Ignoring the disapproving signs, slogans and frowns from representatives of neighborhood associations and waterfront businesses last Thursday night, the Providence City Council approved an amended comprehensive plan to guide the city's future development.
After a public hearing on the city's plan, held in early October, the council's ordinance committee and the city's Department of Planning and Development amended the plan to specify that it will not make changes to existing zoning codes in various neighborhoods, said Linda Painter, deputy director of the department's Planning Division.
The plan, which passed by a vote of 10 to 3, provides general guidelines to address issues of economic expansion, the environment, affordable housing, land use and the waterfront.
Before voting began, speakers from many neighborhood associations said the council should not approve the plan until all the neighborhood charrettes - week-long forums where residents discuss the plan's impact on their neighborhoods - are completed. Charrettes have already taken place but most are slated for next year, according to the planning department's Web site.
The comprehensive plan is a broad document that does not discuss specific changes to individual neighborhoods, Painter said. The planning department will continue working on drafts of individual neighborhood plans that will address issues raised in the charrettes.
Ward 1 City Councilman Seth Yurdin, who voted in favor of the plan, said "the plan has to be fleshed out more."
"There's no possible way that any plan can please everybody," said Yurdin, whose ward includes Fox Point and parts of Brown's campus.
He said that the comprehensive plan will be further amended "to reflect people's opinions" gathered during the charrettes.
But Norman Ospina, a member of the Olneyville Neighborhood Association, said making changes to the plan becomes more difficult once it has been adopted.
During the meeting, Ospina and other members of the Olneyville association held signs reading "Nothing about us without us is for us" and "Just call them charades," referring to the charrettes.
The plan recommends converting industrial properties along the waterfront into a mix of residential, recreational and commercial spaces.
Businesses along Allens Avenue will be ousted from the area if it is opened to mixed-use development, said Ward 3 City Councilman Kevin Jackson, who voted against the plan.
"We cannot afford to lose any more good jobs," he told the council.
Oscar Lemus, an Olneyville businessman, said the council should not have passed the plan until "everyone is included in the process."
"The only thing they see is the dollar sign and the developers," he said. "They think about the people that are coming in - not about the people that are here."
Two months ago, about 15 waterfront businesses formed the Working Waterfront Alliance, which advocates preserving water-dependent heavy industries along the waterfront.
The alliance was formed partly because it seemed the council would adopt the plan before all charrettes took place, said Joel Cohen, chairman of the alliance and vice president of Promet Marine Services, a company on Allens Avenue that repairs ships.
If condominiums are built, noisy machinery used by many waterfront businesses would disturb residents, Cohen said.
Painter said the planning department has "specifically said" the city must "find ways to protect heavy industries."
She said those who choose to live in the condominiums along the waterfront would be warned that "they are entering a heavy industry area."
"There will be some type of deed so people know they're going to have noise, fumes and vibrations," she said, adding that some people don't mind living in such areas.
But Cohen did not agree.
"No condominium owner would agree to (such a deed)," Cohen said, calling the protection Painter spoke of "a bit of a sham."
Cohen said he is open to the idea of mixed use development but that he would have preferred to wait for discussions about it in the charrette.
"They want to cut our legs from underneath us," he said after Thursday's meeting, where the council adopted the plan. The waterfront charrette is slated for January.
"We have to get prepared for the charrette," Cohen said. "And be prepared to go to court if need be."
The approved plan has been sent to the City Plan Commission for review.
