Several Providence oil and shipping businesses located in the city's waterfront appealed a proposal to turn riverside properties into residential, recreational and commercial spaces at a packed City Council meeting Monday.
The proposal is part of a comprehensive plan designed by the city's Department of Planning and Development to guide future development in the city.
Representatives of the companies appealing the plan told the City Council that building condominiums, restaurants and shops on the waterfront would drive them out of business, hurting the quality of life of Providence residents and the city's economy.
The city's comprehensive plan does not mandate specific guidelines, but once approved by the City Council, it will influence changes made to zoning codes. Employees of the oil and shipping industries fear that the recommendations for mixed-use development along the waterfront could lend support to zoning codes that encourage residential and commercial development at the expense of their heavy-duty oil and shipping businesses.
If condominiums and restaurants are built alongside such businesses, residents, patrons and tourists would complain of loud noises from the industries, said Joel Cohen, vice president of Promet Marine Services, a company that repairs ships.
A month ago, about 15 businesses along the waterfront formed the Working Waterfront Alliance, a group calling to preserve the water-dependent heavy industries along the waterfront, said Cohen, who is chairman of the alliance.
Cohen said the alliance was formed partly because the city decided to consider adopting the plan without completing all neighborhood charrettes - review meetings in which Providence residents discuss how they want their neighborhoods to grow.
"We're deeply discouraged," Cohen told The Herald. "We've had to put many investment projects on hold."
Some companies threatened by the plan, like Sprague Energy Corp., a supplier of energy products, have operated on the waterfront for over 100 years.
Some businesses on the industrial waterfront have clients from other parts of New England. Cohen called the businesses the "hub of a wheel ... with spokes stretching to" Massachusetts and Connecticut.
Speakers at the meeting also said that changing the waterfront would leave many jobless.
"Please don't destroy our livelihood. Our families depend on it," said Jack Goodison, who runs a company on the waterfront that performs ship repairs for the federal Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Coast Guard.
Jose Cabral, a laborer at Promet, agreed. "We don't need residential development," he said. "We need jobs."
"If you destroy the Providence working waterfront, you will send the entire state into a deadly spiral, severely damaging the economy and, far more importantly, the health and safety of its citizens," said Julie Gill, acting executive director of the Oil Heat Institute Inc. of Rhode Island, a nonprofit trade association and member of the alliance that promotes Rhode Island's oil heat industry.
Cohen said the alliance is fighting an "uphill battle."
"We're hoping enough people on the City Council will see the light and won't push (the plan) through," Cohen told The Herald.
But Patrick Conley, a property owner and developer who owns some waterfront property, said at the City Council hearing that properties along the river are currently "underutilized and toxic."
He said effective planning and development will allow Providence residents to enjoy the waterfront.
"Right now people are blocked from the waterfront," he said. "With the (comprehensive plan) there'll be a walkway along the river, cruise ships, a ferry service, room for parks. We're trying to bring people down to the water."
Commercial and residential or recreational areas can co-exist with proper regulation, said Erik Bright, co-director of the Partnership for Creative Industrial Space, a non-profit group that helps businesses acquire property in Providence.
The waterfront is "the frontier for expansion," Bright said.
A few speakers from city neighborhood associations said the comprehensive plan should not be adopted without further discussion. William Touret, president of the College Hill Neighborhood Association, said the city shouldn't hurry to adopt the proposal right now.
Touret said the City Council should not adopt the proposed comprehensive plan until all the neighborhoods have had charrettes. "I think there needs to more discussion even beyond the charrettes," Touret told The Herald.
