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PROPOSED: Vista Della Torre

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JimmyGreaves Hamlet

JimmyGreaves

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The docket for the November 28th City Council Public Works committee meeting includes an abandonment of a portion of Bradford Street and the easement over Federal Street. I thought CPC still needed to review and approve these before they were decided upon by City Council.

7. Resolution Authorizing the abandonment of a portion of the public highway know as Bradford Street.

8. Petition from Anthony J. Bucci, Jr., Esquire, 155 South Main Street, Suite 405, Providence, Rhode Island 02903, requesting a permanent, perpetual right, privilege and

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Cotuit Megalopolis

Cotuit

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Well, this is a committee meeting, so I think the full City Council would still need to approve anything they approve (twice?) before it goes to the mayor. But last I heard on this project, abandonment of Bradford was off the table and the developer was to work with Planning on design issues.

This is what they have been asking CPC for:

1) Referral 3282 - Petition Requesting an Air-Rights Easement over Federal Street

Request for an air-rights easement over Federal Street to allow for the construction of a proposed condominium building. (Federal Street)

2) Referral 3292 - Petition Requesting a Subterranean Easement under Bradford Street

Request for a subterranean easement under Bradford Street to allow for the construction of an underground parking garage as part of a proposed condominium development. (Federal Hill)

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jencoleslaw Town

jencoleslaw

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the CPC gives recommendations to the committee. they can certainly chose to disregard the CPC recomendation, but it would open the city up for a lawsuit, i would imagine. However, there was a note in our packet from last week asking for more time on the abandonments, so i'm going to assume that they put it on the docket at the PWC level, assuming that we'd have a decision on it by their meeting. I also noticed that the Messenger Street abandonment is also on their docket and we flat out recommended denial on that one...

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JimmyGreaves Hamlet

JimmyGreaves

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From the Committee on Public Works Agenda:

Where: Committee Room "A" - City Hall

When: January 29th @ 6:00PM

Petition from Anthony J. Bucci, Jr., Esquire, 155 South Main Street, Suite 405, Providence, Rhode Island 02903, requesting a permanent, perpetual right, privilege and subterranean easement to allow the owner to locate a portion of the proposed condominium parking garage in the ground below Bradford Street.

Petition from Anthony J. Bucci, Jr., Esquire, 155 South Main Street, Suite 405, Providence, Rhode Island 02903, requesting a permanent, perpetual right, privilege and

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basachs Burg

basachs

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The one good thing about this project would be that it might block the view of the Dominica Manor from the highway. Talk about an ugly out of scale building for the neighborhood. I am not sure if VDT is good or bad for the area but at least it would continue the skyline west and help to expand downtown across the highway.

I wish that it would look more like the new Carnegie Abbey high rise with more of a white finish than what has been proposed so far. But I applaud the developer for having some imagination and I hope it gets built.

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Cotuit Megalopolis

Cotuit

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I received the following press release from WBNA regarding this project:

PLEASE ATTEND THE CITY COUNCIL PUBLIC WORKS COMMITTEE MEETING TOMORROW, 2/11 AT 6PM AT CITY HALL (3RD FLOOR, CONFERENCE ROOM A). SPREAD THE WORD.

TO: Chair Leon Tejada and Members of the Public Works Council

FROM: Kari Lang, Executive Director

The City Council pledged that they would not enact substantive zoning changes before neighborhood plans were completed when they adopted the Providence Tomorrow revisions to the City's Comprehensive Plan and language to this effect is included in the plan to protect areas designated as either zones of stability or zones of change. Citizens who had feared large scale rezoning if the Plan passed, withdrew their objections to adoption on hearing the Council's pledge. However, areas designated as zones of transition in the plan are not covered by these protections.

Now developer Frank Zammiello is asking the City Council Public Works Committee to grant air rights to allow his proposal for a 250 foot tall condo project to be built over Federal Street. Securing the air rights would put great momentum behind subsequent requests to the City Planning Commission and the full City Council for air rights and to the Zoning Board of Review for a variance from height regulations. This would be a critical first step on the way to gaining what would amount to a de facto rezoning of the area bounded by Route 95, Atwells Avenue, Broadway and Dean Street from 45 feet (4 stories) to 250 feet (25 stories).

We ask the Public Works Committee to consider the severe adverse impacts that granting Zammiello's request for air rights would have on Federal Hill, West Broadway and other places throughout the city that are designated in Providence Tomorrow as areas of transition, and to consider the great momentum that granting these rights would give to what ultimately would amount to de facto rezoning of Federal Hill and West Broadway from 45 to 250 feet. By setting precedent, it would ease the way for similar de facto rezoning of other neighborhoods in the city for huge buildings spanning narrow interior streets.

Zammiello is asking the committee to grant him a very significant public benefit unprecedented in the city (the creation of air rights to build a massive condo straddling a small public street). Moreover the proposed development would cause severe adverse impacts to the surrounding neighborhoods by looming over Federal Street, dwarfing most of the buildings on Atwells, Bradford and Federal Streets, undermining the character and charm of Atwells Avenue's Little Italy and Broadway's Grand Historic Boulevard, and significantly increasing traffic at several chronically clogged intersections on Dean and Federal Streets and Atwells Avenue and Broadway.

This project would be massively out of scale even for the increased height and density of 4 to 6 stories that is envisioned for major traffic corridors in the Providence Tomorrow Plan. It would be outrageously massive for a narrow interior street like Federal Street and would undermine the designation in the Providence Tommorrow Plan for the major part of Broadway that lies to the west of Dean Street as a zone of stability where current heights and density should be maintained to protect the area, which is listed on both the National and Local Historic Districts and is protected under Historic District Commission regulations.

The houses, stores, restaurants and institutions on these and nearby streets are low rise buildings, with the exception of Dominica Manor which is 175 feet tall. We are rapidly losing the unique streetscapes of the city that attract residents and business to massively out of scale development projects while the vitality of Downcity, which is an appropriate location for tall buildings, is sapped by many vacant lots and surface parking lots. Many neighborhoods in the city are threatened by this trend.

It is important to note that we are not arguing against any changes in height in appropriate locations in the city. What we are asking is for the public works committee and the council to support neighborhood efforts to bring their citizens together in neighborhood planning charettes to discuss and decide how much density and height is appropriate and where it should go given the context of and vision for their neighborhoods.

Granting air rights for this project now would completely undermine the planning charette process for our neighborhoods and violate the spirit of the commitment that the City Council made in adopting Providence Tomorrow. We urge the Public Works Committee to protect the neighborhoods' ability to have a meaningful voice in determining their own future and to deny Zammiello's request for air rights.

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Lone Ranger Burg

Lone Ranger

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I'll never understand the WBNA. Are these the same people who believe that the US government is covering up an alien/UFO conspiracy in Roswell?

The houses, stores, restaurants and institutions on these and nearby streets are low rise buildings, with the exception of Dominica Manor which is 175 feet tall.
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Cotuit Megalopolis

Cotuit

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The use of an archway over Federal St. 25 stories on Federal Hill. The tallest building on the west side of Providence. Extendiing the skyline of downtown. Not blocking any existing streets.

Moving forward on a large project in Providence when others have backed off or cancelled plans. Creating a new landmark in the city and destination address.

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09/21/38 Whistle-Stop

09/21/38

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Why not move this proposal to the former Gulf Station site or as the addition to the Hilton Hotel? The height issue would go away, the wall blocking views of the west broadway neighbors would to and you are not that furthur away from Federal Hill but closer to downtown. And on the gold trolley line.

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