6/3/25 EP Town Council Meeting

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.

Welcome to the East Providence City Council meeting on the third day of June in the year 2025. At this time, I'd ask the city clerk to call the role, please.

Councilman Fogerty. Yeah. Councilman Lawson. Yeah. Council Vice President Rio. Yeah. Councilwoman Souza. Council President Rodri.

There there's a there's a quorum of three people. Uh Councilman President Rodri is not with us tonight. He has a little illness and that's all I will say, but he's healthy. It's nothing of earthshattering. So, uh, I will abide by all HIPPA policies. So, with that, there is the quorum. At this time, I'd like everybody to stand for the salute to the flag. And I'd ask assistant city

solicitor Jolo to uh, and I'm going to I volame vot to lead us in the pledge of allegiance.

Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all.

Thank you, uh, Mr. Assistant City Solicitor. It's a pleasure to have you here tonight. Uh I'm just going to say uh just one recognition out to our new city solicitor who came in and picked up the ball in a in a time that we had a lot of things going on starting a fiscal year and a lot of activities in the city. Uh she has proven herself very well to even to the point with her

peers. If some people that saw our uh Facebook post last week, even with her peers last week, they honored her by being the flag bearer for the state of Rhode Island at a national conference.

So, with that, I'd like to say congratulations. Thank you. We thought you was talking about the city solicitor. You did say solicitor. That's why city clerk, I'm sorry, city clerk.

I was like, he's been here. Oh.

Get Bob next time. Get a new person.

Okay. Bob never makes those mistakes. Oh yeah.

Okay. Uh Madame Clerk, proceed with the uh next docketed item. Descent calendar for discussion and possible vote. A.

Council journals one. Executive session meetings minutes 20th, 2025. Regular meeting minutes 20th, 2025. and special council meeting work session May 28th, 2025.

I'll make a motion to accept the calendar. Second. Motion by Councilman Lawson, second by Councilman Fogy. All those in favor? I I the eyes have it.

30. Next item. Madame Clerk, read in special one-day entertainment.

applicant Amando Madias, Sacred Heart Church.

Is the Are these part of the consent?

They're part of the licensing under uh they're readin, so you already approved them, so you just need to just accept them on the record, right? You have them under the consent calendar. Is that what we just approved or we got to go through each one?

Well, you can just continue to approve that if that's what you prefer to do. um whatever we got to legally do. I didn't um create the a docket. So, it's different than the regular format. So, it's okay. So, uh I got a question for the uh assistant city solicitor. under Robert's rules because these are licenses. We don't have to we can bundle one vote. But for the record, do we need

just for the clerk to read each item so that it it goes into the record as that they were part of the process for license either liquor or whatever special events for from a standpoint.

You can certainly bundle them, but it's I think what the clerk just mentioned is that these were licensed that have already been approved. this particular one, these three. There's these three here. So, I think you can bundle these.

Bundle those three, but other if they weren't approved, the event already happened. The event already happened.

Okay. Yeah. So, I would I would say you could approve one, two, and three under readin and just say the names of the events. Yes. Yes, the I mean and even with the other we can bundle everything but the item needs to be read for the record real quick and we can have one vote on the next items. I I would just as the way the agenda is written I would keep

it as two votes one and then one and that's what I'm saying. Yeah. Yes. Okay.

Thank you.

Okay. Just read the three items.

One day entertainment, Sacred Heart Church, May 24th. One day entertainment license for DJ May Oh, this one's June 1st, 2025. And also uh special event um alcohol beer and wine May 24th 2025.

Your pleasure.

Make a motion to approve.

Yeah. Again, I thought this was all part of consent. Uh second, I'm just following.

All All those in favor? I Okay, next document item.

Licenses for discussion and possible vote. A motion to bundle licenses. So moved. Second.

All those in favor? I I and a motion to approve licenses. I'll make that motion to approve. Same second.

Okay. Under this one, do we need just to read them real quick under, you know, are we good?

13. All right. Thank you. All right. All those in favor? I. All those opposed, the eyes have it. Next documented item, public hearing one, consideration of update of city of East Province comprehensive plan 2025 to 2035 pursuant to Rhode Island general laws 45-22.2-8 as continued from the May 7th, 2025 city council meeting. Um, is the uh planning director in the audience?

Council Vice President, our planning director just stepped out of the meeting momentarily just to confirm location. We believe that the um consultant may be stuck in traffic. So if you the council uh would like to move on at this moment if not um we should have an update shortly. Okay. We will instead of uh keeping everybody here we will skip which I don't like to do but we will come back just momentarily. Yeah. We

will go on to uh the next docketed item.

Madam clerk, council members, traffic problems, Century Street South from Pucket Avenue. Council Vice President Rio. Uh yeah. Uh thank you, Madame Clerk.

Uh we did you skipped over public comments.

Yeah, the public hearing was for the comprehensive plan. That's what the chief of staff just talked about. We're waiting on the consultant. Then we have like, you know, Okay. public hearing and public comments. Okay. I just want to make sure we're in we're good there. So, uh, okay. In regards to, uh, the Second Avenue issue, it's really getting to be a major issue with the people living on

Center Street. Uh, if you know where I'm coming down, uh, and and these people have really a legitimate question on us. Uh, I'm not going to bring up old issue, but one street was particularly barricaded and it can happen here. It's even worse of a of a situation on Center Street and and it can be accomplished by doing, you know, some of the same things. Uh, we have children, we have a couple of

special needs children living in that neighborhood.

And again, this will stay here until I need to get I need to get DPW Director Borges up on this. So, uh that is my update on that. Okay.

Number two, road repair, Ferris and Bishop, Council Vice President Rigo.

Again, this is a continuation. There is uh again this is right in the island of Ferris and Bishop Avenue. There's huge ruts going on there and it's a simple simple patch and this is not to do with Rhode Island Energy. This is a situation that needs to be addressed by DPW as we all have them in our district, you know, in our wards. uh we need to uh make sure

that this is you know taken care of. I have another thing I'll add to the next meeting. Um in number I'll add I'll go on to number three. Uh the contractor is from what I was told yesterday is going to start work on Glenline and Lyall Bourne. Glenline would be stage two.

They already started some work on Lyall Bourne. So, uh, hopefully by the end of the summer, there'll be additional pickle ball pickle ball courts in East Providence in, uh, Bourne Park and Glenn Line, new refurbished tennis courts, basketball courts, and walking, uh, walking path, which is in good shape now at Glundline, as well as some uh, uh, new uh, new play m uh, centers for the

kids. uh brought me the the attention on Bourne B born was uh when my two oldest ones who I hate to say how old they are now but I'll say it 31 and 30 when I started looking at pictures of their age and I and I go by born and it's the same playground equipment they're now that they're on and I'm like okay time out we got to do something we have this money

so we're also going to get an upkeep on some of the new uh playsets for Borne Buck uh With that, I say thank you.

All right, my update. Um, we'll start with number seven. Um, so I had a good meeting with the mayor yesterday. We discussed what was going on in Crescent Park. We're looking to upgrade the building for the concession to add storage and updated bathrooms, which would be an added value to the park. Um the plan will also include uh the pad for an event tent so we can um have various events and less traffic in the

carousel for various parties and stuff.

So uh the mayor is getting the final number from the contractor. The bid came in a little bit higher than what we had, but he did say that there is some capital that we may be able to move around to cover. Um, we did allocate 70k for the train that we could slide over because they're not ready to buy the train and then we'll deal with that down the line. So, that was a good positive

meeting with the mayor and me last night. So, that project is uh moving forward and hopefully next meeting we have, you know, some numbers that we could either move around the capital and stuff. Um, my other things, they're just outstanding issues in Ward 4. if we can get an update from the administration on appreciate that and if you could follow up on my items as well. I know

you've had a a busy 12 hours. So I I will I'm gonna be nice. I'm going to be light. So if you just take notes and follow up. So our next meeting on 17th I guess of June you can give an update or if Dan needs to be here on those items for me and whatever for Councilman Lawson.

Thank you. There's no updates tonight for these. Do you have any? Oh I'm sorry Frank. I don't the way you were now. I was like huh councilman. Sorry. Um it's okay. I had I had just recently we we received um the docket information um to my desk anyway. not not saying anything about the uh Madame Clark. Um but I was out today. I just happened to come in to cover the council meeting. Um so no, I

don't have any updates other than from last night's evening uh um yesterday evening's conversation on some of these topics. Nothing since then. Uh but I did forward you a few answers to your questions um that you had earlier on these items. Uh not all on these. Oh, the other Yeah, the other stuff. Yeah.

And some of these items we had discussed in the meeting. So, I didn't I didn't think to add anything more to it, but I can I can go through your list and see if there's any additional stuff. But yeah, cuz some of these like the Volkswagen that we're going on seven years now, and we got a sign up saying the playground's going to be done in spring of 2025, right? So, from last

Okay, with that, do we have an update from the director of planning in regards to this uh consultant?

