PROVIDENCE – The R.I. Public Transit Authority on Monday held its first "interactive" and “family-friendly’ public workshop at the Amica Mutual Pavilion on the proposal to build a new transit center in a location other than Kennedy Plaza.
Pizza was served.
The event was the first in a series of public engagement sessions, dubbed "Transit Talks," the agency has vowed to hold. Representatives from Next Wave Partners and RIPTA were on hand to discuss “the project’s overarching objectives of enhancing ridership experience and expanding service," according to an agency news release.
While the next address of the city's new transit center is currently unknown, potential locations have included Dorrance Street, Dyer Street and a parcel of I-195 Redevelopment District land.
In January, RIPTA's board of directors approved a $16.9 million contract with Next Wave Partners to begin the first phase of designing and building the new transit center, including conducting site studies and assessments, collecting public feedback and developing cost estimates.
Next Wave Partners is a private consortium that includes Gilbane Development Co., Marsella Development, Plenary Americas, CUBE 3 and Jacobs.
City and state leaders, including Gov. Daniel J. McKee and Mayor Brett P. Smiley, have supported moving the transit center into the I-195 Redevelopment District. The public portion of funding would come from a $35 million transportation bond approved by voters in 2014.
In February, Providence’s I-195 Redevelopment District Commission voted to give RIPTA until Oct. 1 to decide whether it will move forward with a transit center relocation to the district.
But advocates have expressed concerns that state officials are overlooking the bigger picture.
In a statement Monday, Grow Smart Rhode Island reiterated its previous calls for a “pause” in further action "until the public is assured that transit service itself is prioritized," citing the agency's $8 million operating deficit for fiscal 2025 “with no certainty that state government will properly fund RIPTA to close this gap or to begin implementing service improvements outlined in the state-approved Transit Master Plan."
RIPTA and Next Wave say they are considering a mixed-use development for the hub, with a first-floor retail space, amenities, and residential units on upper floors. Promising to improve rider safety and create a hub “interconnected” to other transit options, including direct links to the Providence Train Station, Kennedy Plaza, the R.I. Convention Center “and other high-traffic areas,” according to RIPTA.
In an online poll conducted by Providence Business News, more than 40% of respondents disagreed that a I-195 Redevelopment District center would be convenient for riders who frequent downtown; approximately 20% said it could spur mixed-use business development in the city.
Requests for comment sent to RIPTA on the tenor of public responses to date and whether the feedback collected will be made publicly available were not immediately returned.
In April, RIPTA interim CEO Christopher Durand said the state was "overdue for a revamped, modernized transit center that can offer the centralized location and state-of-the-art amenities our riders expect and deserve."
Attendees on Monday were able to vote via a cardboard ballot box on their preferences among a half-dozen options. Reached by phone Monday outside of the Amica building, Randall Rose, a member of the Kennedy Plaza Resilience Coalition, said local transit advocates remained "frustrated they are not asking the real question of whether people want [the center] to move.
"They are asking whether you want to move the hub from Kennedy Plaza to here or here or there, but nothing about whether you want it to stay in Kennedy Plaza," Rose said. "Bus riders do not think this is a good idea. We want a fairer process to look seriously at whether it is good public policy to move the bus hub out of Kennedy Plaza and they are deliberately avoiding that question."
Those unable to attend the event can provide feedback via email to transitcenter@ripta.com.
Christopher Allen is a PBN staff writer. You may contact him at Allen@PBN.com.
