Official documents generally come from the minds of officials – policymakers and political leaders. But as Providence looks to craft its latest iteration of the document that guides development in the city’s neighborhoods, it’s putting much of the power into the hands of a group with a unique perspective – the residents.
Required by state law to update the city’s comprehensive plan and zoning ordinances, officials are launching a process, dubbed ‘‘Providence Tomorrow: Our City, Our Neighborhoods, Our Future,’’ that will take them into the neighborhoods to get input from their inhabitants.
According to Deputy Director of Planning Linda Painter, one of the most interesting aspects of the initiative is the use of charrettes – meetings within individual city neighborhoods, which will look for residents to provide specific feedback about the area where they live.
Slated to kick off in January 2007, the meetings will take place in each neighborhood over the course of three to five days. Day and evening sessions – along with breakout groups and topical discussions – will be included.
At the end of each charrette, a draft plan for the neighborhood will presented.
‘‘Really, what we’re talking about is a whole new approach,’’ Painter said. ‘‘We think it’s a way to attract people to these meetings that we have not been able to.’’
Under Rhode Island law, cities and towns are required to update their comprehensive plans every five years.
Although the state approved Providence’s comprehensive plan in 2002, Painter said the city’s most recent plan was actually developed in the mid-1990s. So the charrettes will be building on a plan for a city that has undergone massive changes, including the renaissance of its downtown.
And, according to Painter, it’s been even longer since the city looked at its zoning ordinances.
Each charrette will look at the special character of the neighborhood, as well as how new buildings can be incorporated, what housing choices best fit the area, whether shops and gathering places are within an easy walk from homes, and what can be done to make streets more inviting to bicyclists and pedestrians.
Mayor David N. Cicilline, who announced the ‘‘Providence Tomorrow’’ initiative in May, said that as the city updates the comprehensive plan, it has to look toward a balance between planning for growth and maintaining the city’s character.
‘‘You grow your tax base, increase the density, and you increase the population,’’ Cicilline said. ‘‘But at the same time, you want to maintain what is most valuable that the city has. And that is the character of every neighborhood.’’
He said the process will look at every neighborhood in the city. While Providence technically has 25 neighborhoods, some will probably be combined in a logical order for the purpose of charrettes, he said.
‘‘I think all of the neighborhoods will benefit from a neighborhood planning process,” Cicilline said. ‘‘There are obviously some neighborhoods where there is a greater investment interest, because there is more land to be developed or because it is more affordable than others.’’
Scott Wolf, executive director of the advocacy group Grow Smart Rhode Island, said that Olneyville, among other areas, could benefit from the examination because of the massive amounts of development it has seen in recent years. However, with development occurring all over the capital city, Wolf said, all the neighborhoods deserve a look.
‘‘Providence right now is experiencing a lot of change, much of it for the better,’’ Wolf said. ‘‘But nevertheless, change has to be managed and evaluated carefully so that we are growing the city in smart way, and growing it by choice rather than chance.’’
Cicilline, like Wolf, supports the principles of ‘‘new urbanism,’’ a development movement that supports mixed-use, mixed-income projects that are pedestrian-friendly and have good access to green space and public transportation.
Many of those guiding principles were include by city officials in another major planning initiative – ‘‘Providence 2020,’’ which looked at the land freed up by the relocation of Interstate 195 and other downtown properties. That plan, which was drafted by Boston-based Sasaki Associates, included mixed-use developments along the city’s waterfront.
The ‘‘Providence Tomorrow’’ planning process is expected to be wrapped up by fall 2008.
Painter said that next year, the city probably will make a ‘‘statistical update’’ to its old comprehensive plan, to adhere to the state’s five-year requirement.