Um, excuse me. Was there anybody signed up for public comment? Yes, I'm also seeking out the comp plan. So, I just Okay. Yeah, I'm sorry. Yeah, I didn't know if anybody was So, we can start the public hearing. See where Uh, good evening members of the council.

Um, just identify yourself for the record. Um, Keith Bryan's, director of planning and economic development for the city. Um, unfortunately the planning consultant is uh not able to make it tonight, but we know we're prepared to uh go ahead. There's some members of the public here who are looking to speak on this issue.

I uh yeah the way I I don't want to I I don't want I mean I'm a I'm really disapp I'm disappointed about the consultant being here but I'm really disappointed. I mean it it's I know things happen. So I'm just going to leave it that. I'm not going to go on but I will give the residents of the city an opportunity to talk because they took their time to come here. I mean,

and then take notes and if they want to come back and when this gentleman ever woman decides to come, we we will have it. But I will obviously table uh number D for public hearing and we'll move to communications. Well, we we could have the public hearing. Well, without but and hear from, you know, the folks that showed up. That's what I'm saying. people who showed up, but we won't have the we won't have the, you

know, uh the vote. We won't vote tonight. Vote and we won't have the uh the the consultant, you know, answers or anything here. So, I mean, that's uh Well, we could do the public hearing tonight and then they can present. There wasn't going to be a vote tonight that wasn't on the agenda. It was strictly to start the public hearing. We're required by state law to at least have one public

hearing, right? But there was a vote block on this item on the agenda. on now.

We we we Oh, there is. Yeah. So, that's what I'm saying. So, we just want to be clear. We're not voting tonight, but we can still do a public We're going to open the public hearing. Absolutely. I'm going to allow, as I said before, I'm going to allow the public to speak. They they took the time out of this, but Absolutely. So, absolutely. With with that with that said, uh Madam uh Madame

Clerk, can you call up the first uh person under communication? Pete, did you have anything to add before? Yeah, I mean, we did have a brief presentation on this available for answer any questions too.

Um, so as you know, tonight's uh hearing is to request the city council adopt the comprehensive plan that we'll submit to the state for approval.

um two planning two two public hearings were already held by the planning board in which they recommended approval.

These were on uh April 26th of 24 and April 1st of this year.

Um there are a few reasons why municipalities should and need to have a an approved comprehensive plan. Um, the Rhode Island Comprehensive Planning and Land Use Act does require that every municipality does have a comprehensive plan. Um, it's a legal basis for local land use regulations and uh local land use decisions have to be consistent with the plan. Um, the the plan it's it's it's a

policy document that guides public and private investments in the city.

articulates a shared vision of city for city residents and once it's approved by the state programs and projects of state agencies are required to conform to it.

So it helps in uh almost guarding the city against the state doing things to us that we might not want them to do. Um and as the basis of our land use regulations, it also helps sort of uh fortify and adds justifications for our land use regulations when requests come before you when people ask you for zone changes or ask the planning board for uh for different land use approvals. Um so

as far as what's in the comprehensive plan, it's a big 300page document here.

Um it's a discussion about where we've been, where we are now. Um with data and trends, existing plans, studies, and projects and current needs. Looks at where we want to go with our future needs, vision, and goals. Um and how do we get there with the implementation schedule that spells out who should do what and what the priorities are over the next 10 20 years.

Um there's different elements or chapters on different topics like traffic, parks and recreation, neighborhoods and housing, economic development, natural hazards, climate change and more. Um as you know, it's been a long time coming. The bulk of the public engagement was held uh in 2021 with four ward meetings that discuss what needs to be protected, what should be transformed in the city. um various community

surveys uh and four topic meetings in the fall of of 2021. Um the planning board recently, like I mentioned, held two public public hearings in which they received some comments from the public on the plan.

Other input was received from interviews with city staff, meetings with city commissions and different committees um and the review of drafts of the plan by city departments, city commissions and also the division of statewide planning because the um division of statewide planning after the city council approves it does need to approve of the comprehensive plan. They've been reviewing drafts all along and they've

provided some feedback which has been added to the draft of the plan.

Um, as I mentioned, the implementation schedule spells out who the action leads are for all these recommendations. And when you add them all up, there's about 300 individual action items in the plan.

And you know, I won't go through every chapter here, but um one of the main things to pay attention to is the future land use map in the land use element of the plan. Um the future land use map, you can almost look at it as like a generalized zoning map. And the zoning map is supposed to conform with the future land use map.

Land use decision decisions are supposed to be oriented around that. Um there's different categories of uses that are recommended for properties like mixed use uh uh residential, low, medium or high density, commercial, um some special study areas in which the plan recommends additional study in certain areas and calling out different neighborhood centers where you know different uh investment is is needed

And yeah, the plan spells those out here.

Um, now at the last meeting we talked about um some of the information in the plan that was not up to date.

Um, you know, I think my response to that is that plans recommendations are the main thing.

There's about 50 tables, charts, graphs in the plan that um are not simple to update.

You know, we have a quote of almost $10,000 to update these, which in my opinion is really not necessary. I mean, I've gone through all the action items in the plan. None of them would really change based upon spending almost $10,000 to update that information.

Um the information talks about trends.

For example, housing getting more expensive and that's not changing. Um you know, updating that info would be nice, but it um really wouldn't lead to any change in the plan. Um, so you know, while different department heads might be before you asking to spend money on cost overruns and things like that, I'm sort of asking the opposite, that we don't spend almost $10,000 and updating some of this info,

which which wouldn't really lead to any significant change. You know, we can definitely go through and get rid of some smaller outdated information. You know, I I think somebody mentioned the residences at Riverside Square being under construction. Um I heard from the library director that they don't do farmers markets anymore that are in the plan. Things like that could easily be done. Um

you're right. The concept of them why spend money when we know it's already been built. We know the farmers market.

I agree with that. Mhm.

Um, yeah. And it would take more many months. You know, the council shouldn't rush through this process, but I think it would be they I think the concern was more of the data you use to make informed decisions. Mhm. Because this thing's been out of date since 2015. So, I know we had workshops and stuff and around 2020 2021 is when you got the bulk of your data. So if anything had changed in the last three

four years that may have which I don't think there's anything major that I saw.

So I think the trends you know things like housing a lot of these facts and figures are about housing affordability which has only gotten worse.

Yeah. Oh yeah. No I agree we don't need to spend 10,000 and you know the draft of the plan has been up on the website for a while. Mhm. Um yeah, with that I don't know if there's any questions.

Can I make a comment or again? Uh what I spoke about at the workshop and I definitely think and we do need affordable housing, real affordable housing in in the city of East to maintain and as I said in the press release as far as you know get you know keeping people here in the city who might have the house is too big for them now and they but they want to stay here.

We need to take care of, as Rick would say, we got to take care of townies. And I am not gonna let copper baggers come in from Boston and turn this city into many cookie cutter. There's a there's a distinct aviance of the city and we don't need to have Rumford and everybody every village has their own characteristics. We I don't want to be having done much travel with my uh boys playing college sports

down south. I don't need to have every every city looking the same as new new developments. I think that's what makes East Providence appealing. I also uh I also look here and there's issues as far as uh the public safety aspect of the city as we continue to grow.

Uh we have an apparatus. There's basically more more calls coming. You you're talk about you you briefly hit upon I mean, and there's talk about the station in Riverside being sort of outdated and to the point where both stations and there's going to be there's going to be potentially more building on the Wenog trail or potent, you know, they're saying that them for them to get there is an issue. So, we can't put the

people who are going to move in there at a disadvantage. And again, the rest of the city at a disadvantage because the apparatus is coming from a from a farther location and that just strains the rest of the uh problem. I mean, uh, our neighboring city in Pucket, I mean, they're they're taxed. They're taxed out where a lot of times they can't in my ward, which is right there. I we got to

wait for we got to wait for apparatus to come in from Providence, Cranston, even sometime War and elsewhere where you would think the natural the natural city would be Pucket, but they're, you know, they're uh they're they're at their uh max capacity and we shouldn't rely on other people to do the job that we should provide to our residents. Thank you.

So overall the document I thought was was very good. There was so much good stuff that you know some of it has to be refined. We got to hear the public get their thoughts and some stuff may be refined. Um the stuff on the arts and stuff like that I I was the guy who founded the arts council. So reading that stuff was very cool. Um the land use protected uh wooded areas. It just

reinforced that I've been saying Sakone Woods should not be developed and the comprehensive plan now backs that up. So I was very good with that. Um this transportation if we keep trying to push density density density well you want density that's going to take away parking. People need to get around and we're not a a walkable city you know we people they have to get into their car

to get places. So the transportation part is definitely something we need to look into. Um so there's a lot of good stuff. Some should be refined to protect certain assets. Um but overall I I you know couple things. I didn't bring my notes that I want to see tweaked but um you know overall I think it's uh decent.

