A Providence City Council committee holds a public hearing at 5:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 9, in the Council Chamber on a petition to rezone 18 lots near Bay, Eddy, O'Connell and Sherburne streets in South Providence from M-MU, a mixed-use zone, to M-1, an industrial zone that opponents say does not allow housing. The petition also asks to change the zoning rules so storage containers may be used for permanent storage.
Jeffrey Mark Audet, owner of JC131 Realty, LLC, and president of E.W. Audet & Sons, Inc., filed the petition. The packet contains no statement from Audet or the company.
The petition would add a subsection to Section 1202.H of the zoning ordinance, the section on contractor storage yards: "Storage containers may be used for permanent storage. Storage containers shall not be stacked on the site." It was referred to the committee on April 2 and has been continued with a vote at each of its three earlier hearings: June 24, Sept. 14 and Oct. 13.
What the planners said
The City Plan Commission, in a May 1 letter to committee Chairman Pedro J. Espinal, said the lots are zoned M-MU 75 and already used for industrial purposes, including storage and industrial buildings. It said the change would let the petitioner continue and expand that use, and let existing contractor storage yards keep operating with containers.
Six commission members are listed as voting aye on a recommendation to approve, on one condition: permanent outdoor container storage would need a special use permit, a separate approval on top of the zoning, and would have to meet the Section 1202.H rules for contractor storage yards.
The same letter acknowledges that the comprehensive plan, the city's long-range land-use plan, marks the area on its Future Land Use Map for business and mixed-use development with medium to high density housing. It says the map is "not intended to be parcel specific," and that the rezoning would correspond to business and industrial use without residential uses. The commission found the change consistent with the intent of the plan, saying the plan allows zoning changes that bring zoning in line with existing conditions when uses are compatible with their surroundings. Opponents argue the opposite: that giving up housing on this land contradicts the plan.
What opponents filed
The hearing's meeting page lists written testimony from eight people and groups, submitted since June. All of it opposes the petition, and every letter raises housing or mixed-use development. Mwangi Gitahi, a Ward 10 resident, wrote: "M-MU-75 permits residential and mixed-use development. M-1 does not." Sharon Morris wrote for Omni Development Corporation, an abutting affordable-housing developer, citing truck traffic. Justin Zeller, founder of Red House Design Build, wrote that he owns three Sherburne Street parcels through Hazel LLC and is pursuing a mixed-use plan that depends on the current zoning.
Richard Stang, a senior attorney for the Conservation Law Foundation, wrote that approval would be "illegal spot zoning" under the comprehensive plan and would bring a "dramatic increase in diesel truck traffic" to an area with high asthma rates. Jose Comi, a Washington Park homeowner in Ward 8, asked the committee to reject both changes, or at least require a public site and operating plan and an independent traffic and environmental review first.
Several opponents say the company's needs could be met without the full rezoning. Aubrey Planitz, a Ward 10 resident who identified as a City Council candidate, wrote of supporting "reasonable accommodations for responsible businesses" and asked for a "narrower solution." Gitahi also asked the committee to explore a "narrower solution," and Carla DeStefano, executive director of SWAP, Inc., wrote that SWAP believes there is a way to accommodate the business under M-MU without the rezoning.
Written testimony closed at 3 p.m. Friday, Nov. 6, and the city streams the hearing on its YouTube channel. The outcome of Monday's hearing was not posted when this was written.
