In 20 years, Providence has transformed its waterfront, built a convention center, a luxury hotel and a mall, seen its Jewelry District taken over by colleges, high-tech businesses and nonprofits, and begun turning Downcity into a mixed residential and commercial area.
Plans for the next stage abound: former Mayor Vincent A. Cianci’s New Cities, Narragansett Landing, the Route 195 relocation plan, Westminster Crossing, the Promenade. And new projects keep sprouting up, including major endeavors such as the new GTECH headquarters.
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But in the big picture, does Providence know where it’s headed?
Concerned that the city’s economic development efforts are too fragmented, and that they lack a unifying vision, Mayor David N. Cicilline has hired Sasaki Associates, an internationally known urban design firm based in Boston, to draft a cohesive, 20-year plan for Providence.
The focus of “Vision for Providence 2020” is not just downtown or the riverfront, but a broader swath of land stretching from Eagle Square to Fox Point and from the State House to Thurbers Avenue, said Kathryn Madden, a principal at Sasaki and head of the project.
The geographic limits are important, Madden said in an interview, because if the city looks too broadly, “we can’t get anything done.” Yet a big part of Sasaki’s mission, Madden added, is to look at the connections between that section and the neighborhoods, and ensure that future development ties into adjacent areas, rather than creating isolated bright spots in the city.
“What the city wanted us to do was to see: how does it all connect?” Madden said. The goal is not to redo plans that have already been done, she said, but to update them and integrate them into a single plan that looks at how the different districts relate to one another, what each one’s strengths are, what kind of development is appropriate for each, etc.
“One of the nice things about Providence is that you actually have development interest, so one of the good things about vision plans is that you can guide and manage development,” Madden said. It’s important for the city because then it can prioritize its own investments and focus its attention on projects that will really benefit the public.
“It’s also an advantage for the development community,” Madden added, “because if the city has a comprehensive vision, and knows what types of development it wants, building heights, economic development goals, when the developers come in, they have a much better sense of what’s expected of them.”
City Planner Thomas Deller said that’s exactly what officials have in mind.
“It’s important for a city to be very clear about its vision, so we can say to developers and property owners, this is the vision of where we want to go, so if you want to do something along those lines, we’ll help you.”
To develop the plan, Sasaki started by reviewing previously done materials – including the Narragansett Landing plan, which the firm helped prepare – and interviewing various “stakeholders” in the development of the Capital Center, Downcity, the Old Harbor, the Jewelry District, the Promenade area and Fox Point.
Sasaki looked at the site’s topography, road access, public transportation, available public space, parking, employment patterns, the types of retail in the area, and the commercial and residential real-estate markets. The planners found an office market, for example, with low vacancies but also little growth, and escalating parking prices that now cost an average of $2,100 per employee per month. And they found weak downtown retail, eclipsed by the mall.
In addition, Sasaki considered the city’s economic development priority clusters: arts and culture, “knowledge creation,” biomedical science, information technology, and design and business innovation. And it looked at redevelopment possibilities due to the Route 195 relocation, including potential new open space, development parcels, street connections to the waterfront, and scenic views.
Last week, Sasaki unveiled the results of its work so far: a 112-slide presentation including different development scenarios for different parts of the city, with potential parks, areas with high-rise buildings or without them, etc. All include mixed-use districts, a key part of the city’s economic development vision.
At public forums Wednesday and Thursday, the planners sought public feedback on their initial “vision plan” with the hope of narrowing down their ideas into a more focused draft plan to be presented in a few weeks. The final plan is set to be produced in the summer, after a round of workshops and public hearings.
For more information about the Sasaki plan, call the City Planning Department at 401-351-4300.
