A compromise between Providence city councilors and Mayor Brett P. Smiley is expected to clear the way for passage of the city’s 10-year Comprehensive Plan, but some observers say the agreement fails vulnerable residents who live near the city’s industrial waterfront.
Weeks before the City Council is scheduled to take a final vote on the plan, the council’s Ordinance Committee approved an updated version of the proposal, which Smiley had said he would veto.
Under state law, the city must develop and approve a Comprehensive Plan every 10 years.
But proposals for the new plan, which largely focuses on development and zoning, include restrictions on building new gas stations in the city; converting all areas zoned for duplexes to allow three-unit houses; and another zoning change that would relax a previously proposed commercial designation.
Initially, the proposed plan tightly restricted the types of businesses allowed along the industrial waterfront, including a ban on scrap metal storage facilities and toxic material storage facilities, among other limitations.
But the compromise would now only prohibit power plants that are “dependent on the combustion of fossil fuels or via processes that produce emissions at levels that are established to impact public health, noxious or toxic chemical manufacturing, and ethylene oxide manufacturing and storage facilities.”
Julian Drix, who chairs the city’s Sustainability Commission, condemned the updated proposal for rolling back the more stringent language.
“Since the original amendments were introduced, in just one week ... they were essentially gutted to appease powerful industry lobbyists who have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo that is poisoning our communities,” Drix said at an Oct. 21 City Council meeting.
City Councilman Justin Roias, who represents Ward 4 in the city's North End, was the lone member of the council's Ordinance Committee to vote against the amendments. He has publicly said he voted "no" on the proposed Comprehensive Plan solely because the limit on the expansion of "polluting activities [along the industrial waterfront] remains alarmingly weak."
Residents of South Providence have long suffered environmental and health impacts associated with companies that dot the working waterfront, with higher rates of asthma reported among the neighborhood’s predominantly low-income and minority residents.
The issues came to the forefront in July when a large fire broke out at Rhode Island Recycled Metals LLC on Allens Avenue, sending smoke billowing into nearby neighborhoods. It was the second fire at the waterfront business since April and came at a time when the R.I. Office of Attorney General and the R.I. Department of Environmental Management were taking legal actions to clean up the property and put in stiffer pollution controls.
But Ward 10 Councilman Pedro Espinal, who has previously called for more housing and wind energy companies along the waterfront and spoke out against Rhode Island Recycled Metals, stood by the updated language.
“The council worked collaboratively to put forward a set of bold amendments that tackle many of the key challenges facing our city,” Espinal said in a statement to PBN. “This includes real change at the Port of Providence, which has been used as a dumping ground for heavy industries for generations, endangering the health, safety and well-being of South Side residents.
“The new Comprehensive Plan will enable us, in the upcoming zoning ordinance, to ban dirty industrial uses that are harmful to the community and our waterways,” Espinal said. “It took decades to get to the levels of pollution we now see in the port, and we are working with urgency to move in a new, cleaner direction.”
Throughout his three years in office, Espinal said, the city has banned transfer stations, incinerators and expanded liquid propane gas operations along the port.
The current Comprehensive Plan proposal “[sets] us up to expand the prohibitions far beyond those in the coming zoning ordinance,” he added.
Josh Estrella, a spokesperson for Smiley, said in a statement that the Comprehensive Plan amendments provide "a community-driven framework for how Providence can grow over the next ten years to address the housing crisis and responsibly mitigate the impacts of climate change.”
Estrella said that language initially proposed by the City Plan Commission to “[prioritize] clean, sustainable and resilient economic development in our industrial and port areas,” was “expanded during negotiations and added additional prohibitions in the final document.”
Estrella did not immediately specify what additional prohibitions were added.
And the Comprehensive Plan isn't the only document that will guide development in the area along Allens Avenue, the mayor's office said.
The city and ProvPort, the entity that operates a portion of the working waterfront in Providence, is a developing a plan to identify priority projects and forecast future trends and conditions for the next 30 years.
The ProvPort Master Plan presents "another opportunity for the City and Port to align more specifically around the City's economic and sustainability goals as that plan will also shape Providence's economy and lay the groundwork for a just transition to a clean energy future," Estrella said.
David Salvatore, executive director of The Providence Foundation and a former City Council member and president, said that the nonprofit “recognizes that there are important sustainability measures that have to be considered by the city for growth purposes, environmental purposes, and to keep people safe,” Salvatore said.
“At the same time, we want to be a welcoming city where businesses are invited” to create jobs and improve overall economic conditions, he said.
The Providence Foundation sees pros and cons throughout the new language, Salvatore said, and remains concerned that the plan does little to control high commercial property taxes that deter development in the city.
During his time on the City Council, Salvatore said he “[doesn’t] recall this document being as contentious,” but did require multiple public engagement sessions.
In the current cycle, “we’re pleased that both sides came together to reach some common ground,” he added.
The Comprehensive Plan is scheduled to receive a final vote on Nov. 7.
