NARRAGANSETT – The R.I. Department of Environmental Management received permission Tuesday to explore the possibility of building a parking garage at the Port of Galilee.
The State Properties Committee Tuesday unanimously allowed the department to issue a request for proposals to see if a developer is willing to convert a grassy parking lot into a parking garage. The garage would serve customers of local businesses and, to a much greater extent, those boarding ferries to Block Island, DEM Chief of the Division Planning and Development Joseph Dias said.
Dias said the DEM would lease the land, technically two adjacent lots, to a developer who would build and operate a garage. The DEM would likely demolish its small office building to provide room for a driveway from the garage that would end in front of the ferry dock, Dias said.
Dias said the DEM envisioned a two or three-story garage on the two lots that total a combined 4.3 acres. In the summer the garage would be teeming with tourists and in the winter Dias said the garage could serve as a boat storage area. The current parking lot already generates more than $100,000 in revenue annually for the state, according to the request for proposals.
Dias said the request is part of a broader DEM initiative to identify new revenue streams in a time of tight budgets for the state and DEM.
“We just want to see what’s out there,” he said.