And again a comprehensive plan is like our northstar. It's our guide. It's it's not set in stone. Like if it say doesn't say specific wording, that doesn't mean you can't do it. But if the overall intent of what we're trying to do matches what the comprehensive plan saying, then we're good. So overall, I I I was very happy with it. Yeah, that that's right. It is a policy document and the more especially with the land

use part of it, the real rules come in in the zoning ordinance.

Councilman Fogy, do you have anything to add? One thing that Councilman Fogetty has talked about in the past and with all this new buildup and I we I didn't ask the question last week. I didn't ask the question last week. Sorry.

uh where where's our capacity in regards to sewer and water with the all these additional as Rick says you know more density obviously that means more people turning more people taking showers more pe people people drinking water more people flushing the b you know flushing uh where out where I think we were at 43% but that's before East Point I think's going to Narro Bay up in

Rumford. So the one in Riverside I think was at 43% but now you still got Meta Comet coming. So um I don't think we're going to be at over 60% I would say maybe Patricia or the department uh head can is Barington is anything coming from Barington into the uh Riverside uh Bar.

So yeah, they're still connected. 43 includes uh Barington. Okay. It's the overall capacity. Okay. Just want to make sure. Yeah. And I've always heard that we have ample capacity as far as utilities go. Um, you know, sometimes with developments, you you may need to upgrade certain things, a pump station in that area or a certain pipe, but generally that there is a lot of capacity here. Okay. Director, I would

like to thank you for your time. Thank you. And I guess now we'll turn it over to the public comment from the residents.

Is there a key?

And and this is a public hearing. So if you didn't sign up for public comment, you can still get up and speak.

That was illegible on your signing sheet. No, I actually walked in after you guys started, so it's not my name.

Oh.

Right.

Many please.

I I I we're on the topic of the comprehensive plan and public and and it's a public hearing in the comprehensive plan. Okay. Thank you. And could for yourself, could you identify your name and address? Hold on one second. Did someone sign in? We can't read your name. Looks like a H or a K or N or M on the maybe last name begins with an A. Maybe.

Maybe. Yes. We I'm sorry. We could not read it. Two of us. All right. So, why don't you let go first? Yeah, because she did sign in for the public hearing.

Sorry about that.

Sorry about that.

Oh, Heather Andred, uh, Trail. Thank you. U, good evening. Uh, allow me to read you something from the 2003 comprehensive plan concerning the preservation of the Veterans Memorial Parkway, page 37. Retain its existing right-of-way width in its entirety as undeveloped and green open spaces. No subdivision or development of the right of way and existing unpaved portion of the right of way or row shall remain

green and open space. There shall be no new utility installations in the unpaved portion of the parkways row. Installation of new utilities above or below ground shall be prohibited. As we can see on the Parkway today, the 2003 comp plan was not followed at all. All of these proclamations and restrictions for preserving public land as green and open space have literal literally fallen to

the wayside and can be witnessed by all who travel on the historic parkway today. Kettle Point and University author were allowed to use the public land of the VMP for exits and entrances.

In fact, Kettle Point roadway is on former Squamwoods land. How did that happen? How were all these instances able to happen if EP is following the current plan, including the update to 2010 and 2015? Is anyone in the city hall following the comp plan or is it just for show? Now 2025 2035 comp plan is up for review and there is minimal minimal mention of any protection for this eligible for national register of

historic places and also eligible for national scenic byway status roadway and it's an apparently coveted by developers border borders no protection the gates and latent stewardship of vets parkway is left hanging by a thread as developer after developer vi for their share of the profits they will acquire by using public land for private gains. While reviewing the 20 comp plan, I implore

each and every one of you on this council to hold up to account the previous written protections for the VMP and its borders and stick to preserving and protecting it for real, not just in writing that will be forgotten or ignored once again by city hall and its friends. but a valid effort to look over the VMP waterfront district section and make sure that the 2003 comp plan directives are added back into this 2025

proposed comprehensive plan. Why when new information is coming from the public archaeological laboratory or PAL that the archaeological survey being conducted on the metac land and the vets parkway is revealing indigenous artifacts from hundreds and hundreds of years ago. Is the Parkway not getting the protection it needs from East Providence City Hall?

And why on page 257 is East Providence not include on the current not included in the SOM's heritage area as as Jones Ponds and associated areas have been touted in many publications as being part of the heritage area.

To be honest, I am looking to this council to answer the question why the 2003 comp plan protections concerning the VMP are not being carried over the into the 2025 comp plan. And will you all make an effort to put those protections and directives back in the comp plan where they belong? And if not, why not?

Heather, I want to I want to very clearly get where you guys are coming from. So the kettle point entrance the comprehensive plan says we're going to maintain like the beauty of it. So what is the issue with the kettle point entrance when it comes? Well, because I just want to fully understand where you guys are coming from. The BMP that's BMP land that was land like part of the

entrance, right? But the but as far as like the beautifification part, stuff like that. It still maintains the the be it could be in the eye of the beholder, but but we could have maintained it and still had you know it be public land. It should it's supposed to be public land.

So, you're saying you would have preferred that those columns on the side of the entrance not be there and it just be flat? Well, nope. Um, I would prefer that the area that was Squantum Woods was still Squanum Woods and not part of the Kettle Point roadway. That's what I prefer in both places. Point. Yes. So, you know, so you got the parking lot of Squanum Woods, right? And then to the

right of it, that roadway, the Pedle Point roadway was Squanum Woods.

Okay.

Um, they buy that maps. Yeah. I don't know how it got that way. So, going for I drive the Parkway every day. Yeah. The only other thing would be the uh meta comment entrance cuz when you keep going north, I don't see any more development on the Parkway. Correct. Cuz on the left hand side facing the water, we're not developing anything there. But on the Well, that's not true. across a meta

comet. But if you keep going straight, you know, you got the bike path. Yeah.

What about the uh solar? You mean where the the wind farm is going to be or where the the Live Nation wind farm and then there's the Live Nation? What wind?

You mean the marine terminal? No, the the It's not a wind farm. What terminal?

It's It's an assembly plant. What is it?

That's it. Yeah. It's a It's going to be a marine terminal. It's It's where they can um the materials come in. There's going to be nothing flying in. Yeah.

Yeah. There's going to be nothing. No, no, no. But they again, we got a change in the federal government. So, wind energy may not happen. But, um, that's just going to be a lay down area where they just put them together, put them on the ship, bring them right out to sea.

Oh, well, Live Nation that will go there. Yeah. Um, and then Live Nation's other um area across from Metac will be developed. It used to be village on the waterfront. So, yep. Yeah. So, every single one of those other developments on the other side is going to add more traffic, more um intersection with the Veterans Memorial Parkway, never mind.

Well, I think the Rotary is going to be the only thing because you'll be able to enter Metacama and the waterfront side.

Yeah. Well, here's the thing. You You know, we're against the Rotary. I am, too. Yeah. So, yeah. So, I mean, I I I believe that there's a there's it's it's public land. It should not be used for private gains. It's public land, right?

But it's a road. So it it's land. Yeah.

But it it's it benefits the community because that road leads access to the waterfront, which is the whole intent of why we want to have some development so townies can finally enjoy the 14 miles of coastline that we have. Well, we should have been smart enough to buy some of that land instead of giving it.

You're preaching to the choir. But afterwards, um, the borders are also about 2003. I'm sorry. And you you bring up about 2003 and I've been hesitant to say it. At one time I was on the tax board review here and there that's the time that your main item could have been bought by the city, but there's people who want who aren't alive today. And there's people who are alive today that now say keep metcom green

that they stopped us from buy. We could have had that on a tax sale. They they were in so much a rare with this city.

But so you're preaching to the fire. No, but they could have it could have been done and that's what led to why we have a change of form of government now. And we're doing our best. The horse is out of the the horse per se is out of the bonnet on some of these things. But you go back to 20 thou that's why we were having musical chairs with city managers. We were having state police

investigations on all sorts of things.

Council people getting investigated, city managers getting investigated. We had to pay out a an absorbent amount of money because council people were stupid with a city manager. So I support you.

The time was then and and I got off the I got off the tax board because when I got on the board of elections in ' 03, the time was there. The former assessor wanted it, but people in politics and some of them now say keep Metaccom green. They were the problem. Not Bob Dilva, not this council, not the last council. They started this ball rolling and unfortunately it was a bad ball

rolling. And so now I want to stop that ball and put those protections and uh um directives that were in that 2003 back into the 2025. So we can we can put that language in. But again, this is a policy. This is not you can or can't. So we can put in language that says we want to maintain the beautiful aesthetics. maintain the beautiful parkway that we have but we can't say oh

you're you're two feet over you can't Am I being clear you are so the intent absolutely we support but this is just a policy document way more than 12 feet it's way more than 12 feet that is on that is public land right but the comp plan will just say every effort has to be made to maintain the beauty of the parkway well I can help you write that

too right but but it's not going to stop Well, because if they say we need a road going into this area, we need a road, you know.

