PROVIDENCE – It’s not a dorm after all, the City Plan Commission decided, after taking a second look at plans for a five-story apartment building at 663 Admiral St. near Providence College.
Despite the complaints of some neighborhood residents, the City Plan Commission voted on Tuesday night to approve a master plan for a 46-unit apartment building, which was previously decried as a dormitory by the chairperson of the commission who claimed that zoning bylaws would not allow such a development in the C-1 neighborhood commercial district. The developer also received a dimensional adjustment from the commission for the building being more than 60 feet tall based on the project including structured parking with 61 spaces.
The 663 Admiral St. project now needs to return before the commission at a later date for preliminary plan approval.
During the group’s Nov. 6 meeting, City Plan Commission Chairperson Christine West called for a timeout and told the property owner and developer, Citadel Properties LLC and Strive Realty, respectively, that they were facing “very serious exposure to challenges” and that they needed to come up with a new plan that didn’t fit the definition of a student dormitory.
On Tuesday, however, City Planner Choyon Manjrekar told the commission that this wasn’t the case and that the incorrect rationale used by the commission during its last meeting could be applied to hundreds or even thousands of dwellings all over the city where students live. Manjrekar said the zoning bylaw that restricts dormitories applies to units for more than three unrelated people living together, relegating such dwellings to the downtown area and on college campuses.
However, this proposal now contains dwellings that have no more than three bedrooms, getting rid of prior plans for four-bedroom units as part of the project. The developer said the property will now include 10 one-bedroom units, 20 two-bedroom units, and 16 three-bedroom units.
“[The zoning regulation] wasn’t meant to describe every dwelling that contains students,” Manjrekar said. “This will not have units with more than three bedrooms, and therefore it can be reasonably expected that they won’t have more than three unrelated people living here [in the same unit]. … Our opinion … is that this can very reasonably, legally be considered a multifamily dwelling.”
Manjrekar also said the Providence Law Department believes that the zoning rule that prohibits four or more unrelated people living together may be indefensible in court.
Regardless, Strive Realty said it has revised its plans to create less of an impact on the neighborhood. The top section of the building and the left side of the property was reduced. Additional on-site parking was added to the plans, too, after 27 spaces were originally proposed for the site. And the developers behind the project emphasized that anyone could rent there, although they believe it will be ideal for young professionals and graduate students, listing amenities that include a “Zoom room” for tenants to use for remote office work and business meetings.
“We’re not targeting students,” said Strive Realty CEO Joseph Colaluca. “We think there is a large demand for grad students and teachers and people affiliated with university.”
Several members of the commission said they were pleased with the revisions, including Manuel Cordero, who called it a “stunning improvement.”
“Certainly, this feels like a different project,” Cordero said.
However, commission member Christian Potter spoke out against the project as a dorm that’s encroaching on a family neighborhood and remained convinced that it was against local zoning regulations based on the zoning law on unrelated people living together. Potter was the only one to vote against the height adjustment and the master plan for the project.
West, who was in attendance at Tuesday’s meeting, was not present for the vote.
Commission member Nicole Verdi voted to approve the project but called on the developer to present mitigation plans when it returns for preliminary plan approval.
City Councilman David A. Salvatore also spoke out during the meeting, claiming that “blight” in the area was a problem, leading to crime such as the murder of Mai Jweinat, 50, that took place on June 25, 2020, at the 663 Admiral St. site at the former Joe’s Sandwich Shop, which lead to the arrest of 20-year-old Isaiah Araujo, who was charged with murder.
“This might be the beginning of something good,” Salvatore said.
About eight community residents spoke out against the project during a public input period, sharing their fears that students at the 663 Admiral St. property will hold disruptive parties and will lead to further gentrification of the neighborhood.
Patricia Raub said she doesn’t believe that the property owner would avoid recruiting undergraduate students for the building’s future tenants, claiming that the property owner rents out many other apartments in the area to students and doesn’t respond to complaints about their disruptive behaviors.
“Where students like to have parties is right in front of their properties,” Raub said. “I doubt [Colaluca] would turn away undergraduate students should they apply to rent one of his units.”
While he supported development to combat blight in the neighborhood, Salvatore agreed with residents who spoke out about Strive not having a good relationship with neighborhood residents.
“Strive has a lot of work to do around building trust,” he said.
Raub said the five-story property would also be “out of scale” with the rest of the neighborhood, replacing a two-story building that’s currently being demolished at the site.
“This is going to stick out like a sore thumb,” she said.
Marc Larocque is a PBN staff writer. Contact him at Larocque@PBN.com.
