The former Stop & Shop on Smith Street in North Providence has been vacant since 1995. After a series of starts and stops, the owners of the property believe they have found a tenant — Savers, a resale clothing outlet. But town officials are turning a decidedly cold shoulder to the idea.
Town officials, along with dozens of vocal residents, have campaigned for months against a proposal that would bring Savers, a used clothing store, to the site of a former Stop & Shop at 1525 Smith Street. The town’s position is that such a store does not fit the criteria of the town’s Comprehensive Community Plan, adopted in 1992. A department store, according to town officials, does not fit the description of “village-style development.” And there is concern that because of the traffic it could bring, Savers would disrupt the peaceful Fruit Hill neighborhood.
Beyond Cash Donations: How New Forms of Giving Are Transforming Not-for-Profit Accounting
Evolving Funding Landscape for Not-for-Profits Not-for-profit organizations are being asked to do more with less,…
Learn More
But a lawyer for the developers who own the property believes the opposition to Savers is more about image and less about traffic. That’s the message he said he got during a series of public hearings at which residents spoke out in opposition to the proposal. Mark Pogue, a lawyer with the Providence firm Edwards & Angell, represents G.P.B. Real Estate, the company that owns the portion of the building now at the center of the controversy. He believes a more recently adopted town zoning ordinance paves the way for the department store.
“We heard comment after comment that second hand clothing is smelly and we don’t want that kind of store here,” Pogue said.
The former supermarket closed in 1995, paving the way for a Super Stop & Shop, which was built about a mile and a half away on Manton Avenue, at
the Providence, North Providence and Johnston town lines. Another Super Stop & Shop is located about two miles away on the heavily traveled Mineral Spring Avenue in North Providence. The shopping plaza on Smith Street is currently home to a Shell gas station, Cost-Plus, a pet supply store and a coin-operated laundry. A Citizens Bank branch that had served as one of the plaza’s anchors closed a couple of years ago.
Town officials are anxious to fill the vacancies, but they worry about creating another heavily congested road, like Mineral Spring Avenue.
“We don’t want to develop another Mineral Spring Avenue on Smith Street. We have one,” said Leo Perrotta, the town’s director of planning. “If they wanted to locate on Mineral Spring Avenue, the town would not have a problem with it.”
To the owners of the vacant parcel, Savers is a no-brainer. The company is willing to sign a long-term lease and would not subdivide the 23,000-square-foot property. Savers currently has a store in East Providence, where it replaced a former Almacs supermarket on Pawtucket Avenue. But while the building has been vacant for nearly four years and the plaza itself could use a facelift, North Providence officials and some residents and small business owners are not putting out the welcome mat.
To North Providence Town Solicitor Mark Welch, the issue is not complicated. The town’s Comprehensive Community Plan, he said, designates the Fruit Hill section of town and the portion of Smith Street that runs through it as one reserved for “village-style development.
“The Comprehensive Plan was adopted in April 1992,” Welch said. “It is the governing document for all land-use decisions from that date forward. It is a controlling land-use document.”
The town’s Zoning Board of Review is expected to write the next chapter in the controversy by issuing a decision at its Nov. 30 meeting. The board must determine if the town’s planning and building departments acted correctly in denying Savers permits in 1997. Perrotta said he has followed the letter of the law.
“The Comprehensive Plan is an ordinance like anything else,” said Perrotta. “It’s called a plan, but it’s adopted by the Town Council. It’s an ordinance, and it must be followed. If you don’t follow it, you are making zoning and land-use decisions that are contrary to your plan.”
Pogue sees things differently. A zoning ordinance adopted by the town more recently, he said, does not exclude a store like Savers from occupying the Smith Street plaza.
“The 1994 zoning ordinance is the latest expression of the Town Council on how land should be used in town,” said Pogue. “That ordinance makes it perfectly clear that department stores would be permitted in that zone.”
Reaction among local business owners appears to be mixed. At Cal’s Corner Restaurant, located across the street from the plaza, patrons signed a petition opposing Savers throughout the summer. But others aren’t as quick to oppose the department store. At Sonny’s Deli & Fruit Stand, also located across the street, Joe Maggiacomo, the owner, is tired of looking at a vacant building.
“As a businessman, I want to see bodies around here,” he said. “That’s been dead for three years.”
The lawyers are digging in for what could be a protracted battle.
“G.P.B. and Savers are surprised and disappointed that the town is fighting so hard to keep out a business that wants to bring jobs and tax revenue,” Pogue said. “We’re disappointed they don’t want a vibrant, successful tenant there.”
Welch is convinced that the town will prevail.
“Edwards & Angell mentioned that this could go all the way to the Supreme Court,” Welch said. “I wouldn’t have a problem with that.”