Totally get it. Totally get it. But I want we we want that protection for that BMP because it is full of history. Full of history. And as as as Pal is is seeing, you know, because they're doing the boundaries of uh the public archaeological survey, they're doing the boundaries of the metacomt, too. And they have found stuff on the vets. Well, to be fair, all of East Proidence, all

of America was indigenous. Totally know.

But you know, just let me remind you that this is suspected that that metac comment is suspected of having a a uh a city a native again all of these problems. I'm just saying. But anyways, my But yeah, no, we get it. We can we can look into that language. Thank you so much. I just wanted, you know, for almost three years, I've held that in and and shame on those people because we you wouldn't

you shouldn't be here today if they had done the right thing for the citizens back then. And I know we're doing our best. Everybody in city government now is trying to do our best to make sure that these ill advised decisions don't happen again. Thank you very much. I appreciate that.

Next person to speak on the comp plan is K. Eric Crook.

All right, I guess we'll try it again. Uh, yeah. Thank you all. My name is uh Eric Crook. Uh, I am a member of the planning board. Uh, I also would suggest that you accept me as an expert in the field. I have a master's degree in city and regional planning from Ruckers University. I have a bachelor's hold you against the Big 10 school. So, you know, I won't hold you against that. You know,

I I almost got a football scholarship there when I was a kid. I don't know why, but you know. Thank you. I uh my bachelor's degree is in forest management uh from the University of Washington. Uh I worked in municipal planning in the state of New Jersey.

I worked on three separate master plans.

A comp plan in New Jersey is obviously a a master plan to them. Uh uh Saber Saberville uh what was the other big one? Oh, Edison, which is where all the uh you know the chemical plants are. The environmental section was very short.

And uh I also worked on Patterson which was actually citizen comparable a city comparable to this. Uh following that I worked for the MTA in New York. I worked on the strategic business plan. I was also the transportation coordinator for the Bronx.

uh and it's it's with regards to the um strategic business plan which was three volumes and it took about four years to write um that I wanted to uh apprise you to give you a better sense of um as Rick commented and Rick and I both the way don't agree very often but It's true even to any of us what I get it right but but it's quite true right that the comprehensive plan is the north

star right and one of the reasons why I'm here speaking now is because this plan does need to be passed now right away because it makes us it makes things difficult for us on the planning board to make decisions about new development when we know we are still living with an old set of rules, right? And there is a new set of rules that's right around the corner that in some respects might be more

liberal, in some respects might be more conservative. Right? and it's come up on a number of occasions in the last two years. Um I will also confess that uh in helping the planning department uh I was the last one to get to edit the plan and I threw in about 35 changes or 35 pages I think it was. It was a lot.

There were a lot of changes that I put in at the end. I read every word of the plan. It took me over 20 hours. Um I I took Amtrak down to Maryland for an event. And so I read it on the train down and I read it on the train back and I read it in between in the hotel room and whatever. Um but I reviewed every bit of

it. Um now let me say this about the data, right? And I have a suggestion for the council in this regard. Um it's been said again and again and again that a planning document is a snapshot right?

Um, one of the things that we frequently did at the MTA, uh, is we provided quarterly statistical updates of the information that you're interested and the planning department is interested and the mayor is interested in knowing about and the citizens of the city are interested in knowing about we want to know what's happening with housing starts, right? We we have a sense that they're increasing, but what are the

numbers? There are probably about four or five key indicators that are fairly easy to collect, right? Like certificates of occupancy, defaults right?

um things from the education department, right? New students arriving, right? These are kind of the kind of thing that very very simply um Keith can have his people, right?

make a couple phone calls and at the end of each quarter you get a two-page update and everybody sees right where the trend lines are going.

One of the things that was important between the initial stages of this comprehensive plan and what it finally became was that we added more data points If you take two points in space and draw a line between them, you don't know where the curve is.

That's just a straight line. You don't know if there's an inflection and it's going up or for that matter that the inflection is curving down. And in a master plan, you can only see the big picture. You can see where the North Star is, right? And if you take a picture of it, you're not going to realize that it moved three light years to the left to the right, right? Because it's just too

far distant. Well, that's what you're dealing with here, right? And so in order to give everybody what they need to do their job, it's time to pass this master plan or comprehensive plan.

Right? It's time to do that and move on.

And I would suggest you folks get together, send a request to the mayor that the planning department simply provide quarterly updates of key city statistics. Right. I have to say not too many, in fact, I don't even know of any cities in Rhode Island that even go that far, right? But if you want to have a better understanding of where things are, and by the way, you know else, who else will look at that report?

local developers because they want to see if towns are on the decline or they're on the rise.

So saying that home sales were up 12% in the first quarter year-over-year tells you one piece of information. But the price of those sales provides something that's even much more fundamentally important.

So, what I'm suggesting to you now is it's time to get this thing, you know, on the record and get it passed. And all those other pieces of information that you're looking for, right, are something that actually we should be tracking in this city on a regular basis, right? One last point. Um I know that um the comment was made that the data that you get in the master plan it seems

old. You also need to understand the underlying process. The census was done in 2020. But the data from the census really doesn't come out until about January, two years later.

Right. Uh federal economic tracking data is usually done in the mi in the middle year. In other words, it would be done in 2025.

Now, uh you mentioned before with this new administration, are they going to do it right? I mean it that's something that needs to be funded but economic tra t trends state by state is a very very important piece of information and you'd like to know that because you're tracking what's happening in your community and you want to see how you stack up against rest of Rhode Island and you want to see how you're doing

compared to Barington and Cranston and wherever else right um Those are the kind of things that us planners I mean you know we love that stuff right but what's important is everybody in the town wants to know you know is their quality of life improving is it getting poorer right and having this plan in place and having it available for everybody and knowing that it's basically the word of

the city tonight. It's time to do that.

So, I thank you for your time, gentlemen. Eric, before you go, go ahead. I I'll be happy to take any questions. So, first, we're ready to pull the trigger. We We were I think when we first started this council, we were asking about the comp plan. So, it's just a m if we had the two other members, we we'd probably consider a vote. So, we're ready to pull the trigger. So, it's not going to take a

while. Um I I'm I'm wonky, too. I like to read documents. I like to read data to understand things. In your professional opinion, the census, I believe, put us at about 48,000 residents, right? Since then, we've probably added over a,000 house and use it. Christine Apartments, Burnside, Hopkins, Vanco, all that. So, just say one person occupied those housing units.

So, that puts us maybe around 49, though. We still got Metac coming on. We still got East Point being built out.

Capionado still got the property up in uh uh Newport A, right? What is a number of residents you think would be comfortable for a city like East Province? Wow. Yeah. Because I I think that's an important question in this process because if we say with our infrastructure and stuff maybe 50 51 52 that's going to kind of guide us too in the type of housing projects like should we be building large scale apartment

complexes should we focus on single family homes is that what we should be permitting okay it's a good qu that's a really good point a good question and I'll have to say that when you finished the first part of your question, the number that immediately stuck stuck in my head was 55. 55. Okay. All right. And but but I also if you go back to the old plan and look at some of the old old data,

um I think you'll see that there were time periods when the city's population was substantially higher with a smaller housing base.

Well, that's well that's because families were having four and five and in where I grew up in Rford, some really good Catholic families were having up to 10, you know, up to 10 kids.

You're absolutely right and that's the point because what that really means is the sections that are in the comprehensive plan about social change, right, are just as important as everything else because a less crowded household I would say probably is a a positive for quality of life, right? uh a and and but by the same time talking about that 55 in the limit um of you know how far is population growth going

to be before you get overcrowded. The transportation element in the plan is one of the key pieces.

But one of the things that hasn't been mentioned, and I thought that this was a really strong section of what we had in the plan, was the pedestrian circulation portions, right? Because there was a real effort to make street crossings safer, right?

And that was a very extensive part of the plan. I in fact I'll say this just to back up on that that question. When I first looked at the plan after it was you know complete um there was obviously another big delay because of COVID. Yes.

Right. Absolutely. And so that's another reason why the numbers came you know late and that's why the census numbers may be skewed as well. Yes. Exactly. So, and and well, not only that, but there's this there's this political effort to skew data, right? And I mean, I'm not going to get into who's the bad guys and who's the good guys, but it happens.

However, I would say in this particular community, I think that that would be much less of an issue than you would see across the river in Providence. Agree.

