When Warwick approved its current comprehensive plan, Rocky Point hosted an amusement park and shoppers strolled the hallways of the Rhode Island Mall. Flights arrived at a cramped airport terminal and commuter rail service had just begun in neighboring Providence.
Fast-forward 20 years. The amusement park is long gone and the Rhode Island Mall is a shopping plaza. The airport terminal is larger, connected to a commuter rail station and on track to host a longer runway.
City officials say those changes, and a host of others, demand a new long-term vision for Rhode Island’s second-most-populous city. So in May, officials in the city of 82,672 announced they would start a process to rewrite Warwick’s comprehensive plan. The dense, 2-inch thick document adopted in 1991 serves as the foundation for everything from land-use decisions to traffic guidelines.
The latest plan – termed “21st Century Warwick: City of Livable Neighborhoods” – promises to increase the font size, add visual aids such as maps and jettison the brain-numbing technical details. An $85,000 grant from the state jump-started the project ultimately expected to cost $160,000 and wrap up in June 2012.
To develop the new document, city planners and consultants from Boston-based Goody Clancy and Associates will solicit comments from residents, business owners, state officials and pretty much anyone willing to comment.
“The idea is to get everyone who ever had an idea, a vision, out to these meetings to discuss their feelings about what the city should look like in the next 20 years,” said William DePasquale, the director of the city’s Planning Department.
There’s plenty to talk about.
Last year, the state opened the InterLink, a commuter rail station and parking facility connected to T.F. Green Airport by a sky bridge over Post Road. The facility holds potential to become a magnet for nearby redevelopment as developers look to tap into commuter traffic, DePasquale said.
Down the road, another development potential awaits as the New England Institute of Technology prepares to relocate its campus to East Greenwich. Up for sale is a 94,000-square-foot classroom facility, an office building, a library and more.
Farther east, the state is attempting to purchase 83 acres once home to Rocky Point Amusement Park. Since the park closed in 1995, plans to develop housing there have fizzled and now the state wants the property for open space.
And looming large is a proposed runway expansion project at T.F. Green. The southwest extension of the main runway would force the rerouting of roads and take private property. It could also bring more traffic at the airport and a boon for businesses that cater to travelers.
“Let’s change our existing zoning to adapt to the new conditions versus fight it,” DePasquale said.
The plan could lead to more than a change in zoning. DePasquale expects the document to tackle everything from natural resources to transportation and economic development. A new section, titled Resilience, will focus on how to position the city to respond to increased natural disasters such as the flooding that devastated homes and businesses in the city last year.
The plan is also about building – or rebuilding – Warwick’s image.
For many, the image of Warwick consists of big-box stores and vast parking lots along Route 2. That image frustrates DePasquale, who notes Warwick has much more to offer, including historic sites, waterfront, marinas and lighthouses.
“We’re more than Route 2,” he said. “We’re more than an exit off I-95.”
In driving a new vision, DePasquale is seeking to do it methodically and without the nasty fights that have overshadowed planning efforts in other places.
To avoid that in Warwick, DePasquale is courting frequent opponents. He’s put the CEO of the R.I. Airport Corporation on the advisory committee, along with city officials long opposed to an airport expansion. There’s a member of the local land trust sitting next to a marina owner.
“You have to take that spectrum and you have to hone it in the middle to something that actually accomplishes both those interests,” DePasquale said. •
