Over 50 members of the College Hill community were present Wednesday night at Brown Hillel for a presentation on the University's Institutional Master Plan, which will be submitted to the City Council for approval within the next few weeks.
The Plan has three main principles: developing a circulation structure on campus that fosters community, consolidating Brown's core of academic buildings on College Hill and moving beyond College Hill to various off-campus projects and real estate ventures.
Limitations on parking, traffic congestion on College Hill and plans for the recently approved Thayer Street District Management Authority were all topics of high priority at the meeting. The University stands to lose close to 400 parking spaces in the next several years to building projects such as the Jonathan Nelson Fitness Center and Sidney Frank Hall, though demand for off-street parking will only increase.
The building of a parking garage either near the Olney-Margolies Athletic Center or underneath the planned Nelson Fitness Center would generate far more than enough space for parking. To avoid a surplus of parking spaces, the University will request proposals to lease one or more parking lots off campus.
Most if not all of the 450 undergraduate students who currently park on campus, many of whom use the Power Street parking garage, will eventually be forced to relocate their vehicles to the new lots, and shuttle service will be provided back and forth. Parking that was formerly reserved for undergraduates will be freed up for faculty, staff and graduate students.
The planned changes to student parking will be announced officially this spring, although University planners have met with representatives from several student groups who have been receptive to the idea, according to Richard Spies, executive vice president for planning and senior advisor to the president.
"We've got to simply change the mindset (about vehicles on campus)," Spies said. "Students now will leave their residence halls and get into their cars to drive to the OMAC."
Some meeting attendees expressed skepticism about Brown students' willingness to sacrifice their cars to remote off-campus locations.
"I think we all know what Brown students are like - they want to get a pizza at 1 a.m.," one audience member said.
Spies reminded him that 25 percent of the University's student body is replaced each year with brand-new students.
"There will be an expectation on the part of returning students that does not exist for new students," Spies said. "There's no reason why our students can't learn new habits."
Michael McCormick, director of planning for Facilities Management, acknowledged the need for better communication about parking for athletic events on campus. Particularly with the removal of the 250 parking spots in front of the OMAC scheduled for 2007, it will be necessary to alert visitors to Brown's campus about parking available both behind the sports complex and in other small lots surrounding the complex, McCormick said.
A recent study of traffic flow on College Hill found that the sequencing of traffic lights on Angell and Waterman streets creates unnecessary delays for vehicular traffic. The study also found levels of pedestrian traf-fic on Thayer Street south of Waterman and on Cushing Street to be much higher than expected, according to McCormick.
McCormick said that plans for the Walk - which will connect the Pembroke campus and Life Sciences Building to the main campus with a pedestrian walkway - include the addition of stoplights on Angell and Waterman streets between Thayer and Brown streets at the points where The Walk intersects those streets. These stoplights, in turn, will be synched with their corresponding Thayer Street stoplights to speed the flow of traffic as much as possible. The Walk is scheduled for completion in 2008.
Cosmetic improvements to Thayer Street and a number of surrounding streets are scheduled to begin this summer as part of the District Management Authority, according to McCormick. In addition to planting trees and removing graffiti, the improvements will include the entire repaving of sidewalks on Thayer, Meeting, Cushing, Bowen, Olive, Hope, Angell, Prospect, Waterman and George streets.
The University also plans to petition the city for the purchase of Fones Alley and Olive Street between Brown and Thayer streets. Currently, garbage trucks make 75 stops on and around Brown's campus - a number that could be greatly reduced and, consequently, improve traffic flow on College Hill if loading docks were concentrated on Olive Street, McCormick said.
One meeting attendee raised concerns about what positive economic effect, if any, the cosmetic improvements on Thayer Street will have.
"Making the sidewalks prettier is not going to begin to improve the economic situation on Thayer," he said, adding that improved parking and a variety of merchants are the only way to increase consumer traffic.
He cited the closing of OOP! and continual openings of walk-in restaurants on Thayer as evidence that the street's marketing diversity is on the decline.
"By creating the DMA, there's now a forum for discussion, considering proposals and making changes - the key players are there," Spies said.
But at least one audience member was unsatisfied with this response, complaining that the communication the DMA is supposed to facilitate among the municipality, the University and Thayer Street property owners reminds him of the United Nations because "you get nothing done."
Spies reminded attendees that the DMA was approved by the City Council just weeks ago.
McCormick also presented plans for new buildings on campus. In addition to the planned Pembroke Hall renovation, construction of Sidney Frank Hall and the Nelson Fitness Center and adaptive re-uses of Rhode Island Hall and the J. Walter Wilson building, he introduced plans for a three- to four-story Creative Arts Center to be constructed at 86 Waterman St. The building currently occupying 86 Waterman, which was originally built in the 1880s and houses the Department of American Civilization, will be demolished.
Omnipresent motorcyclists on Thayer Street were another topic of concern at the meeting, with one College Hill resident claiming he has counted as many as 96 motorcycles on Thayer Street in one night.
"They do have certain civil liberties that we can't abridge," said Abigail Rider, director of real estate for the University, though she said that Providence Police Department officers sometimes ticket the motorcyclists for loitering.
Several College Hill residents at the meeting suggested that police also look into enforcing laws on speed limits and stop signs, which the motorcyclists often allegedly disregard - "not to mention the wheelies."
One resident told Rider, "I won't stand for it. Go out in front of City Hall with a sign."
"OK, that's great, but we need your help," Rider said, who added that the University has brought concerns about the motorcyclists to the city's attention in the past.
