1. Their new “Working Waterfront Protection Zone,” which prohibits condos and hotels,  only applies south of Thurbers Ave.  That means it primarily protects the city owned port land managed by ProvPort but none of the other water-dependent businesses along northern Allens Avenue.  We should have a Working Waterfront Protection Zone but it should apply to ALL water-dependent industrial businesses in the Port of Providence, which is not just ProvPort.

2. The plan continues to call for a condo, hotel, and yachting wonderland on Allens Avenue.  The city has simply chosen to ignore the overwhelming consensus reached at the June 2008 waterfront charrette that these uses don’t make sense next to an oil terminal, an asphalt plant, and a marine repair shipyard.  The Belojo’s headline from the charrette pretty much sums it up, “Housing on city waterfront rejected at charrette.” WE DONT NEED MORE EMPTY HOTEL ROOMS OR CONDOS.  Especially if they threaten to complain out of businesses good industrial businesses who employ hundreds of people and supply things that we need, like um, oil and gasoline.  That’s why the U.S. Department of Energy has written a letter saying that the city’s plans threaten critical oil terminals that are located in the Port of Providence:

“A mixed use commercial district would allow the building of hotels, marinas, and condominiums immediately adjacent to existing oil terminals. This could have a negative impact on the commercial operations of those fuel terminals. Rezoning may result in future restrictions on terminal operations to accommodate residential preferences that could endanger the economic viability of terminals given the differing nature of the established and proposed uses of the areas in question. This could eventually result in the loss of petroleum storage capacity for the region.”

3. The city is still pushing an Allens Avenue & Port Redevelopment Plan that would declare 590 acres of property in the area as “blighted and substandard.”  You don’t declare successful businesses as blighted and substandard just for giggles.  You do it because it’s a necessary step before the Providence Redevelopment Agency can use its powers of condemnation and eminent domain.  Given that Promet had to fight the PRA all the way to the Rhode Island Supreme Court to win their land back, I wouldn’t trust the city’s intentions either.

It is important to note that State Senator Harold Metts (D-Dist. 6, Providence), who represents the ENTIRE waterfront at issue in this dispute put out a statement today vigorously opposing the city’s absurd redevelopment plan:

Senator Metts said his primary concerns about the proposed plan are how it will affect those living in the nearby low-income neighborhoods he represents, how it will impact on jobs that exist in the area and on the creation of good new jobs...

 

“Until I am presented with some compelling evidence to the contrary,” said Senator Metts in his letter to the mayor, he is concerned the proposal will threaten companies that employ thousands of people and put hundreds of millions of dollars into the economy.

 

...“We need high paying blue collar jobs, not the low paying service sector jobs proposed by developers,” said Senator Metts in his letter to Mayor Cicilline.

 

...“The bottom line for me on any proposed plan is how it will benefit the people in Senate District 6, the City of Providence and the State of Rhode Island,” said Senator Metts in his letter to the mayor. The plan as outlined, he said, appears to offer benefits only for developers and does not address the concerns or fears raised by area residents or businesses.

It’s time for the City Council to stand up to the Mayor and the (What Is Providence) Planning Department(?) and put an end to these absurd plans.  Stop torpedoing our marine economy, and start building it by working with the successful port industrial businesses we have.