Right. Um so that's another element that you know we would have to take into account. Um the core point though is that you mentioned if you had the housing data right and and you know Keith's people put together and in fact Patrick's sitting right back there and he's probably got the right phone numbers in his rolodex. So there you have it. you know, you can make a couple phone calls and you can find out exactly

how many, you know, new new home units were got the CO, right? Because that's the key piece, right?

And I would in a case like this, use your existing um occupancy data, you know, how many people per household, do a little bit of math, right? I also said, you know, you want to look at defaults. You want to have a measure of who's left, right? And you could pretty well within probably plus or minus 2%. Right. Track population change in the city. I mean, it's certainly doable. Thank you. Right.

Thank you. Right. want to thank you and everybody on the planning board for the you do to make this city a better place.

Well, I thank you for that. I thank you on beha on all of their behalf. Um but then in that case, um I would turn around and thank everybody in the planning department because it's their diligence, right? Those are the guys in the trenches. We we're coming into budget season. They might want a pay raise. So, you know, don't don't give them too many kudos. But anyways, thank you. Thank you again for your your

everybody on the planning board for their time and effort and you know being a volunteer organization. You're welcome and I appreciate the opportunity to speak to you all. Thank you and I read your emails but we were coming into re you know session and everything. I like to keep an open mind. So thank you sir.

Thank you too. Thank you all. Bye-bye.

Handy sale comp plan.

State your name for the record, please.

Yes. Um, Candy Seal, S Eel, uh, South Rose Street, East Providence, Rhode Island. Thank you. Thank you, Council President. Before I begin my remarks, I wanted to clarify what you were saying about the connection between opposition to a tax lean on Metaccomat and keep Metaccomat green. You didn't mean to imply that we were against a tax lean. I hope. No, I what I said was in two in 99

989 when there was an opportunity with tax lans for this city to take like we do with poor people, you know, when people are behind in their water bills are on that. The time wasn't then to take control of that country club. I did not say you were against it. I was saying that if the t if if the people had the intestinal fortitude at that time to do the right thing cuz if that

was your property, my property and everybody else out here, we would be in a tax sale, of course. But people who you know very well that might have even been a neighbor of yours at one time and I'll leave it at that and a lot of people kibbashed it and that's the reason why you are up here all the time and you know that's the reason why the city's in the was in

the mess. That's why there was a uh the state took over the city. That's why under the last eight years with the mayor, former government and this council and the past council, we're rectifying all the all the ills of three votes. You know, let's keep this, you know, let's three votes. If we don't like it, we'll fire. We'll get a new city manager to go our way. So, you can

say what you want about the mayor, this council, the last council. But you know what? I'm not in here. I I'm not in here on, you know, and people have called a couple of us and they've called the mayor Krooks. I'm not here for anything for myself. I have a business, well, two businesses that I'm involved with, you know, one I I'm not here to line my pockets. I'm here to when I'm done, if

it's next time, if people don't want to vote me back in, I know that I tried my best to make the city better. And I applaud you for that. and your efforts wouldn't have you wouldn't be up here right now if back 22 years ago or even before that and people did the right thing in this city but the right thing was not always the right thing. Thank you council vice president. Um obviously we've only been

in existence for four years and 11 months was celebrating our fifth uh our fifth anniversary of existence and on July 3rd. Um but thank you for that clarification.

I begin by noting that um both director Brins and and Mr. Crook mentioned um the importance of the comprehensive plan to the city, the decisions that are made. Mr. Brenn said, Director Brenn said it was a a policy document by which decisions are made. Um Mr. Crook said it was a not a cornerstone but whatever whatever word you said it was a policy um a north star yes a north star to guide decisions

in this city um we've been working on this comprehensive plan since 2021 um I believe this is the second time that we've heard that it it's got to be done it's got to be rushed you got to make decisions this is 2025 um I don't see a need to rush. The current comprehensive plan is the comprehensive plan until a revision is made. And to my remarks, if I may. Thank you again, council president,

vice president. Good evening. Yeah.

Don't tell don't stop passing that.

He'll be thinking I have a good over here. Bob would be very upset. Um I'm here to comment briefly on the 2025 2035 comprehensive plan. A comparison of this draft with the current 20102 2015 plan shows a number of inconsistencies between the two. The current 2010 plan states on page 49. In 1992, the state designated the Veterans Memorial Parkway as a scenic roadway under the state's

scenic roadway program. The roadway was designed by Olmstead Brothers in the early 20th century and is eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places. The Veterans Memorial Parkway represents a truly unique transportation experience in the urban suburban core. This roadway, however, serves as a major north south corridor, delivering thousands of automobiles from Riverside to the I 195 Carter daily.

Recent design plans for the city's waterfront properties in the vicinity of the parkway have proposed potential improvements to mitigate expanding traffic numbers, the potential for congestion, delays, and visual impacts to the parkway. Excuse me. The final sentence, the city will continue to emphasize preservation of the parkway scenic character while recognizing that careful design

options must be considered in order to maintain safety and transportation efficiency. The above paragraph on page 92 of the draft plan, which you're considering now, is virtually identical with one major exception. The final sentence is omitted, namely the language that the city will continue to emphasize preservation of the parkway scenic character while recognizing that careful design options must be considered in

order to maintain safety and transportation efficiency. The commitment of the city to emphasize preservation of the parkway scenic character has been eliminated. On page 110 of the current plan, a map is featured. Map 11, East Providence Historic Resources. This map identifies every historic resource in the city, including Veterans Memorial Parkway. However, on page 203 of the draft plan under consideration map

HCA.1, East Providence Historic Resources does not include the Parkway. Is the Parkway no longer an historic resource?

Director Brins mentioned that uh maps and charts and this and that weren't being updated, but obviously this one was. Finally, on page 118 of the 2010 plan, Veterans Memorial Parkway, a state designated scenic roadway, offers a pleasant scenic drive in the western part of East Providence. As noted in Ocean State Outdoors state guide plan element 152, green space along our major public roads needs to be recognized for

the importance of aesthetic and functional roles. Waterfront development district projects along the parkway will be executed with full regard to preserving this roadway's unique attributes.

The draft plan under consideration on page 243 rehashes information from the earlier section on page 96, adding the parkway forms at the eastern boundary of the Bold Point Harbor and Veterans Memorial Parkway subdists, both of which emphasize maintaining scenic view corridors and development that is consistent with the area's historic character. This is good. However, there is no mention here of acknowledging the

state's guide plan. There's no recognition of the importance of green space along major public roads and its aesthetic and functional roles. Perhaps most importantly, the sentence about waterfront district projects being executed with full regard to preserving the roadways unique attributes is nowhere to be found. At the planning board's public hearing on April 1st, planning director,

planning department director Brin said that there was no need to include specific action items regarding the parkway in the new plan. He explained that the 2003 waterfront district plan, which includes specific parkway protection and preservation language, will be included in the new comprehensive plan as it is currently and therefore further detail is unnecessary. This is all well and good

under the current waterfront district plan. However, it is likely that the waterfront commission will be revising the waterfront district plan soon. It is being talked about now. Conceivably, the commission with a future council's approval could choose to eliminate all references to parkway preservation. If the language of parkway preservation in the draft comprehensive plan has already been stripped out

within the next few weeks or months, there would be no protective language at all.

This may seem absurd and it would be, but consider that through the long process of approving the Metaccomat development, the planning department, planning board, and waterfront commission showed little if any concern about parkway preservation. The concern throughout seems to have been accommodate accommodation for the needs of the developer. I ask you to take a stand now. I ask you to insist that language

be restored to the new comprehensive plan that acknowledges both the historic sign significance of the parkway and the city's continued emphasis on the preservation of its scenic character.

Please do not allow anyone to cavalerely strip out the very language that protects it. Thank you. Uh I have one question and hope I can answer it. I don't I don't know if you said it, but I didn't hear it. And that could be because I was moving pages. But on page 243 of this plan, it says Veterans Memorial Parkway was designed by the Premier Homestead Landscape Architect Firm and is associated with the Great

Metropolitan Park Plan for Providence.

The Parkway is not currently listed on the National Register of Historic Places, but is seen as eligible for recommendations. The Parkway forms the eastern boundaries of Bold Point Harbor and Veterans Memorial Parkway subdists both of maintaining scenic view corridors and developments that is consistent with the area's historic character. And I I I ask you this question because obviously you've done

more due diligence on this than myself and probably anybody up here other than Rick at one time being on the waterfront commission. What paperwork would it take to, you know, be eligible for the n to be seen as eligible for the national historical register?

Well, we'd be delighted. We'd be delighted to see that happen. Um I'm not sure what I'm not sure exactly what paperwork there is. I think Heather is much more involved with that and might know. Um we do need um we do need encouragement from the city. We at one time asked for um if there could there was a grant eligible um a grant that could have been devoted to um doing a

survey survey of the parkway which would have been crucial to furthering the uh nomination to the registry and the administration chose not to do that. Um, I think if we could revive that, if we could get the survey that had this talked about for months now, um, that would be, um, that would go a long way.

