Short sea shipping uses a series of small ocean-going vessels to offload cargo closer to its final destination, and it is an alternative to the more expensive deep-sea container business that unloads huge ships at large ports and puts the cargo onto trucks for lengthy highway transport.
It takes a lot less money to prepare the ports to accept such trade – estimates are $5 million compared with $160 million for the deep-sea container business. But the boon to business could be significant.
All the details – specific cost breakdowns for preparing the ports of Providence and Davisville for short sea shipping, potential return on investment, environmental impact – have not been worked out. But first things first, get the ports on the map as a possible prelude to a much more robust shipping industry here.
This week’s Providence Business News has an excellent editorial noting the need to protect the Port of Providence’s working waterfront, first and foremost, for jobs:
It is unfortunate that it has taken the severe contraction of Rhode Island’s economy to generate momentum for alternative uses for the state’s industrial waterfront. But it is about time!
Narragansett Bay is an extraordinary, natural economic resource, in the same league as Puget Sound, Chesapeake Bay and the San Francisco Bay. The state’s maritime history dating back to Colonial times gives testament to the bay’s importance in the state’s economic development.
But that development has been stymied of late. Providence’s port is a patchwork of vibrant industrial businesses beside empty lots. The city wants to remedy the situation. However, two questions loom large: Where will the money come from, and whose vision will be realized?
Some private developers see the waterfront as prime for mixed-use development, giving more people access to the shoreline for work, play and living. But existing businesses believe such land use is incompatible with their industrial zoning. They also make a strong case that the city needs more jobs, not more waterfront housing.
A special commission of the General Assembly considering those issues has begun the process with a bus tour of the port of Providence, and plans visits to Davisville and Galilee.
We hope they recognize the importance of a disciplined approach to development that recognizes the city’s waterfront’s most vital role is as an economic engine for the region, not as a playground.
The Providence Working Waterfront Alliance recently 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. Read the Horsley Witten Group’s report, which calls for the creation of “Waterfront Mixed Use/Industrial” zoning that prohibits residential and hotel uses, but maintains flexibility by encouraging the establishment of criteria for the inclusion of lower intensity non-residential uses such as commercial office space.
The Providence Business News has an interesting article covering a recent tour of the Port of Providence by the Rhode Island General Assembly’s port study commission. While Providence city officials are pushing to rezone much of the Allens Ave. working waterfront for mixed use condos and hotels, and claim that no new industrial businesses want to locate in the area, the PBN article quotes local real estate agent Frank Jacques who says the city’s plans are, in fact, scaring industry away:
In Providence, one group opposing the city’s vision is the Providence Working Waterfront Alliance, a business group formed to advocate against the rezoning. Its members said the city’s plans have long kept businesses from wanting to invest in property that could be rezoned.
At least one commercial property broker, Frank Jacques, agreed.
On the same day as the commission’s Allens Avenue tour, Jacques, principal of F.L. Jacques Company Inc., said he has a potential buyer for 434 Allens Ave., an 11.68-acre waterfront parcel that’s zoned for industrial use. That’s the parcel just north of Thurbers Avenue that Deller earlier in the day had pointed out to commission members.
Jacques declined to name the potential buyer, but said the company initially would bring 60 industrial jobs to Providence. He said he’s worried the company might be scared away by the city’s proposal. It wouldn’t be the first time that a company has pulled out of a deal for the property – that’s happened twice since the early 1990s, when the city started pushing for mixed use along the corridor, Jacques added.
But Jacques, the broker, disagreed that a mixed use would be the best way to grow jobs in the area north of Thurbers Avenue.
“We don’t need any more condominiums, we don’t need any more retail,” he said. “What we need in this state [are] jobs.”
On Thursday, March 19th, the General Assembly’s port development study commission held its first hearing where researchers from the University of Rhode Island’s Coastal Resources Center presented preliminary results from their Rhode Island Commercial Ports and Harbors inventory study. The most striking finding from the inventory study:
In all of Rhode Island, there are only 62 parcels, representing 756 total acres, that are available and properly zoned for marine industrial growth.
This finding shows that Rhode Island has very little space left for marine industrial growth and that we must protect the few remaining port areas we have.
Read the Providence Journal’s coverage of the hearing.
Providence Working Waterfront Alliance Testimony In Support Of H-5707
- The Providence Working Waterfront Alliance strongly supports H-5707.
- This legislation would require that any city or town seeking to acquire a water-dependent facility by eminent domain provide an alternative water-dependent site with equal acreage, equal or deeper berth draft, equal or deeper marine channel draft, and all federal, state and local site permits and zoning necessary to operate a water-dependent marine terminal.
- Water-dependent businesses MUST have access to the water to operate and this needs to be accounted for in Uniform Relocation Payments.
- There are no suitable alternative locations for most of Rhode Island’s water-dependent oil terminals, cargo operations, and commercial repair ship yards.