Uh, I mean, the state in 1991, I believe it is, um, I mean, they they literally approved some state agency literally approved it and then it got lost somewhere along the way. So we'd have to kind of revisit that. But I mean, yeah, I mean, so the planning department and the planning board did do their due diligence and point it out. So I mean so we have a I mean that

wasn't I just wanted that to be read into the record so that there is the way and if if we can and if we can do that and again as a person who has lived here my whole life I think what's going on in the parkway now is better than seeing Shell AO uh Philip 66 all tankers up and down the city. So I that side, the other side, not the country club side. I think it's

a vast improvement cuz I'd rather look at development going on there than look at oil tanks and seeing it was fun driving by with my parents and grandparents. Oh, here's an AO truck or Texico or anything. But that's that's not what it is. And again, it laid barren for so long. And to the credit of Senator Ions at the time, Senate President, he spent money on the Brownfields acts and the leaders of the

city at the time under the old former government basically said "Uhhuh."

So, and I can tell you from my my business that there was a brewery from Seattle, Washington that wanted to build there and it was prior it was in that time frame after Brownfield and they they got nothing from the city. They they got absolutely nothing. But I say I applaud you for what you're doing and doing this. But I think what's going on, I'd rather see stuff going on there than to see oil

tankers and see Texico and Aco and golf trucks and Shell up and down and smelling that hideous smell all the time. That's not what you you lived in the neighborhood and that's not what the people over near Pier Stadium deserve.

So I thank you. So I think the city is making some kind I you know if you people can do you know it can I'm willing to listen to see what has to happen here. I mean you know how long the process and everything I think it's a fair thing you know you're asking us to put together some sort of a presentation finding out what it would take and you will um and then

again I'm only one vote I don't know where my council's going to go. I will say the stuff I deal at Crescent Park with the historical folks. I'm not voting for any historical folks to take control of anything. All right. No, I'm just saying again I'm one of five.

That's what I mean. Others may feel different. I'm one of I'm one of five and I'm trying again as I said earlier I'm trying to preserve where you know we can't go in the Delorean with you know Doc Brown to go back to 1984 but we need to preserve the unique beauty of this city but again we got to move forward so the language says we'll make every effort to preserve the scenic who

defines what scenic beauty is when it comes to the parkway you don't want see that's why this is a policy document it doesn't clearly define. So they could turn around and say well this looks good and technically it fits in what the comprehensive guide. So um sure Heather come up this my last word u council vice president is that I'm we can have a debate about um what looks good on the side of the

parkway at another point but if the language that is currently in the current comprehensive plan were put back in if the parkway was reincluded on the um map of historic places. If the language that says how important the parkway is to the city and its preservation were re returned to the comprehensive plan, then that would that would um be a wonderful thing. Thank you for your time. Well, thank you. And

again, and I applaud your uh I applaud everybody's efforts in their uh being passionate over an issue is something that I I I get accused of being passionate over things in Ward One and I want to commend all you people for being passionate for what you believe in.

Thank you.

So, um, the Parkway is actually designated as a, um, scenic roadway by the state and it's eligible. It meets all six qualifications for a national scenic roadway byway. So, that's who officially determines the scenic view and what you would need work. If we want to do something, we got to get their permission. Yes. Yeah. See, that's why I'm against that. I I want East Providence to control our own matter if

you're against it or not honestly because it's it's the law. It's a scenic byway um commission and so they they when something is being done on the highway I mean on the Parkway um they are consulted they are supposed to be consulted about the goings on and stuff like that. Um, as far as getting the um, we can definitely I think we have a presentation for the thing, but as far

as we would need a survey of the boundaries of the parkway and uh, we actually would be willing to go we have a we had a fundraiser to to uh, generate money for this survey. So, we do have some money to be put towards this. We need a landscape um architect to do the to do the survey. And so if anybody if any other group or anything wants to also put together the money for the

survey, that's what you need. And then you need to do the nomination form. So that has to go the nomination form has to go in with the survey and then you send it to um um national parks. But you know the East Province Historical Society and the commission will um also can also be involved. So that's what that that's what needs to be done.

Thank you. Yeah. Thank you.

Next uh and next on the list of Dave vote in he's also on the comp plan.

That's sorry about my handwriting. Is Dan Yes. Dan Dan Bodwin. I live at 48 Kettle Point in East Providence. Um I also uh I'm a retired city planner. So I practice for about 30 years in mostly in Providence. A lot of historic preservation going on there.

also have a masters in city planning and a BA in e economics and I just wanted to say first thing I think this plan is a very good plan the entire plan what is it 300 pages or 1600 pages I mean it's a lot of work and I know the planners and the planning board have worked very hard to get it done and has a lot of great information in there there's just one

area that I think a little more focus is needed and I'm going to reinforce what Candi said and what Heather said there is wording in there about the vets but I think it needs a a little more focus.

And I'm going to suggest two suggested changes that Candy already made just to reinforce that. Now, it's important to know that the road is owned by DEM. DEM took this property. The predecessor DEM took the property back in the 1930s. So, between DEM and RI and Ryot manages the traffic, but DEM actually owns it according to the emails that I've seen.

And then the state historic preservation commission also has a lot to say about it. So, it's a state property. So the state ultimately decides what to do with it. Um why is it significant? Why is it nominated? You already mentioned some council vice president as to why it has been done but I want to read you from the um nomination form. is significant for its association with the greater

metropolitan park plan for Providence which was done like in 1910 1915 part of an overall plan for the metropolitan area that included parks connected by parkways just like the vets association with the Mstead brothers I mean internationally renowned architects and they did a major project right here in East Providence and for its development as an example of the parkway movement in the early 20th century. So

you may as you travel around see other parkways mostly built around the 1910 1920s. This was part of that movement.

So that was one of the the main reasons.

But it's also interesting to know that it was developed by the Metropolitan Parks Commission. This was set up in 1903.

It had a board consisting of public officials from all the cities and towns in the central part of Providence, nonforprofits as well as private citizens. They worked from 1903 or four up till the mid 1930s enormous amount of park projects and parkways and they set the foundation for the state park system today. A lot of what you see the state park came out of that movement. Now, in trying to um not

protect, but at least honor their legacy, we should really take a hard look at what happens to that parkway.

These gentlemen, these women, they work countless hours on a volunteer basis and had to struggle through how to get money to build this parkway. But in addition to that, it was so popular to try to get this done that land owners donated land. Companies and individuals donated landscaping, laborers donated their labor. It is enormously successful. It's a great legacy. All right. It's a great legacy

and I think we should make sure that whatever happens there protects their legacy as well as the scenic values and the historic values. So I'm just going to reinforce two suggested changes. One is that change to uh page 92 which uh Candy mentioned to include for some reason it was taken out. The city will continue to emphasize preservation of the parkway scenic character while recognizing that careful

design options must be considered in order to maintain safety and transportation efficiency. Who's against that? I don't know why that's not there.

I don't know. The other change is the map uh that no longer the historic resources no longer recognize that the vets exist as a historic resource. Why?

I don't know. It's eligible for national register. It should very least be footnoted on there or somehow recognized. So there's someone flipping through this draft and say what's on the historic resources? They wouldn't even know if they're not from here that uh the vets is a historic resource. So those are my two suggested changes.

Pretty simple. Keith, is there a reason why that language was taken out? Was it even discussed or was it the specific lines that they're saying that were removed from the old one? Is there a rationale behind why it was removed?

Not that I know of. I don't know of any specific reason for that. Would it be ownorous to put it back in? No, I don't think so. As well as the map. Yeah, and the map too. I mean, okay. The map shows actual National Register um sites in districts. Okay. Right. The parkway is eligible. It's been deemed eligible by the state. So, we can have something on there, you know, showing the Parkway

is eligible. Okay. Thank you. Thank you.

Take care of that for the next meeting.

Is that satisfactory, Candy, that they put that language back in?

Okay.

only. Yeah, it's a public hearing. Yeah.

No, absolutely. Only one.

Okay.

Thank you, sir, for your uh I'm Yeah.

Thank you for for the great input. I I just want to uh say that the maps didn't say that these historic places were on the National Register. It said that they were historic resources.

So, um, the Parkway is definitely a historic resource and it should be put back in. Thank you very much. Thank you again.

Is is there anybody else to speak on this issue of it's a public meeting? Is there anybody else on the list?

Not for the comp plan, though. Okay. Uh, is anybody else want to speak on the comp plan?

Patrick, with all your knowledge, you're good. I just want to recognize you've been a long asset to this city. So, Patrick Hannannah uh is in the audience.

So, I just wanted to recognize you and you've more than free to come up and add anything because you you are an institution in this city now. I mean, I'm not saying you're old, but you've been here the longest, so you have you know, I appreciate it.

Thank you. Okay. Uh going once, twice. Uh as nobody else wants to speak on the comp plan, we will uh Joel, I'm sorry. I would I don't want to speak on the comp plan. I would just suggest that we uh as far as the public hearing on the comp plan, I suggest we continue it. Yeah.

Keep it open in case there are people who want to speak at the next meeting when we do vote on it. You need a motion and a vote on that. I need a motion to keep it open. I make a motion that we keep it open.

Uh do I have a second?

Second.

All those in favor? I Okay, the opposed.

The eyes have it. Thank you for that guidance.

Next person to speak on public comment is Nancy Hail.

Hi Nancy. Hi. How are you? State your name and the address. Nancy Hale, 889 Bulocks Point Avenue. And hi Rick. A lot. What I wrote in the small space there was uh to sort of catch up. I've got a few miscellaneous things. sort of like a checklist, but you might not have an update on everything not knowing I was going to follow up.

Okay.

Um, following Robin's rules of law and request and everything, I need you to follow what you requested for the city, which was the safety data from the city of East Providence. Wait a minute.

That's communications and I didn't see that listed. This is public comment. Oh, public. I'm sorry. It's okay. that I don't know why it didn't get on, but that's okay. Okay. So, you can talk on that, too. Okay. But public Oh, that'll be another time. Okay. Because I don't I don't really know what happened. Public uh comment public comment. So, the checklist geese anything on geese at

Cresantbark? No. And I will be honest, I'm doing some internet research and did that I'm not find Yeah. And hunting is one way of keeping geese population under control, but that's not good in public. I know. I know. And I haven't found yet. I'm still digging around, but um I don't like you said hunting. We're not going to allow hunting on a real concrete answer yet, which is I wish I

had, but I don't. It's understandable.

Yeah. Um Oldm School feasibility, when is that going to be disc? This Thursday night, we are going to have a feasibility study. Thursday night.

Wednesday night at Oldm School or June 4th. What's What's today? Okay. Oh, it's tomorrow. So, June feasibility study will be presented there. Yes. At the at the library in Ken Heights on Dover Avenue. Yeah. Fuller the Fuller Learning Center. Do a Avenue. Yeah. The Fuller Learning Center. I you know. Okay. Um that would be a great progress on farmers market.

Uh, that's something I for years I've been trying and I get so many different answers.

You need the vendors to come in do their thing. I gave you I gave you a whole stack. So, not yet. Really? Not yet. Not yet. Um, I do know and I'm not speaking for any other company or any other person, but I did mention this very casually.

You okay? You need one. Oh my lick. All right. Don't get sick. The fourth rescue's off.

So I will say there was interest in a end of the season farmers market. That might be easier to put together than a weekly. And and Dunes Brothers was interested.

I am fully supportive of people being able to buy fresh fruits and vegetables.

All right. The next one on the list is right-of-way issues at the intersection of Pulix's Point. And I'd like to discuss some of those things because it's not a citywide issue. Can I talk with you about some of those things separately? So, you want access to get down into the beach from No, no, no. I want to discuss it separately because it's not a citywide issue. Okay. Are you talking about where the terrace splits

that little? No, but let's just talk about it separately. Okay. And then um I I I wanted to I don't know the difference between public comment where we get three minutes and communications.

How is the time on communications?

You're unlimited. Yeah. But you can only speak on what you signed up for. You could have spoke longer on those items that you had. Did so so communication's not really timelmited except for correct within reason. Correct. And technically finally during public comment technically they don't want us to speak.

I don't know who made that. Well, we only communication we can fully have a conversation. All right. All right. So the traffic uh lights the school zone traffic lights are are better for communications rather than public comment. That will be at another meeting. Anyway, finally I do want to support in general Vice President Rio's opinion about East Providence being one city of unique villages, so to speak,

where we have Riverside being Riverside, Rumford being Rumford, Kent Heights being Kent Heights, and um other maybe even smaller areas maintaining their integrity rather than, you know, becoming cookie cutter corporate businesses monopolizing the city. I I think a lot of us feel along those lines.

You you look at the characteristic Riverside, we were a summer resort community, so we had the small house. So you move up to Rumford, it's a little bit more spacious, spread out a little bit. Well, they have history, too. But right, but that's the unique character he's speaking of that you don't want that cookie cutter that you can go to Newport over the bridge to Jamestown and get a different

kind of community feeling. You can go from Jamestown over one bridge into North Kingtown in South County and have another feeling. East Providence is a lot like that and it represents Rhode Island in a small, you know, in one city we have, I don't know, five or more village type areas. And I think that is um a benefit for small businesses. I think it's a benefit for the future and it's also a benefit

for maintaining control of our of our city because then you don't have big corporations to struggle with or deal with. Agree. All right. Thank you very much. Thank you, Nancy. Thank you. And uh thank you for uh the compliment about my uh speak. All right.

Okay. Uh uh question for the solicitor.

Councilman Lawson needs to uh the pot for a moment. Can we still proceed or with two members present? Can we proceed on to the next uh uh item? All right. I just didn't want to do anything out of line. All right. So, Madame Clerk, next item on the docket, please. New business. Mayor Communications, Chief of Staff, Patricia Rosendi.

Uh, good evening, council vice president, members of the council. Um, I'm actually going to just mention a few things and then I'm going to move over to Shaina. And I just want to say thank you. Uh, you know, you you I'll just leave it that you've been rushing around with some family issues and your dedication to this, you know, to the city and and your respect you gave that council. Uh, I just want to thank you

for that. Thank you, council vice president. So, um, on the agenda, actually, as Nancy mentioned earlier, so we do have the Oldm School public meeting on Wednesday, June 4th. Uh, that's tomorrow evening at 6 p.m. at Fellow Creative Learning Center. We also have um on Saturday on June 7th at 10:00 a.m. we have our PLA our pride flag raising celebration and parade and everything is available on our website

in terms of vendors and who will be speaking and it'll be um a great event.

Um, if the council is okay, I'd like to be able to read in our communications a proclamation for the late Joseph Patrick Connors.

Yes. Right before our presentation on behalf of Mayor Roberto Elder Silva. Whereas Joseph Patrick Connors was born in the city of East of excuse me in the city of Providence and raised in the city of East Providence by his parents Thomas and Barbara Connors.

Joseph grew up in the Rumford section of East Providence with his brother Michael. And whereas Joseph was born with Down syndrome and overcame numerous medical challenges as a child, defying all odds and driven by his mother Barbara's relentless energy, Joseph thrived. And whereas Joseph attended East Providence High School, becoming the first person with Down Syndrome in the United States to serve as a US

Senate page after being appointed by then Rhode Island Senator John Chaffy.

And whereas at the age of 22 after earning 21 merit badges as a member of the boy scout troop in 88 in Rumford, Joseph began a community service project planning and organizing a clothing drive to benefit battered women. Due to his hard work and dedication to the above community service project, Joseph earned the rarely acquired status of Eagle Scout, which has only been earned by 5%

of scouts since it was first awarded in 1912. quite an accomplishment. And whereas Joseph excelled for four decades as a Rhode Island Special Olympian and was bestowed the highest honor, excuse me, the high honor of lighting the Special Olympics torch at the 50-year Special Olympics Rhode Island anniversary in 2018. And whereas Joseph was an accomplished swimmer and cross-country skier and was inducted

into the Special Olympics Hall of Fame from 1997 to 2007. Joseph would serve on the board of directors of the Special Olympics Rhode Island Committee, traveling across the country to attend the Special Olympic events as a global messenger.

And excuse me, whereas in 1998, Joseph was appointed as officer of the court of the East Providence Municipal Court, later serving as an East Providence City Council sergeant until his retirement in February 2020. And whereas Joseph was an inspiration to all who knew him, loved him, Joseph consistently defied all odds with all of his life accomplishments, Joseph's noted quote was, "To reach your goals, work hard,

participate, practice, do the best you can." These words that each and every member of our city and state could carry with them to help with their own personal growth and better our daytoday lives.

Therefore, on behalf of Mayor Roberto Elda and behalf of the city of East Providence, with a heavy heart, extend our deepest condolences to Joseph's family and loved ones, we also extend our thanks to Joseph Patrick Connors for his contribution to our community and our state. Your impact will continue to be felt for decades to come. Now that I have goosebumps, I am going to call Shaina Prince. And I will just add to

that, obviously, I've known Joseph since he the family uh since he was born. And the amazing thing about that person and his mom is that his dad passed away when Joseph was just a baby. And Mrs. Conn is as I will refer to her all the time uh did things back in the 60s late 60s7s at the time when people with disabilities and down syndrome were looked upon not favorable. And she pushed and she pushed

and Joseph pushed and Joseph saw the efforts of his mother. Uh Joe was always a uh Joe was always a spot plug smiling face when you go to stop and shop as a bagger or being involved in local uh political events. Joe was always there.

Uh it was a great tribute there. And I just wanted to add a couple of words on for Mrs. Connors and for Joseph. they will they definitely miss. Thank you.

Thank you. And lastly for mayor communications, um I would like Shaina Prince to be able to come up and introduce herself. She has a presentation to provide um to the council. Shaina

Hello. Good evening. Welcome welcome.

Good evening. Hi. Good evening. I do not have a slideshow, but I do have some pamphlet for the council.

So, I did just want to speak to formally introduce myself to the council and to the community um and provide information to the council that could be valuable for them when constituents call requesting help or when confronting dilapitated housing units in the area and if you have any questions on that. Uh but before I get into that, I just wanted to give a little background about myself.

Uh though I do not currently reside in East Providence, I do have deep roots in the community having grown up here. I did attend Bay View and graduated from East Providence High School and I still spend a significant amount of time in East Providence as most of my friends and family still live here.

So, I'm glad to be working back here in my hometown where I grew up uh with the city of East Providence. Uh with my experience, I bring 20 years in the housing field with extensive knowledge in uh code enforcement, minimum housing, zoning, lead, and community development in the planning department. and I hold several certifications including green and healthy homes initiatives, community

development block grant basic and advanced management uh certificate and a program manager um le initiative certificate. Um so right now I work as the construction rehab specialist for the home improvement program here in East Providence and I'm eager to contribute to our community and support residents in enhancing their homes. And this is for single family homes and multi-unit homes. So the home

improvement program offers no interest deferred payment loans for homeowner occupant residents and a 3% low interest loan for qualifying rental properties in East Providence. And eligibility is based on factors such as income, household size, and other HUD regulations.

So, in the pamphlet, it lists um the person household size and what their maximum income could be. Uh with this program, um it assists homeowners in need of emergency repairs, building or health code violation repairs and other essential repairs to ensure that homes are suitable and sustainable for the occupants. So, by investing and utilizing community development block grant funds in our planning department,

it helps stabilize neighborhoods, increase property values, and reduce blight in um the city's communities. So, this creates a more attractive and desirable living environment, which can lead to increased investment and economic opportunities. for homeowners with rental units that apply to the program. The home improvement program can aid in the development and rehabilitation of affordable housing

units um ensuring that low to moderate income individuals and families have access to safe and decent housing options. So that gives us a chance to go in and make sure that the rental properties are up to code and home the owners that buy the property and then leave out of state they're maintaining the property. Um and they must adhere to the fair market rent value which is also listed. So they can't give an exact um

excessive amount when they come through the program. So when they get the funds from us, they do have to um give decent rental pricing. Uh so I just wanted to make that information available to use and that way if any constituents call and you have questions or they have questions on rehab in their homes, you can reach out to me. I have also partnered with Washington Trust Bank here in the community, East Bay,

Community Action, Rhode Island Energy, Habitat for Humanity, and the Providence Rebounding Fund um to further enhance um availability to the homeowners in the community.

And furthermore, community development block grant funds, as you already know, uh can also allocate to support local businesses, create job opportunities, and foster economic development within our community. And that's it. So, I just wanted to introduce myself since I'm new here to the city. Thank you. I thank you for your enthusiasm on the job.

Um, unfortunately with the economic times we tend to be living with now, I think you're going to become a busy woman.

I, uh, would like to have some information if you could send me an email. And when you talked about Rhode Island Energy, I think it's a concern that my two brothers on the council have. Uh, the are their programs. I mean, I know they have plans where you can do X and everything, but you know, I think people need to know that they're making X and they can afford uh because

the Rhode Island energy rates, I mean, I read where uh they said the rates were going to be coming down and everything like that. I I haven't seen I haven't seen it in my bill and uh I'm not going to go on. I you know we have roads that are that are a mess because of Rhode Island Energy and they need to be as they quote unstate they need to be a

good neighbor taking their little term that the old company used to say good neighbor program. So they got to do that. So if you can get me some information because I get some of those from time to time or I have no problem you know forward them to you. But I I thank you for the enthusiasm. I welcome you back into East Providence and hopefully you can move here and enjoy

the fine restaurants. My next home here.

You're welcome. And I used to help Dave find contractors. So, if you ever looking around and you're struggling to find somebody, give me a call. I'll I'll help you find some people. Well, I did jump right in uh since I did do this for the city of Providence. So, most of my Oh, you got a good network me here.

Okay. Yeah. So, I've been out getting things done. I actually have a weight list now. I advertised it in the paper and I think what I think his name was Clark um was stating also is keeping um track of who you're helping in the community. So I did um get a software program that shows uh the amount of housing units, who's in the housing units, the number of occupants, so that

way if Keith does need a annual or quarterly report, it'll be easily accessible. I I think Eric's suggestions that we have good data is a great one that I'm I'm definitely going to pursue.

Councilman Fogy, I just thank you for the presentation. It was well presented.

Thank you very much. Thank you. Who does the work? I do everything. Who does the physical work? Oh, the contractors. And who are the contractors? So we have um Almanzog Construction, H Solaris Construction, um Paul Source and Icon and the Alliance Company so far. And I also wanted to do a community event to reach out to local contractors in the community to get them business here.

That's very good. I was I was leaning on that for local business. Yep.

involvement and also pricing. So if a senior homeowner takes advantage of this plan income provided, the contractors call by you, set up a date, the financing part of it, who decides the pricing, I I make my estimated cost first and then I see which contractors come close to my cost. A bid process. Yes. Okay, it's good. Thank you. Yep. I'm looking forward to it. I have plenty of contacts

in the same field. So, like Councilman Lawson said, I'd be happy to help. Thank you. Absolutely. I'm interested in it.

Have a good night. Thank you. You too.

Welcome. Welcome aboard.

Report of school committee liaison. All right. So, got a couple texts here while we're at the meeting. Uh, girls lacrosse, congratulations. They won tonight 15-6. Saw that. Uh, next game is going to be Sunday at Brown. We're not sure of the time yet. Um, we'll get that info out. Um, Alyssa, no last name, I apologize, had her 100th goal and she's only a junior.

Carol. Carol. Alyssa, congrats. That's awesome. Um, last night they gave out thousands and thousands of scholarship money to the kids. And our validictorian, Dylan Flynn, she is going to Brown University. She took five AP classes. That's awesome. And I hope to see her around campus. Um, school update is this Friday at 6 o'clock at Pass. Um, East Pro High School graduation. I want to formally say as a

class of 87 alum, welcome to the family.

Um, I I owe everything to the education the East Department School Department gave me. Um, and I hope everybody who graduates is graduating with some good memories. Um, if you decide to stay in East Providence, that's great. If not, we wish you nothing but success. Even if you stay, we wish you success. Um, I know I speak for Bob and Anna who ain't here at that. Um, we're very proud of

our students. They work hard whether it's through the arts, through sports, the kids that that bust their butts in the voke school doing great work, the community service they do, the dedication of the teachers. I just did the kids rock chorus. You got two music teachers that it's not part of the curriculum, but they put together a concert for these elementary school kids. So, I got nothing but love and

admiration and respect for every teacher, every staff, every support staff, administrator in the East Province School Department. Um, and parents of the graduates, be proud. It that's a slog. Um, depending on when your kids started, you're talking 12 years of get up, you got to get on the bus, you got to do your homework, and that this is the time that it all pays off. So I just wanted to express some

words that you know I want to welcome the new alumni to the family and that is my uh school update. I I just want to add a couple of words.

Uh I want to uh thank the superintendent and her entire staff Sandy Fan. I also want to a big shout out to Principal Bill Black because what they've done, they've changed the culture. I mean, you can build the mausoleum that we have there, this beautiful building, but it's that's just a show. Not masle, you know. I'm sorry. I mean, well, you can Well, they are, you know, big. You can build this big

beautiful thing, but it's just a shell.

But Sandy and Bill have ch again changed the culture and I read or my wife sends me stuff that the negative Nelly uh stuff uh about, you know, we got a pothole on, you know, we got, you know, we got a pothole at in front of Silver Spring School. Uh the lights are on, the you know, the wires are hanging. You know, I grew up with a father in the steel contracting business, and I can

remember many nights as the project manager at Pucket Memorial at 3:00 in the morning as I was just going to bed in the summertime, him getting a call saying that the operating room doors and the remodel of Pucket Memorial aren't closing and he had to get up there. The word perfection and contracting is just a word in the dictionary. And shout out to again to Sandy and Bill Black.

I entertain a motion to adjourn. Okay.

Well, I just wanted you to read that.

I'll make a motion to adjurnn. Do I hear a second? Hear a second. All those in favor? I The council meeting is concluded. Thank you, everybody. Great job. You want to amend, Trish?